Oodles Of Noodles: Company Donates Pasta For SC Public Schools

South Carolina public schools are getting more than 100 tons of free pasta, and it’s not heading for a cafeteria line.

South Carolina Future Minds announced Thursday that its partner Mueller’s Pasta will donate enough noodles for each of the state’s 1,200 public schools to hold a spaghetti night.

Mueller’s has been produced at an American Italian Pasta Company factory in Columbia since 1995. The 200-employee plant is responsible for 28 percent of the country’s pasta supply, under various brand names, and produced 316 million pounds last year.

Trip DuBard, the director  of non-profit South Carolina Future Minds, said that like other private companies the organization works with, Mueller’s and its president Walt George were looking for a way to give back and decided this was the most logical way to help schools help themselves. He said the events don’t necessarily have to be for a fundraising goal, as long as they bring the school together.

“They’ve got spaghetti, schools love spaghetti nights. Spaghetti nights are great, not only  fundraisers, but they’re community building operations, where the parents, the teachers, the students all come together, especially at the beginning of the year too, it’s a great way for everyone to feel good about what they’re doing,” DuBard said.

Principals can apply online with an estimate of how many people will attend a spaghetti night. Schools within 50 miles of the Columbia plant are asked to pick up their pasta, but AIPC will ship the spaghetti to farther schools two weeks before the event.

So far 26 schools have signed up and will receive 100 to 1,200 pounds of uncooked noodles each, averaging about 200 pounds. A pound of past retails for about $1.25 and can feed eight people, but Mueller’s is sending schools a pound for every four people they think will attend the spaghetti night.

Mueller’s Sarah Lawrence is coordinating the distribution, and said they only ask that any pasta that doesn’t get used during the event be donated to local food banks.

As far as pasta sauce, the schools are on their own.

DuBard and Lawrence said there’s no telling how much money the food could raise for schools, but at an average of 200 pounds at all 1,200 schools, and one pound serving four people, paying $5 each, the tally could go up to $4.8 million.

AIPC plant manager Joe Johnson said it’s just nice to know that the company can do something so easy that can have real affects for schools.

“It’s good that we have a way of contributing to education in South Carolina,” Johnson said. “I have kids in schools here and so do a lot of people who work here, so we’re giving back to the community.”

DuBard said most schools he works with need fundraising for basic supplies like printer paper and hand sanitizer, or to replace books and get new technology.