This is a roundup of exciting happenings or stories over the past week from the FRN network and the national food recovery movement that we haven’t yet had a chance to dig into. Bon appetit!

FRN wins Outstanding Innovation Award

FRN entered for a second year in the Dell Social Innovation Challenge, once again making it to the semi-final round – one of 263 teams to do so out of 2606 projects that entered (which is an accomplishment in and of itself!).

Though we weren’t chosen as finalists, we’re honored to be one of ten teams to receive an Outstanding Innovation Award, and one of 25 Start Something That Matters Fellows!

FRN is in excellent company in the DSIC community of entrepreneurs, changemakers, and activists. Congratulations to everyone who won! Check out the DSIC website for details on the award winners, or visit DSIC’s blog for a full video recap of the award ceremony.

Congratulations, Food Shift!

Big congratulations to Food Shift, an Oakland-based organization and an ally in the fight against food waste and food insecurity. Thanks to many of your votes, Food Shift has won a $50,000 advertising and awareness campaign on San Francisco’s public transit system!

Food Shift founder Dana Frasz has also been recognized as Oaklandish’s Nonprofit of the Month for her commitment to the Oakland community, in addition to being named Fearless Chocolate’s ChangeMaker of the Year!

Chapter Updates

As we compile our end-of-semester report (to be published soon!), we’re collecting data from each of our chapters on their progress throughout the year. Here’s a bit of a teaser:

Our chapter at Williams College (pictured here) is just over a month old and is reporting just over 172 pounds of food recovered in that time.

FRN at Mizzou, in their first semester, recovered 892 pounds of food in just over 2 months!

The newest chapter in our network is at Brigham Young University, who just became official this week! As they’ve developed their program this semester, they’ve been recognized as Volunteers of the Month by their community partner, the Food & Care Coalition. Congrats on such a strong start!

This is a roundup of exciting happenings over the past week throughout the national food recovery movement – within FRN’s network and beyond – that we haven’t yet had a chance to dig into.

Bon appétit!

 The FRN chapter at the University of Missouri (aka Mizzou) picked up their largest single recovery yet last night: 90 pounds of food! Like FRN at Mizzou on Facebook for all of their updates, and be sure to visit their savvy new website!

Grinnell College is one of the newest FRN chapters to get up and running, and congratulations to the students who made it happen! In their first week of recoveries, they’ve already recovered over 100 pounds of food.

A timely accomplishment following a campus visit by American Wasteland author (and FRN board member) Jonathan Bloom!

On May 29, FRN is co-sponsoring a screening of the documentary American Winter in Silver Spring, MD. Hosted by Montgomery County Councilmember Valerie Ervin, the event is free – but RSVP is required.

Click here to reserve your tickets, or learn more about the film!

West coast folks are getting some great programming as well! On May 20th, Southern California Public Radio is hosting Getting Wasted: LA’s Food Excess - an evening of moderated discussion with regional champions in work around food waste and hunger.

This event is also free, and RSVP is required: do so here!

Sticking with the West Coast, our ally in the fight against food waste – Oakland, CA based Food Shift – is up for $50,000 in free advertising in San Francisco! Take a second to vote! The contest closes May 12th.

Finally, we have to again celebrate the biggest news of the week:

Countless thanks to Sodexo for investing in our work, and to all of you for your continual support! Get excited, FRNds – the future of FRN is bright!

National, May 7, 2013 –Sodexo Foundation continues its investment in youth engagement and the fight against hunger with a $150,000 grant to the Food Recovery Network, advancing their work fighting food waste and hunger nation-wide.

The Food Recovery Network (FRN) is a network of college students fighting hunger and food waste by recovering surplus food from
their dining halls and delivering it to Americans in need of a meal. Since its inception at the University of Maryland, College Park in September 2011, FRN has expanded to 21 campuses in 9 states plus Washington, DC, recovering over 140,000 pounds of food.

“A staggering 40 percent of all food grown or raised in the U.S. goes to waste while more than 50 million people in the country are at risk of hunger. Food Recovery Network represents the type of innovative, student-led approach to ending hunger that can affect real change in local communities,” said Robert A. Stern, chair, Sodexo Foundation. “Raising awareness about food waste and mobilizing youth are critical components to ending hunger and Food Recovery Network offers a model that successfully addresses both.”

In June 2012, FRN Founder and Executive Director Ben Simon, a senior at UMD, first encountered Sodexo Foundation when he was recognized as a regional honoree for its  Stephen J. Brady STOP Hunger Scholarship.  Simon maintained his relationship with the foundation, eventually approaching it that summer to discuss expanding FRN to other campuses. These discussions continue into the present, with hopes of a finalized partnership agreement on the horizon.

While this grant comes from the non-profit charitable arm of Sodexo, one of the largest diversified services providers in the nation (including facilities and food management), the funding will not be limited to the more than 850 colleges and universities served by the company. Of FRN’s 21 campuses, three are contracted with Sodexo: University of California, Davis, The George Washington University, and Providence College.

“Food Recovery Network is extremely excited to be partnering with Sodexo Foundation,” said Simon. “Together, we’re breaking down walls and advancing a very common sense solution – food for people, not for dumpsters.”

In its first 20 months, FRN has been run entirely on student volunteerism. The organization is currently led by a co-founding team of students who each contribute 5-20 hours per week guiding other students across the country through starting Food Recovery Network chapters at their own colleges. Sodexo Foundation funding will enable FRN to bring on full-time paid staff, provide capacity-building grants to chapters, and further professionalize the organization.

According to the EPA, America’s food waste amounted to 35 million tons in 2010. Ninety-seven percent of that ended up in incinerators or landfills, where rotting food is a top emitter of methane gas, which is 21 times more harmful toward climate change than carbon dioxide. At the same time, 50 million Americans are food insecure, including one in five children.

Simon says he envisions food recovery becoming the new normal, and aims to have 1,000 Food Recovery Network chapters across the United States donating 10 million pounds of food by the end of 2017.

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View the press release as a PDF.

About the Food Recovery Network

The Food Recovery Network (www.foodrecoverynetwork.org) unites students at colleges and universities across America to fight food waste and hunger by recovering surplus perishable food from their college campuses and surrounding communities that would otherwise go to waste and donating it to people in need. Founded in September of 2011, it has since expanded to reach 21 college campuses and recovered over 130,000 pounds of food that would otherwise have been wasted. During that time, FRN has been covered by MSNBC, ABC, LA Times, and the Washington Post, as well as being recognized by Guidestar as one of the top student-run nonprofits of 2012. Over the next few years, FRN hopes to expand to hundreds of colleges, recovering 10 million pounds of food by 2017 and changing the face of food recovery across the country.

Contact: Hannah Wolfe, Tel. 919 619 2856, hannah.wolfe@foodrecoverynetwork.org

About Sodexo

Sodexo in North America

Sodexo, Inc. (www.sodexoUSA.com), leading Quality of Life services company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On-site Services in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (www.SodexoFoundation.org), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $17 million in grants to end childhood hunger in America.

Contact: Sam Wells, Tel. 301 987 4893, samuel.wells@sodexo.com

Instead of recovering food from dining halls on campus, where they faced some bureaucratic hurdles, FRN@UT-Austin has been working to turn the UT campus and surrounding area into a zero-food-waste zone by working with local cafés and independently-run restaurants on campus. They have scored one impressively large food waster: O’s Campus Café. O’s has donated hundreds of pounds alone thus far, contributing to about ten percent of all food recovered by UT’s FRN team.

As the University of Texas resides in downtown Austin, Texas, there is not a shortage of restaurants and food trucks available for pick up. The team began targeting local restaurants within walking distance of the campus and quickly expanded to restaurants within a ten mile radius. To assist with the ever expanding number of restaurants available for pick up, the team started outsourcing volunteer hours to other generalized volunteer organizations and spirit groups. Most notably, the Orange Jackets and Texas Spirits, two prestigious spirit groups, have contributed many volunteer hours, allowing the FRN team to continue to expand their program.

Another group that has been an invaluable partner is Austin’s own food recovery organization, Keep Austin Fed (KAF). FRN and Keep Austin Fed together have been able to create an impressive network of restaurant pick-ups and volunteers all in the name of food recovery.

Once the food is recovered, volunteers deliver it to a number of different food centers such as Salvation Army, Caratas, The University United Methodist Center and The Homeless Breakfast Program. The University United Methodist Church has been the team’s primary donation center as it provides incredible flexibility. A noteworthy donation center, though, is The Homeless Breakfast Program. The centers’ employees and volunteers, ex-homeless individuals who were helped by the program, collect and prepare food to give back to their community. All of these organizations have been extremely grateful for the food FRN@UT-Austin has provided.

Looking to the future, the FRN@UT-Austin team is working closely with the University of Texas Athletic Department to establish a recovery system for food at athletic events. The football stadium, which regularly draws over 100,000 people to games, boasts thirteen concession stands that are ripe for recovery. FRN hopes to cover baseball and basketball events as well.

All of these efforts by the UT FRN team are helping to create a better, less wasteful environment for both the University of Texas and Austin as a whole.

 This blog post is by the students leading FRN’s UT Austin chapter. Like their Facebook page to stay up to date on their work.

Bon Appétit Management Company Announces Partnership with Food Recovery Network to Fight Food Waste and Hunger
Sustainable food service pioneers new ally on college campuses

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 16, 2013 – Keeping food out of landfills has long been a critical part of Bon Appétit Management Company’s mission of food service for a sustainable future. Consequently, Bon Appétit is proud to announce its new partnership with the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a student-operated nonprofit working on college campuses to curb food waste and end hunger. Bon Appetit and FRN will join forces in recovering surplus food, which would otherwise be wasted, from campus dining halls and delivering it to local shelters to combat hunger in the surrounding community.

Since launching in September 2011, FRN’s student volunteers have recovered a staggering 136,000 pounds of food from university dining operations on the 21 campuses where it has chapters, the equivalent of 104,000 meals. Bon Appétit will continue to support FRN’s efforts in three ways:

• BAMCO Foundation West Coast Fellow and Bon Appétit waste expert Claire Cummings is working with FRN’s Co-Founder and Special Projects Coordinator, Rebecca Kagan, on a feasibility study that will give students and staff tools to determine how much food from dining operations is recoverable. They are also collaborating on a Campus Food Recovery Guide that will walk students and food service providers — not just Bon Appétit — through the process of launching a food recovery program. It will address frequently asked questions and concerns raised about food donation such as food safety and liability.
• Helping interested students and staff at Bon Appétit-serviced colleges and universities in starting a FRN chapter. The BAMCO Foundation’s three Fellows, who perform educational outreach about sustainable food systems on college campuses for the company, have already launched food recovery programs at Whittier College in the Los Angeles area and American University in Washington, D.C. Numerous others are in the works.
• FRN works exclusively with universities, but is frequently contacted by non-university businesses and groups interested in donating food. Bon Appétit has shared its extensive research and institutional knowledge of other food recovery programs with FRN so they can assist those would-be donors appropriately.

Bon Appétit has long attacked food waste through myriad approaches, starting with its pioneering introduction of trayless dining at Saint Joseph’s College of Maine in 2005. Since launching its Low Carbon Diet program in 2007, aimed at shrinking its carbon “foodprint,” the company has managed to divert 40% of its food waste from landfills. Bon Appétit’s from-scratch cooking philosophy decreases food waste in the kitchen by using bones and vegetable scraps for making stock and soups; what it can’t use is composted (where programs are available) or, at some accounts, sent back to farms to feed happy pigs. Its practice of cooking meals to order results in few unsold, unusable items at the end of a meal. However, overly generous estimates for catered events sometimes result in tasty leftovers such as entrees, whole-grain salads, and baked goods. In addition to partnering with FRN, Bon Appétit has recently teamed with Feeding America to pilot food donations generated by their corporate accounts. Feeding America is the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief charity, with more than 200 member food banks and 61,000 partner agencies such as soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters.

Students from Whittier College recover food from their dining hall, one of many campuses nationally operated by Bon Appetit.

“We would far prefer that our food be eaten than wasted,” said Maisie Greenawalt, vice president of strategy for Bon Appétit. “Wasted food represents wasted resources — soil nutrients, animals, a farmer’s labor. Meanwhile, there are hungry people all over America. We are proud to work with the Food Recovery Network students to help feed the needy in our communities.”

“The vast majority of college campuses have no food recovery program whatsoever,” said Rebecca Kagan, Co-founder of the Food Recovery Network. “We’re hoping to change that fact. Not only is Bon Appetit a fantastic partner on the colleges where they work, but the guide that we’re developing with Bon Appetit will be an invaluable resource in helping us expand to hundreds of other colleges across the country.”

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About Bon Appétit Management Company
Bon Appétit Management Company (www.bamco.com) is an on-site restaurant company offering full food-service management to corporations, universities, and specialty venues. Based in Palo Alto, CA, Bon Appétit has more than 500 cafés in 32 states, including eBay, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Getty Center. All Bon Appétit food is cooked from scratch, including sauces, stocks, and soups. A pioneer in environmentally sound sourcing policies, Bon Appétit has developed programs addressing local purchasing, the overuse of antibiotics, sustainable seafood, the food and climate change connection, humanely raised meat and eggs, and farmworker welfare. It has received numerous awards for its work, from organizations including the International Association of Culinary Professionals, the James Beard Foundation, Chefs Collaborative, Natural Resources Defense Council, Seafood Choices Alliance, The Humane Society of the United States, and Food Alliance.

Contact: Bonnie Powell, Director of Communications, bonnie.powell@bamco.com, (650) 621.0871

About the Food Recovery Network
The Food Recovery Network (www.foodrecoverynetwork.org) unites students at colleges and universities across America to fight food waste and hunger by recovering surplus perishable food from their college campuses and surrounding communities that would otherwise go to waste and donating it to people in need. Founded in September of 2011, it has since expanded to reach 21 college campuses and recovered over 130,000 pounds of food that would otherwise have been wasted. During that time, FRN has been covered by MSNBC, ABC, LA Times, and the Washington Post, as well as being recognized by Guidestar as one of the top student-run nonprofits of 2012. Over the next few years, FRN hopes to expand to hundreds of colleges, recovering 10 million pounds of food by 2017 and changing the face of food recovery across the country.

Contact: Hannah Wolfe, Director of Communications, hannah.wolfe@foodrecoverynetwork.org, (919) 619.2856

If interested, please send a cover letter, resume, and two professional references to info@foodrecoverynetwork.org by April 23, 2013.

We are holding a strict deadline of 5 PM ET, after which we’ll no longer be accepting applications.

Program Development Intern

FRN is looking for a full-time Program Development summer intern who will work as part of the staff of students that lead the national organization.  The Program Development Intern is responsible for working with  the Executive Director, Program Director, Director of Expansion, Director of Member Support, as well as other members of the National Team to enhance FRN’s programming and overall function as an organization as a whole.

You can find a complete job description HERE.

Graphic Design Intern

FRN is looking for a full-time graphic design summer intern who will work as part of the staff of students that lead the national organization. The Graphic Design Summer Intern is responsible for working with the Executive Director, Program Director, and also various other members of the National Team to update the website/serve as a webmaster, create promotional materials, create and edit video content, and provide other types  of graphic design support.

You can find a complete job description HERE.

Fundraising Intern

FRN is looking for a full-time development (fundraising) summer intern who will work as part of the staff of students that lead the national organization. The Fundraising Summer Intern is responsible for working with the Executive Director, Program Director, and also various other members of the National Team to work to fundraise money for an annual operating budget of $300,000, as well as develop an earned-income model for FRN.  The intern will help to diversify FRN’s funding sources to ensure long-term financial sustainability for the organization.

You can find a complete job description HERE.