Blog
The Weekly Leftovers: May 6-10
Just like leftover food shouldn’t go to waste, neither should a good story!
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!
Sodexo Foundation Makes Major Investment in FRN
Sodexo Foundation grants $150,000 in start-up funding to burgeoning student movement to donate extra food from colleges to hungry Americans
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.
###
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
FRN at UT Austin
The FRN chapter at the University of Texas in Austin is led by a charismatic team faced with unique challenges and obstacles, but with the ingenuity to overcome them. Founded in the fall of 2012 by a small band of food-conscious friends, FRN@UT-Austin has since worked hard to expand their program.
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.
FRN to partner with Bon Appétit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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.”
###
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
2012 a Huge Success!
Dear Supporters and FRNdz,
They say that a year can make a big difference, and boy are they right! In just a year since our launch, we have experienced so many positive changes here at the Food Recovery Network (FRN). One of such highlights was expanding our chapters and donating over 108,000 pounds of food to those in need. This was possible in part to the work of our six new chapters at: Providence College, University of Texas at Austin, Scripps/Harvey Mudd/Claremont McKenna, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Michigan, and Rochester Institute of Technology, who join our original chapters at the: University of Maryland College Park, Brown University, Pomona College, and University of California Berkeley.
All this success would not have been possible without the work and dedication of all our college volunteers and the organizations that support our cause, so we send a heartfelt thank you to them!
With so much to say and cover, we won’t be able to fit it all into this one blog post, so instead we’ll keep it short and sweet.
We will start off with some of our favorite memories from the year: In July, FRN team member Lauren Behgam won the grand prize of $15,000 in Ashoka’s Banking on Youth competition. In November, we held a week long campaign, “More Students, Less Waste,” raising awareness about food waste across the country and inspiring students to start food recovery programs at their own schools. And just this month, our Founder and CEO Ben Simon was selected as a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by Univision.
Among these great achievements one of the most important to us was receiving the 501c3 status, making us an official tax-exempt non-profit. We also built an all-star board of advisors to help support our growth, a list of which you can find in this article.
Since numbers speak louder than words, here is a snapshot of the work that FRN’s members did this semester:
Pounds of Food Recovered in Fall 2012: 37,887
Total Number of Pounds Recovered so far: 108,007
Total Number of Meals Donated so far: 86,405
Number of Shelters Donated To: 21
Total Student Volunteer Hours so far: 5120
It’s hard to believe FRN has accomplished so much in only one year – but 2013 is looking even brighter. We have begun working with Bon Appetit Management Company and the Environmental Protection Agency to bring food recovery to a wider audience. Thanks to these new partnerships, and the work of interested students across the country, we are expediting the creation of many new recovery programs on college campuses across the United States.
But our work isn’t done yet. In fact, with 1 in 5 children and 1 in 12 adults still at risk of hunger in America, there is more we have to do. You can continue to help by liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter and telling your friends about FRN.
And from now until December 31st, every dollar you donate will be matched up to $5,000. So if the holiday spirit strikes you, donate to us HERE. And remember, $0.10 gives a meal to someone who needs it. Just $15 feeds 150 people.
We hope you join us in celebrating the achievements of this year, and looking forward to everything that will be accomplished in 2013.
Enjoy the Holidays! See you in the New Year!
Best Wishes,
The FRN Team
We donated over 108, pounds of food to those in need. Help us do more!
FRN’s “More Students, Less Waste” Campaign a Success!
FRN’s first national campaign, “More Students, Less Waste” has finally come to a close and we are excited to share the results with you!
From Nov 11th -18th, we used social media to spread the word about food recovery, asking for volunteers and supporters to share information, pictures and links about food waste.
The goal of the campaign was to expand our reach to 10,000 students and have 10 pledges for starting a new FRN chapter. We must say that all our friends and supporters came through, and there are great outcomes to share!
During the week of campaigning we were able to:
- Increase our Facebook reach by 474% compared to the previous week, spreading our information to 5,098 people.
- Get more ‘Likes’ on Facebook, bringing us to 361 page members!
- Have 500 people visit our brand new website.
Which is all pretty sweet!!!
But the best news is that students heard our call for the need to have more food recovery activists, and 8 students from schools across the country pledged to start food recovery programs on their campuses.
Here is a list of new schools where there will soon be awesome and active food recovery programs:
1) Brigham Young University
2) University of Tennessee
3) University of Massachusetts Amherst
4) Tufts University
5) Cornell University
6) Bowdoin College
7) Anne Arundel Community College in MD
We wanted to thank all of our supporters for the work they did during the campaign!
We wish you all Happy Holidays! Be proud of yourself that you helped save food from the landfill and feed those in need! We couldn’t be happier!
Students, Hunger, and Making Change Happen
FRN is excited to share a special guest blog post from Tommy Tobin. Tommy graduated with distinction from Stanford University, where he led the Stanford Project on Hunger to recover over 100,000 meals for his community. He is currently studying in Ireland via the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, where he is researching food waste. This article is adapted from a piece entitled “Sustainability in University Dining Halls,” published in the Fall 2010 issue of the national student periodical BusinessToday.
You can change the world today. Today. When you let your hands and heart follow your stomach, you can pursue social change where you eat: university dining facilities. With organizations like the Food Recovery Network, students like you are creating meaningful social change at campuses across the country.
While buffet-style dining facilities provide food for thousands of students nationwide, they also create substantial levels of excess food. Food waste is often budgeted into the operational costs of college and university dining facilities because the exact number of individuals at any given meal cannot be accurately forecasted prior to mealtimes. All too often this excess food just goes into the trash. Fortunately, food recovery organizations distribute tons upon tons of this unused food for their communities.
Food waste is a real issue. The United States wastes 40% of the food it produces every year, wasting $165 billion annually. Not only does food waste create economic problems, this waste creates environmental harms, especially as food waste decomposition emits methane. Methane is over twenty-times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 and food waste accounts for 25% of all US methane emissions, according to a recent NRDC report. Meanwhile, the daily risk of hunger is a reality for millions of Americans.
Students can make a real, measurable impact on food waste. As diners, students select what they want to eat, the size of their portions, and the amount of food they leave on their plate. Talking to your dining facility staff and operators in an organized way can change the type and amount of food that gets served. Changing the size of plates or serving spoons can systemically change the perception of a portion, causing less waste on your plate. Many campuses have gone trayless, significantly decreasing their water use and saving food. Pushing for Real Food and sustainable, local sourcing can also bring tasty food onto campus with a more limited environmental impact.
Programs like the Food Recovery Network keep good food from the landfill and feed communities. While efforts to raise awareness, pursue source reduction, and motivate sustainable sourcing are worthwhile, Douglas Casson Coutts, a UN World Programme official, highlighted service-learning and food recovery as two of the most powerful student interventions. Coutts sees student action at university dining systems as a way “for students to give their time – their most scarce resource – to meet the community and fight hunger.”
The Food Recovery Network is a great model for student action on the issue of food waste. Students at Brown, Pomona, U.C. Berkeley, the University of Maryland and other campuses have already salvaged over 80,000 meals for their local communities.
On an individual level, wasting less means more money in our pockets. Expert and author Jonathan Bloom recommends 15 simple steps that can save us money as shoppers, such as labeling items and uncluttering your fridge. Following this easy recipe for reducing our food waste can also cut our personal carbon footprints.
Hunger and environmental degradation are two problems waiting for solutions. Fortunately, social change does not require an enormous commitment of time or effort. Small actions can aggregate to large change to benefit individuals, to serve communities, and, even, to change the world.
Students can act as agents of change, recovering food for the hungry and advocating for sustainable dining practices. Students around the world are working to create change through action on their own campuses. As students and as diners, we can make this change happen. Let’s start today.
Tommy Tobin graduated with distinction from Stanford University, where he led the Stanford Project on Hunger to recover over 100,000 meals for his community. He is currently studying in Ireland via the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, where he is researching food waste. This article is adapted from a piece entitled “Sustainability in University Dining Halls,” published in the Fall 2010 issue of the national student periodical BusinessToday.
FRN Launches “More Students, Less Waste” Campaign
We wanted to take the time, seeing as it is the start of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, to reflect, and to share some exciting news.
FIRST, THE PROBLEM
Twenty-two million pounds of food is wasted every year on our college campuses. That’s 22 million pounds of food sitting in landfills releasing methane, and that’s 22 million pounds of food that is not helping feed the 1 in 6 Americans who are food insecure.
NOW, HERE’S THE EXCITING PART!
Food Recovery Network hopes to change all of that. In conjunction with the 2012 National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness 
Week, FRN is launching More Students, Less Waste, a campaign to bring student-led food recovery programs to every college in the country. We want to see a country where our young people are taking action on their campuses to reduce waste, help the environment, and eliminate hunger in their own communities.
We have a team of students who have all started and run successful food recovery programs on their campuses, and we are excited to reach out to students at other schools and work with them to start programs on their own campuses.
The idea is simple: Students work with Dining Services to recover edible, leftover food from their campus dining halls and donate it to organizations in the community that feed the hungry.
The vision is this: Within 10 years, we want to see food recovery programs on every college campus in the country. And we want students leading the effort.
Now here’s the plan: We have put together all the tools to make it easy for students to start programs at their schools.
- New Chapter Toolkit, explaining how to start a chapter and the benefits to your school and community.
- Letter of Support from Dining Service Directors praising student-led food recovery
- A copy of the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act explaining how schools are protected from lawsuits if they donate excess food
- Up to $500 in grants to new programs to help them get started.
- A team of student coordinators who will share their experience with campus food recovery programs and work with you every step of the way as you start a program.
With all the prep work done, we are putting the call out to our nation’s college students to step up to the plate and make our vision a reality. We firmly believe students need to be at the center of the food waste reduction movement, and there is no better or easier way to start than on your own campus.
By the end of the academic year, we hope to have 20 programs up and running, but we need people’s help! There are three things you can do right now to make our vision a reality.
- Share this blog post with your friends at other schools
- Join the Movement
- Get Involved
Cheers,
The FRN Team
Four Schools Join the Food Recovery Network
The Food Recovery Network is proud to announce that four new schools have joined our movement to end food waste on college campuses. Students at The Rhode Island School of Design, Providence College, University of Texas-Austin, and the Claremont schools of Scripps, Harvey-Mudd, and Claremont McKenna all started food recovery programs on their campuses. None of these schools previously had any recovery program, meaning that every pound of food students recover from those schools would have been thrown out.
Each of the campuses has a slightly different model, but they all share a common goal of reducing food waste on their campuses and ending hunger in their communities. At RISD, students did a week-long food audit in their main dining hall, and were surprised that there was almost zero food waste.
Undiscouraged, they recruited volunteers to pick up from local restaurants near campus, and partner with the Brown University Food Recovery Network chapter to bring food down to a shelter in Providence every night of the week.
At Providence College, David O’Connor and Nick Canessa created Friar Food Rescue, and they are working directly with the campus’ dining hall to deliver prepared food to McAuley House, which provides a daily lunch to over 150 people every day. In their first two weeks, they have already recovered over 350 pounds of food.
With the new food recovery programs at Providence College and RISD, as well as Brown University’s existing program, there are now three Providence schools in FRN. According to Ben Chesler, Director of Operation for the Brown University program, “what’s great about having three schools in Providence doing food recovery is that we can coordinate our efforts to fight hunger. All of the schools recover slightly different types of food, and we are working together to match what we have with the needs of different shelters and meal sites in Providence.”
Across the country in California, students at Harvey Mudd, Scripps, and Claremont McKenna banded together with an existing program at Pomona to work towards eliminating food waste at the Claremont schools. “I think that most problems in the world are problems of distribution – FRN helps mitigate a small part of this by getting food that’s unneeded where it is to somewhere it can be used,” says Lauren Mitten, one of the student founders of the program.
Down south, students at the University of Texas-Austin are working with a local food recovery organization, Keep Austin Fed, to recover food from restaurants around campus. Students are the school saw the work the Brown University program was doing and wanted to replicate it on their campus. They soon connected with Keep Austin Fed, and began getting students to volunteer so the organization could expand its reach.
Parker, one of the founders of the program, believes that “Unquestionably, the most rewarding aspect of FRN has been catching sight 
of homeless men and women enjoying the meals our chapter has recovered.” Next semester, they plan to work with Dining Services to begin recovering food from their school’s many dining halls.
Food Recovery Network Founder Ben Simon has been thrilled that students are joining the network. “Starting a food recovery program on your campus is such an easy and effective way to reduce waste. I think students are beginning to see that this is a great way for them to fight hunger in their communities and help the environment. I think once people see the impact these programs have, it won’t be long before Food Recovery Network has programs operating on every campus in the country.”
Here at FRN, we are continuing to work with our four new member schools to help them recover more food, and we are excited to see these new chapters grow and thrive. We’re also working with students at University of Michigan and University of Kentucky to start programs there, and we’re pumped to see which schools start food recovery programs next.
Prevent Food Waste in Your Daily Life
Every year in America, 68 billion pounds of food are wasted , which is bad for both the economy and the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Hierarchy lists source reduction as the best method for decreasing food waste. Considering that in developed countries consumers are responsible for 55-65% of food waste, as a consumer of food you have the ability to diminish the amount of food waste in our country! After all, reducing food waste isn’t only great for your wallet, but it is also better for the environment.
The best advice for preventing food waste in our daily lives is to plan ahead. Decide what recipes you will be cooking ahead of time so you know what you need to buy at the grocery store. Make a list and stick to it! A good way to ensure that you stick to the list is by not shopping for food when you are hungry or close to your meal times. This helps prevent your wandering eyes from desiring unnecessary produce. Also, remember how often you eat out and how often you cook homemade meals, which are always more healthy than retail food. To help you keep track of what you already have in your fridge, use applications like ‘My Refrigerator’ which notifies you about food items that might expire soon.
Another important factor to consider when addressing food waste prevention is how much food you buy. How many portions will you be cooking? Even when planning ahead, leftovers are sometimes unavoidable. A great resource for recipes utilizing leftovers is Love Food, Hate Waste . The organization also offers a downloadable application “Love Food Hate Waste” that helps you calculate the right portion and advises you on what to cook with leftover ingredients.
If you work in the food service industry, you have an even larger potential to make a difference in diminishing food waste.
The Environmental Protection Agency has an assortment of resources to help you do this, including tool kits, student activities, and donation information. There are even more ideas, contributed by both individuals and businesses, on ways to fight food waste here.
With heightened awareness on food waste and hunger, donors can improve their public image, while saving money through lower waste bills and tax breaks for their charitable donations.
