Board Members

Leaders

President

Ben Simon is a senior at the University of Maryland, College Park. In high School, he united students from ten Montgomery County high schools to successfully divest the Montgomery County MCERS pension fund from companies with operations supporting the Genocide in Darfur. He worked for Search for Common Ground, where he was first introduced to the framework of social entrepreneurship. At UMD, Ben founded MyMaryland.net, and co-founded The Love Movement

Treasurer

Jeremy Kugel brings nearly twenty years of foodservice, entrepreneurial, and non-profit experience to the FRN board. He has worked as Director of Marketing for Caribou Coffee and Managing Director of Let’s Dish Mid-Atlantic, and co-founded Jasmere.com – one of Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Brilliant Companies” of 2011. Jeremy currently serves as CFO and COO of Landon, a boys’ preparatory school in Bethesda, Maryland.

Secretary

Born in Ukriaine, Mia Zavalij is currently a senior in Environmental Science and Policy. Mia became involved with several student groups her sophomore year and is currently the Secretary of The Love Movement. She is really excited to continue expansion and donate even more food to those who are in need.

Board Members

Ben Chesler

is a second-year at Brown University. During high school, he served as CFO of Minga, a non-profit that advocated for the end of the child sex trade. While at Brown, Ben has become active in the Social Entrepreneurship community, founding the Activism Program House, and co-founding the Food Recovery Network. He could not be more thrilled to be working with FRN to end food waste of college campuses!

Robert T. Grimm, Jr.

is the Director of a Philanthropy and Nonprofit Management program at the University of Maryland. Before that, Grimm served as Director of Research and Policy Development at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) from 2004-2010. He was also appointed Senior Counselor to the CEO of CNCS in 2006. CNCS is an independent, federal grant-making agency with an annual budget of over one billion dollars and administrator of programs such as AmeriCorps.

Nam D. Pham

is Managing Partner of NDP Consulting Group, an economic consulting firm. Prior to founding NDP Consulting Group in 2000, Dr. Pham was Vice President at Scudder Kemper Investments in Boston, Before that he was Chief Economist of the Asia Region for Standard & Poor’s DRI in Boston; an economist at the World Bank in Washington D.C.Dr. Pham is also adjunct professor at the George Washington University, where he teaches graduate courses in international finance.

Board of Advisors

Robert Egger is the Founder of DC Central Kitchen, which provides meals from donated food and job training programs for the unemployed. Since opening in 1989, the Kitchen has given 1,000 individuals full time employment and produced more than 25 million meals. Egger also founded the Campus Kitchens Project, which is the only other national program doing student-led food recovery on college campuses.
Tim Kunin is the CEO of CharityUSA/The Greater Good Network, which maintains TheHungerSite.com and several other e-commerce websites which allow users simple, effective, and gratifying ways to generate contributions to charities while they shop.
Jim Larson is the Program Development Director at the Food Donation Connection, one of the largest and oldest food recovery programs in America. Annually, the Food Donation Connection donates over 35 million pounds of surplus prepared food, providing meals to those in need while benefiting donors through tax return savings.
Jerry Lynch is the Chief Sustainability Officer at General Mills. His aim is to promote and implement the environmentally sustainable efforts of the company on a global scale.
Stephanie Nagy Shewmon is an Account Supervisor at Edelman Public Relations. Edelman PR helps companies redefine their social purpose and business relations. Shewmon also helps lead the Washington D.C. Taste of the Nation, sponsored by Share Our Strength, which raises thousands of dollars for hunger-fighting nonprofits.
Tristram Stuart is an international food waste expert and the author of the acclaimed book, Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal. He also founded Feeding the 5000, which raises awareness about food waste by providing a nutritious meal to 5,000 individuals out of food that was deemed as waste.
Fay Johnson is the Founder and CEO of a Washington, D.C.-based consulting company, Red Balloon Ideas. The firm helps global organizations, corporations and grassroots activists realize their goals of making social change.
Colleen Wright-Riva is the Director of Dinning Services at the University of Maryland, College Park, which is the oldest and largest food donor to Food Recovery Network. Prior to her work at UMD, Wright-Riva started several innovative programs in the campus dining leadership at Cornell University for six years.
Gary Oppenheimer is a CNN Hero and the Founder and Executive Director of AmpleHarvest.org, which helps gardeners reduce food waste by connecting them with local food pantries. To date, AmpleHarvest.org has donated over 20 million pounds of food.
Jean-Francois Archambault is the Founder and General Director at The Chef Table, one of Canada’s largest food recovery organizations. He is an Ashoka Fellow and also serves as the Executive Director of Ashoka Quebec.
Jonathan Bloom is a nationally-recognized food waste activist. He writes about why we waste food, why it matters, and what we can do about it. He is the author of the book American Wasteland.