Our FRNdly Valentine

This Valentine's Day, we wanted to share some of the many reasons why we love FRN. We'd love to hear why you love FRN -- you can let us know on Facebook or Twitter. We hope you like the vintage Valentines! 

 

HC

"My love for FRN grows day by day. As we slowly but surely save hundreds and hundreds of pounds. As our students grow into leaders and does and changers. As the hungry in communities across the country find food for their empty bellies. Each day, it grows more and more."

Karen

"I love FRN because...the organizational model is so innovative yet so simple. We use existing, abundant resources -- namely surplus food and eager student leaders -- to address multiple social issues: the environmental consequences of food waste, the prevalence of hunger across America, and the need for meaningful student leadership and service-learning opportunities. I'm proud to work for an organization that presents such a logical, replicable, and scalable solution to complex, intersecting social issues."

Hannah

"I love FRN for a lot of reasons and I could talk for days about them, but I think the most important one is this: FRN exists because a small group of leaders recognized a problem (or in this case, two), took responsibility for their role in the problems, and worked really, really hard to develop a solution. Grace Lee Boggs wisely said 'You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.' She was right, and I think often times we fall short of positive change because we push off our responsibility to someone or something else. But FRN is an exception to that norm -- we've stepped up and taken responsibility, and nearly one million meals have been saved and provided to our neighbors in need because of it. We're changing the game because we saw a problem and decided to fix it."   

Jamie

"I love FRN because FRN is so easy to love! What could be better than taking two major problems (food waste and hunger) and using one to solve the other? NOTHING! I also love working with our incredible student leaders who inspire me to be a better person every day. I have talked to students who work two jobs, are in athletic programs, double major, and graduate early, just to name a few, and still find time to save the world one recovery at a time by starting their own FRN chapter. You guys are the absolute bomb."

Cassidy

"I love FRN because this organization motivates college students to be thoughtful activists. We mobilize students to fight food waste and hunger in their communities, and we also provide them with tools to stay informed about these issues and think critically about the way they interact with diverse groups of people. College is one of the best times to plant the seeds for this kind of engagement, and I hope we see our alumni carry what they learn from their involvement with FRN into the rest of their lives. I think we will."

Leyla

"I love FRN because it empowers students to become leaders in the realm of food waste and recovery. We have the opportunity to influence the next generation of changemakers, and that's a powerful feeling."

 

MIKA

"I love the culture of FRN as an organization. We care a lot about treating ourselves and others well, and we have an incredibly competent team that works well together. I see this in our chapters as well; I'm constantly impressed by the new initiatives and ideas that they carry through to fruition. As a movement, we're always thinking of creative new ways to make an impact and share it."

Mia

"I love FRN because it provides a space for students to become leaders and create amazing, high impact food recovery programs. Everyday that I work with FRN, I see and hear about empowerment. I hear about people in communities across America that are empowered when they receive fulfilling and wholesome meals from FRN. Partner agencies share stories of their own empowerment because they save time and money when working with FRN chapters. Students are empowered to take ownership of the well being of their campuses and communities. And dining service providers and food businesses are empowered to do the right thing, and donate their surplus food. I know that empowerment well, because that is the same empowerment I have felt in working with FRN."

NFRD Who's Who: Q&A with Christopher Bradshaw of Dreaming Out Loud

This is first post in our NFRD Who's Who series, a series of interviews with the fantastic leaders who will be speaking at the National Food Recovery Dialogue on April 2-4. Stay tuned – we'll be sharing more interviews as we count down to the NFRD. 

Christopher Bradshaw is the founder and executive director of Dreaming Out Loud, whose mission is to build an equitable food system, grow economic opportunity for marginalized people, and more resilient communities. Since their founding in 2014, they've worked with farmers markets to bring more than 250,000 pounds fresh produce to the food deserts of DC. We can't wait for Christopher to present his talk "From Rosewood to Real Time: Food Justice and Economic Justice In America" at the NFRD!

FRN: What are you looking forward to at the conference?

CB: I'm most looking forward to a conversation with the students and hearing about the work being done in food recovery; where the innovation is in the space and moving conversations forward. I think conversations help to frame circumstances and push folks to find ways of acting within their world. We are at a critical juncture; policy needs to move to open up resources to undergird individuals and communities with skills and supports eroded by a profit-over-people economic system. We need to shape a national vision of the food and economic system towards one that creates living wage jobs and moves towards a restorative, regenerative social justice narrative; beyond band-aids, to systemic, structural social revolution that has justice as its core value. 

FRN: Why are you passionate about food recovery?

CB: I am passionate about creating a stronger, more just and sustainable food system because I think that so many broad issues of social justice intersect with the food system. From racial justice resulting from land loss, economic devastation, and displacement; to workers rights, living wages and income disparity; to repairing the wounds of mass incarceration and creating pathways for returning citizens. Just means justice; it means uncomfortable, but honest conversations bout restoring communities, transcending our politics, and building the world we envision through the lens of food.

FRN: What's your proudest accomplishment of your career?

CB: My proudest professional accomplishment is just making it through the darkness. It is hard starting an organization, stewarding it through growth, and moving it into a place where it hold true to its values; and meets community needs in ways that empower and facilitate agency. Maybe my proudest moment is yet to come, as I am excited for the day when I let go allow Dreaming Out Loud to go free. 

FRN: Time for some fun. What's your spirit vegetable?

CB: My spirit vegetable is the pole bean. Random; I know. I just love the way that pole beans find a way to climb up from seemingly anywhere, or out of nowhere, guided by what I have no idea. Somehow, what seems like overnight, poles beans through some dogged strength reach further and further towards the sun to find a guiding strand of twine, or fencing, or a the limb of a tree. Whatever that force is that is guiding that pole bean is unseen, but it just knows that if it keeps trying it will find it's guiding support and grow to what it knows that it can be.

Interested in learning more about Christopher's work with Dreaming Out Loud? Register for the National Food Recovery Dialogue today and follow Dreaming Out Loud on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

From Regina's Desk: A Love Sonnet

Since it’s February, and I’m a huge fan of celebrating FRNdships on Valentine’s Day, I wanted to express my love of all of you with a sonnet. I figured if Shakespeare can do it, I can, too, right? Let us know if you have any FRN-inspired poetry you’d like to share!  Post on Facebook and tag FRN or shoot us an email: info@foodrecoverynetwork.org.

Why I Love FRN

There! Across the country zips back and forth

a committed network of people yield

a pathway for change on campus, on earth;

The simple solution to all, revealed!

Dedication and grit has caused great shifts

in thinking to action: recovery!

when I think about your amazing gifts

To this movement, further discovery

Food Recovery Network such a site

To be part of the will, to do what’s right.

To read more from our Executive Director, Regina Northouse, check out her most recent posts in our From Regina's Desk series: Growing Stronger Every Day, From One Milestone to the Next, and more!

FRN Featured on Food Tank

Cam, our Director of Innovation and Operations, harvests swiss chard during an afternoon volunteering with City Blossoms in Washington, D.C.

If you haven't heard, we're big fans of Food Tank and all the awesome information they generate. It's one of the reasons why we invited Danielle Nierenberg to speak at the National Food Recovery Dialogue. When they asked to interview our very own Cam Pascual, Director of Innovation and Operations, we couldn't help but be excited. Here's a look at the great things Cam said in the article written by Emma Tozer and published on Food Tank. 

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In the United States, 95 percent of food not consumed is discarded in landfills where it breaks down to produce methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. Food Recovery Network was founded in 2011 to mitigate this waste by targeting food disposal on university campuses. Since its inception, Food Recovery Network has rescued more than one million pounds of food and has a presence on 180 college campuses across the United States. Food Recovery Network empowers citizens, communities, and food businesses to reconstruct their perceptions and habits of food surplus.

Food Tank had the opportunity to speak with Cam Pascual, Director of Innovation and Operations, at the Food Recovery Network.

Food Tank (FT): How do you contribute to creating a better food system?

Cam Pascual (CP): Food Recovery Network turns problems into solutions. Problem 1: College campuses send an estimated 22 million pounds of quality surplus food to landfills each year. Problem 2: One in six Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Problem 3: College students need opportunities for meaningful service work. FRN combines these problems and turns them into one high-impact, simple solution. We unite college students at universities across the country in collecting the surplus food from their campuses and donating it to local hunger-fighting nonprofits.

FT: What is a project, program, or result you are most proud of?

CP: In under four years, Food Recovery Network went from a student group at the University of Maryland to a national nonprofit with programming at 150 schools in 36 states across the country that has so far recovered over 650,000 meals that would have otherwise been thrown away.

FT: What are your goals for this year and beyond?

CP: We plan to expand our programming beyond college campuses in coming years. We've already put higher education on track to be the first sector in which food recovery is the norm--not the exception. For 2015 and beyond we plan to expand our work to even more colleges across the country. We also offer consulting services for businesses interested in starting up their own food recovery programs, and our Food Recovery Certified program certifies businesses that do the right thing by donating their surplus food, letting consumers know where to spend their money if they care about food recovery.

FT: In one sentence, what is the most important thing eaters and consumers can do today to support a more sustainable food system?

CP: Eaters and consumers should only buy as much food as they'll consume.

FT: How can individuals become more involved in your organization?

CP: Interested college students can either start a chapter on their campus, and others can spread the word about FRN via social media, volunteer with a local chapter, or host a fundraiser to help support the work we do. We want people to start demanding food recovery--at the restaurants they visit, in their grocery stores, at their office cafeterias--because there's no reason for us to be wasting 40 percent of the food we produce while so many Americans don't know where their next meal is coming from.