Reflecting on 2020: Student Network Wins in Light of COVID-19

By Regina Anderson, Executive Director

The poet laureate Audre Lorde said, “The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between the sharers which can be the basis for understanding much of what is not shared between them, and lessens the threat of their difference.” 

Lorde’s sentiment reminds me of all of our students throughout the country in their pursuit to build a better food system for all. FRN students believe deeply that food is a right and they make sure that people have access to the food they deserve through valuable relationships. 

This month we wanted to take a moment to celebrate our student network! Students, you have all accomplished some astounding things and I am not surprised at all. 

• We have found new places to recover food outside of our college campuses, more than 120 of us worked closely [virtually] with The FarmLink Project (600,000 pounds of food recovered and counting!)

• We’re engaged in our continuous learning with the Food Justice Learning Series, a sequence of webinars that brings a panel of experts together to discuss issues that intersect food waste and food insecurity in our country through the lens of life in a pandemic.

• Additionally, in collaboration with the #FUELHigherEd campaign, FRN is working alongside a network of advocacy organizations to end food insecurity in America and to create long-lasting solutions to hunger on college campuses. We hope you can interact with this campaign throughout the spring.  

And we’re just getting warmed up. 2021 will be here before we know it and all of us at FRN National cannot wait to keep making strides to ensure we can distribute all of the surplus food our country produces to feed everyone who is hungry. 

Thank you to all of our student-leaders, volunteers, staff advisors, dining hall workers, food donors, and partner agencies. We appreciate your hard work this year, and we can’t wait to continue this amazing work in the new year!

Honoring Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week

Now through November 22, 2020, FRN will honor Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, an annual program sponsored by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness to help educate people across the country about these issues and advocate for change.

At FRN, we firmly believe that no one should have to worry about where their next meal will come from or where they’ll sleep that night. Unfortunately, millions of people in the United States struggle with hunger and homelessness. Right now, an estimated 54 million people are experiencing food insecurity and nearly 550,000 people experience homelessness on a given night. 

While there are many misconceptions about who is impacted by hunger and homelessness, these issues aren’t exclusive to any single community or group and rarely does a single cause contribute to the loss of housing or inability to purchase food. Check out some of the common myths surrounding homelessness and hunger in the US. 

As we reflect on the prevalence of homelessness and hunger in America, one of the most startling revelations is the rate at which food and housing insecurity for college and university students is rising. According to a study conducted by Hunger on Campus: 

• 50% of community college students and 47% of four-year college students reported experiencing food insecurity in the previous 30 days

• Food insecurity rates are higher for students of color: 57% of Black or African American students reported food insecurity, compared to 40% of non-Hispanic white students

• 64% of food insecure students reported experiencing housing insecurity in the past 12 months 

• 15% of food insecure students reported experiencing homelessness in the past 12 months

So what action is being taken to rectify this? Many colleges and universities across the country have opened food pantries on campus to help reduce student hunger. Additional solutions include the creation of on-campus community gardens and food recovery programs.

Policymakers can also play a significant role by increasing student access to existing federal programs like SNAP and simplifying the FAFSA process. 

At FRN, we’re taking action in our own way. In partnership with the #FUELHigherEd Campaign, we’re leading a cohort of six FRN Student Chapters to engage in advocacy work at the local, state and federal level to help raise awareness about student hunger and promote change. Through these efforts, we hope to generate stronger policies that will lead to reduced food insecurity and hunger for students. To stay updated on our work, sign up for FRN emails and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

A Journey to One Million Pounds

This year FRN launched a partnership with The FarmLink Project (FarmLink), a student-led organization that has rescued millions of pounds of surplus food from farms during the pandemic. FarmLink saw a need and an opportunity to mitigate farm food loss as dining facilities closed down in April, and FRN recognized our own power to help in the process.

FRN volunteer efforts led to the recovery and distribution of 38,000 pounds of celery in September.

FRN’s Intersection to this Work

Many FRN Student Chapters have been unable to recover surplus food from their campuses this year. At the same time, the massive shift to virtual life has opened up new possibilities when it comes to volunteering. With an estimated 54 million Americans experiencing food insecurity, FRN recognized the urgent need to activate our students and alumni to continue fighting food waste. 

In September, 120 FRN students and alumni mobilized to identify opportunities for food recovery on farms, enabling FarmLink to intervene before any food went to waste. In this way, our students and alumni are using their experience, skills, and passion for food recovery to address the current needs of farmers and food insecure communities across the country. In the process, they are also gaining valuable knowledge surrounding farm food loss and waste and developing skills to initiate the recovery and distribution of food on a large scale. 

“I think this is an incredible learning opportunity that is constantly pushing me and teaching me that any idea could be turned into an action - all it takes is belief, drive and a few committed people. FarmLink is continuously maturing in its intentions and my specific role on the farms team has made me more confident in both the skill of cold-calling and trusting that the community of volunteers is there for the farmers and volunteers at every step.” - FRN Alumna

FRN’s volunteer engagement 

Our work has already resulted in the recovery of 450,000 pounds of food. Aside from the research and outreach, FRN volunteers are taking on leadership roles with FarmLink and energizing others to dive into the work. This partnership combines the strengths of our network with FarmLink’s logistical and tactical prowess to achieve maximum impact. 

FRN volunteers continue to identify food recovery opportunities before the fall harvest season ends.

"The FarmLink Project has been so lucky to have the help of FRN members as we continue to grow our organization. The first group of FRN members began working hand in hand with us when we had just crossed the 5 million pound mark and now with The FarmLink Project approaching 15 million pounds, we can use all the help we can get with the next 15 million." - Cooper Adams, Head of Farms Team at FarmLink

If you’re feeling inspired by this work, sign up to volunteer! Now is the time to take action. With your help, FRN and FarmLink can recover one million pounds of food before the end of the year.

Result: Recover Surplus Food to Feed Everyone Who is Hungry in the U.S.

Throughout late July, FRN’s Chief Operating Officer, Katie Jones and I conducted five public Roundtable Talks with a variety of FRN stakeholders to discuss our new strategic framework. The framework is a blueprint for how FRN plans to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S. This is no small task and while FRN outlines the roles we can play in this critical work, we also understand we are one agent of several organizations necessary to accomplish this goal. The framework details how FRN plans to continue our bedrock work--the work we’ve always done to feed those who are hungry in the United States with recovered food, and how we will in concert with that work, get underneath the pervasive mechanisms of economic ills that ensure so many millions of people each year must rely on food assistance to get by.

The conversations with our community were inspiring, illuminating, and at times, overwhelming because of the sheer complexity of the issue. Katie and I have outlines our key takeaways from these conversations as a way to condense the valuable information that came from these talks, and I will say, one of the most overwhelming takeaways we heard from current student leaders, alums, dining providers, funders, our partner agencies who receive our donated food and our National Board of Directors? FRN needs to step forward in this way to do this work. FRN is ready.

Katie

What struck me: How much people value this community. Particularly in the pandemic, I think people desire connection and our network facilitates them connecting with people that share a common passion, which is critical right now—recovering food to feed people who are experiencing hunger.  

What I’m most excited about: Sharing our learning in real-time with our stakeholders. We have ambitious goals for this year, a year when our work is most critical, and I am curious to see how our work goes and share what we learned and how that will change our work moving forward.

Regina

 What struck me: Despite the hardship of the pandemic, people remain committed to helping. Our stakeholders see the shifts we outlined in our framework as critical to supporting a better food system once the pandemic is over. More than ever we have the momentum and expertise to make permanent improvements throughout the food system that won’t breakdown when system disruptions occur—because we know they will occur.

What I’m most excited about: Increasing the communication networks across all of our stakeholders to accomplish this vision of now, and our longer-term vision of dismantling the systems that cause people to not have enough food in the first place when our country produces more than enough, and building in its place, a just and equitable food system that is inclusive of everyone. It’s very intimidating to be so transparent about our work and by offering this very quick feedback loop for everyone to respond to, but this is exactly how we can get to a better food system on the other side of the pandemic and I’m excited that so many people remain in the corner of FRN to make that happen.

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Takeaways

• Stakeholders appreciate a holistic approach to our work which is a strategic shift for us.

• People agree that the work of feeding all people who are food insecure with surplus food feels right.

• The strategic framework is exciting to people and we are moving in the right direction.

• The systems change work of workforce development, advocacy is exciting to people and they want to be more involved with the creation of this intentional work.

• Stakeholders are curious about our workforce development work, but it is still nascent so we need more dialogue with partners to make sure we are building the curriculum to ensure it fits emerging business needs.

• FRN is committed to better understanding positive unintentional outcomes, but we need to remain vigilant to unintended consequences which is why we are creating a rapid feedback loop that is transparent to our stakeholders. This feedback loop and progress updates will help FRN learn faster, make changes quicker, and stay the course.

• Our students and alums are committed more than ever despite the pandemic.

• Racial equity has always been part of FRN’s work and this new strategic framework is a way to codify it, through the use of disaggregated data and focusing the effort of our work in new ways.

You can listen to a Roundtable Talk where Katie and I outline the strategic framework and several takeaways.