Several higher education institutions have active food recovery campaigns built into their cafeteria systems. Some focus on composting food waste, but a growing number are looking to food donations. It is still a small percentage, but consider the efforts of the Food Recovery Network at the University of Maryland. Their experience and the outreach that they are providing to other universities who are considering recovery options could be very valuable for us.
Here’s a blurb from the FRN at UM:
Our network has already donated over 30,000 meals as of March 2012. We are growing our impact fast here at UMD and have reached a rate of about 15,000 meals per semester. Part of that came from our expansion to recovering from UMD’s basketball and football games, where we get massive amounts of delicious leftover concessions food: hotdogs, hamburgers, pretzels, fries, and occasionally crab cakes (we are the University of Maryland, after all). Our record? From a single basketball game, on New Year’s Eve 2011, we donated 727 meals!
Compost is an obvious component of diverting food from the landfill but it isn’t high on the food waste hierarchy. In fact, it’s second from the bottom. The Full Circle Food Pantry already receives donations from Chartwells. Are there additional sources of food on campus that could be diverted from the garbage and put onto the plates of hungry people in Northwest Arkansas?
Hey University of Arkansas OCS,
Thanks a lot for the shout out! Food Recovery Network would love to work with you to start/expand your existing program. You mentioned that Chartwells donates some food — is that food that would otherwise be going to waste? In our experience with Chartwells, they’ve had an unfortunate policy barring their participation in any food recovery programs. We’ve run into it twice so far when students and faculty at different colleges tried to start FRN programs, but it’s something we’re hoping they will be open to changing if they hear from enough people who want the extra food to be donated.
In any case, we would be happy to set up a call to talk more if your office or any student groups at the University of Arkansas might be interested in starting a program. You can feel free to call me at 240-281-2515 or email me at ben.lee.simon@gmail.com.
Thanks,
Ben
Thanks, Ben! What do you mean by “food that would otherwise be going to waste”? What kinds of food do you think could be diverted? We will definitely keep you in mind for campus groups who are interested in pursuing this even further.
Thanks again!
Thanks! So, to clarify, a lot of restaurant chains and food service providers that have policies like Chartwells’ prohibiting the company from donating leftovers will actually make extra food just so that they can have something to donate. However, all their leftovers are still going to waste. So, I was just asking whether Chartwells’ donations to the Full Circle Food Pantry is food they prepared specifically so they could donate, or food that would be otherwise be wasted.
Ah, now I see. That’s a good question and I think the answer is that they donate non-perishable foods to the Full Circle Food Pantry.
Thanks for the clarification. I really do hope that someone on the UA campus picks up the FRC. You seem like a great source of information.
Thanks a lot and I hope you guys can start an FRN. We can provide advice, mini-grants, and a lot of other resources to folks starting new chapters, so please let me know if you find some students who want to get it going!