[EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article published recently in The Washington Post and Daily News Record called to mind that , taking up to 150 pounds of food per week to the and in Harrisonburg.]
Not to make you feel guilty, but think for a minute about what you threw out of your refrigerator this week: that wilted lettuce, the yogurt that had passed its expiration date, the Tupperware full of mac and cheese that the kids had to have but nev颅er finished. It adds up.
Now imagine the amount of wasted food in a huge cafeteria that serves thousands of meals each day, a place like the South Campus Dining Room at the Uni颅versity of Maryland. That鈥檚 what three students did one day back in 2010. The quantities of soup, roast turkey, pasta and salads were so jaw-dropping, they decided to do something about it. They created the .
Initially, the project was limited in scope, remembers 23-year-old Ben Simon, the network鈥檚 co-颅founder and executive director. Once a week, five volunteers would show up at the south cam颅pus dining hall to pick up leftovers and drive them to area shelters. Even that modest effort yielded huge hauls of food, an average of 150 to 200 pounds each night. By 2012 graduation, the network had donated about 30,000 meals to Washington shelters.
Still not content, the network began working with other univer颅sities to start their own recovery programs. Last year, students at 12 campuses 鈥渞escued鈥� 120,000 pounds of food, mostly from dining halls but, in some cases, from off颅-campus restaurants and other venues.
Ending food wastage
Food waste is shaping up to be a big issue in 2013. The numbers show why. Americans throw out 40 percent of their food, according to a recent report from the . That is more than 20 pounds of food per person per month, a total of $165 billion worth of food each year. In food service alone, including restaurants and cafeterias, waste accounts for $8 billion to $20 bil颅lion, according to , a company that provides automated food waste tracking systems.
Food recovery isn鈥檛 new, of course. , a nonprofit organization that serves meals to the needy and provides culinary job training in Washing颅ton, is a pioneer in food rescue; last year, its , in which students trans颅form unused fresh food from din颅ing halls, grocery stores, restau颅rants and farmers markets into meals, recovered more than 400,000 pounds of food. But bring颅ing food recovery to more colleges is important, says Dana Gunders, the author of the National Re颅sources Defense Council report.
鈥淲asting food is a learned be颅havior,鈥� she said, noting that the amount Americans throw away has increased by 50 percent since the 1970s. 鈥淏y recovering food on college campuses, it trains young people to be aware of this issue. Just having it on the radar will help people make the right choices.鈥�
University of Maryland Dining Services was aware that it was wasting food, says Bart Hipple, its assistant director of communi颅cations. It had removed trays from one of its dining halls, a popular strategy on college cam颅puses that discourages students from taking more than they need and reduces energy and water consumption because the trays don鈥檛 have to be washed. But until the Food Recovery Network students showed up, there was no easy way to donate leftovers.
鈥淲e could not find an organization to come get it. And we鈥檙e not in the business of [ delivering] food somewhere,鈥� Hipple said. The Food Recovery Network 鈥渃ame in and saw a problem, a problem we were aware of that we could not solve. They removed a lot of the roadblocks and fought to a solution.鈥�
Relying on student volunteers
The Food Recovery Network鈥檚 success is rooted in its structure. The group doesn鈥檛 rely on one team of volunteers to make its late- night pickups and deliveries. Instead, it taps into the dozens of student organizations on campus, including religious and cultural groups, fraternities and sororities, many of which require members to perform community service. More than 200 volunteers pick up at dining halls and after football and basketball games. A manager with food- safety training oversees each pickup, and all volunteers receive lessons in safe- food handling, including the importance of wearing gloves, keeping foods within prescribed temperatures and other precautions.
One of the beneficiaries is the ., just over a mile from the College Park campus. Students drop off food there twice a week and after sporting events. 鈥淵ou can feed 1,000 people with the food from a football game,鈥� says pastor Ben Slye. 鈥淗undreds of chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs.鈥�
There鈥檚 also a good supply of more-healthful food. Slye, who takes photos of every recovery, sees trays of steak, chicken, tuna, salmon, pasta salads, fruit, 鈥渆verything you can think of.鈥� The center feeds 400 people a week: twice a month at its headquarters and at several partner soup kitchens to which it delivers food. (It also has its own food recovery program; each week it picks up and distributes as much as 25,000 pounds of fresh produce from distributor Taylor Farms.)
鈥淚 am just amazed by these kids,鈥� Slye says. 鈥淭hey take their own time, their own vehicles, their own money for gas. And they are so committed. They have a tight schedule. They are always there.鈥�
Giving to people in need
The network now includes chapters at Brown University, the Rhode Island School of Design and University of Texas at Austin. Still, notes director Simon, as many as 75 percent of college campuses have no food recovery program in place. He says that adds up to 22 million meals that could be given to people in need.
鈥淲e want to unite colleges that do have programs and build a movement at colleges that don鈥檛,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e envision the end of unnecessary food waste.鈥�
It鈥檚 a lofty goal. But there may be another measure of success: putting yourself out of a job. Eighteen months after they began, University of Maryland students no longer pick up at the South Campus dining hall after waste there virtually disappeared. Administrators, who are now paying closer attention to food waste, decided to extend the dining hall鈥檚 hours so that it now sells out of many of its prepared meals.
鈥淲e have to give them some of the credit for it,鈥� said the dining services鈥� Hipple. 鈥淲e became more aware, and we figured out a way to make change.鈥�
Courtesy Daily News Record, Feb. 6, 2013. on Jan. 29, 2013.