This piece is part of the weekly series “Growing Forward: Insights for Building Better Food and Agriculture Systems,” presented by the Global Food Institute at the George Washington University and the nonprofit organization Food Tank. Each installment highlights forward-thinking strategies to address today’s food and agriculture related challenges with innovative solutions. To view more pieces in the series, click here.
Food Recovery Network (FRN) is the largest student-led movement recovering surplus food and ending hunger. We unite 8,000+ college students, food suppliers, farmers, and local businesses across the U.S. in the fight against climate change and hunger by recovering surplus food from across the supply chain and donating it to local nonprofit organizations that feed people experiencing hunger. Over the past decade, as I have led FRN, I have witnessed the incredible power of young people’s voices. Their message is clear:
We can no longer throw away good food when there are plenty of ways to distribute it to people who need it. We are all on a global island, and we are collectively responsible for caring for this place we call home.
With over 200 chapters across the U.S., including George Washington University (est. 2013), FRN harnesses the existing capacities of college and university students who have the ability to recover and move food to where it is needed in their local communities—feeding more people faster. FRN equips our student leaders with the support, tools, mentorship, and training they need to establish food recovery operations in their local communities and keep those recoveries ongoing year after year.
There is room for all of us to join the revolution to restore the value of our food, especially our surplus food, and effectively end the cycle of food waste. Our efforts, together, will make our tomorrow brighter, more connected, and thriving.
After 10 years of activism and listening, there are five lessons to keep moving forward I would like to offer:
1. Small changes make radical and fundamental impacts.
2. Community engagement is essential.
3. Advocacy is a consistent action we must take to achieve freedom.
4. It’s important to celebrate our successes.
5. And even though the work is hard, there is hope ahead.
Small Changes Make Radical And Fundamental Impacts
It can be overwhelming to consider the enormity of food waste statistics. What do 63 million tons of food waste look like? What does it mean that 27 percent of all the food that’s produced annually in the U.S. goes into landfills? How do you visualize the 47 million people who are hungry? When the problems of our society get overwhelming, focusing on one small concept at a time helps keep us anchored and moving forward.
Food Recovery Network was started to help feed people experiencing hunger in College Park, Maryland. And then Berkeley, California, and Providence, Rhode Island, one food recovery at a time.
The simple act of asking at your next event or meeting, “What is your plan for the leftover food?” can lead to action. That’s how FRN started. Student leaders saw good food being thrown away and people who needed food in their local community. They started asking simple questions and took action. Instead of throwing that really good food away, they started bringing it to a local church close to campus.
And consider that FRN, in a partnership with Medium Rare and Bullseye Entertainment Group during this year’s Super Bowl tailgates, recovered 12,348 pounds of high-quality food. It was just two events and fifteen volunteers and staff. However, those pounds provided over 10,000 meals to the New Orleans community and prevented 7.95 metric tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere—the equivalent of the amount needed to power a home for an entire year.
A few years ago, those events didn’t have anyone recovering the food. Imagine the impact if every event had a food recovery plan in place. It’s exponential potential.
Community Engagement Is Essential
Genuine community involvement drives change in ways community members desire—sustainable and substantial. But it’s hard work and takes time. People come with different ideas, agendas, and egos. Our job is to bring together various visions and experiences and ensure we are rowing in the same direction.
FRN’s Elementary School Produce Market initiative began with a straightforward pilot program: paying farmers for their surplus food to conveniently provide elementary school families with nutritious produce—right at student pickup. We focused on local partnership and actively listening to communities’ needs and adjusted along the way based on community feedback. We increased opportunities for our students and alumni to participate.
After three years, that first produce market in Atlanta is now fully executed by local community partners and flourishing. Markets have expanded into other cities like St. Paul, Minnesota, and Baltimore, Maryland. We are using the same model, with a heavy emphasis on community feedback loops, and seeing the same success.
Freedom through Advocacy
Over the years, I have learned that building relationships with legislators is an effective push for necessary change. Advocacy validates our work and expedites sustainable solutions that benefit entire communities. Our policies reflect our decorum on how we want to treat one another.
Through advocacy efforts, we improved the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Law. With the passage of the bipartisan Food Donation Improvement Act (FDIA), to include farmers who were previously excluded, allowing them to receive tax incentives for donating food. We can now donate to individuals and not just nonprofit organizations, which has facilitated the growth of community refrigerators, making food access easier for many communities. The FDIA has spurred food policy councils to emerge across the U.S. to address food waste systematically at the municipal level. The list of what still must be achieved through policy change is long. But it must be celebrated: advocacy led to advancement and change!
Celebrate Successes, No Matter How Small. H*ck, Just Celebrate
Celebrating recognizes the hard work that goes into every aspect of our food system—the water invested, the labor growing and gathering food on the land of ancestors, the care of preparation, and the joy of celebrating the harvest. Taking time to celebrate achievements, both big and small, maintains morale, motivates continued action, and fosters abundance thinking. And, it’s fun!
I’ve been on recovery missions with music playing in the foreground, enjoying a flurry of high-fives. It’s jaw-dropping to see crate after crate of avocados that were once destined for the trash get moved to feed people. I love hearing from the staff of these locations about the delicious recipes the chefs will create for the clients at the church or workforce program for the unhoused. It’s all a celebration and a tribute to our nourishing food and our connection to one another.
It’s Hard Work. Still, There Is Hope Ahead
The fight against food waste is about fostering a culture of compassion, respect, and responsibility towards one another, our food systems, and our planet. I’ve had the experience of continuous hard times and never lost hope. Collective care involves intentionally looking to helpers and spending time in places that fuel you to keep going. We cannot shy away from that or sugarcoat that for anybody.
The work is hard.
If our society and elected officials wanted to eradicate hunger, it would have been done well before any of us were born. Structures, like nonprofits, are often underfunded to permanently address the issues at hand, and are asked to be more creative with their US$0.15 when they need a dollar instead of creating policy structures that ensure we all thrive. The availability of food affects the level of work. We must think of food recovery as a connected system that requires different attention based on what’s happening.
According to the EPA, better food procurement is the number one way to prevent food waste, and food recovery is number two. FRN’s goal is simple: to recover enough surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry.
But we have to work together, collectively, to chart the path forward. Here are 3 steps I recommend:
1. Stay in touch with your legislators to advocate for better policy.
The Food Date Labeling Act has recently been reintroduced with bipartisan support. Its goal is to eliminate consumer confusion regarding expiration dates and “best by” labels that leads to hundreds of thousands of pounds of food being unnecessarily discarded every year by standardizing date labels on specific products. This initiative also aims to significantly reduce food waste across the country and help consumers make the most of their dollars. Call your legislators and ask them to support this bill. Save their contact information to make calling them again even easier.
2. Join local coalitions to ensure food recovery is included in local climate action plans.
Conduct an internet search to see if your county or town in which you live has a food recovery strategy as part of its strategic plan or part of its climate action initiatives. If your area lacks a plan, contact your local municipal leaders to inquire about the timeline for incorporating a food recovery plan into their strategy. If the person does not know, or they will not make changes to the strategy until the sunset of the current strategic plan, ask them to make a note that you would like a food recovery to be considered, and follow up.
3. And make a personal commitment. Ask at each event you attend what the plan is for leftover food.
For small private gatherings and parties, consider providing to-go containers for guests and event staff. Enlist the help of FRN. FRN’s Food Recovery Verified program assists large-scale events and businesses in planning to donate high-quality food after events or as a part of their regular operations.
Get involved with the movement to end food waste. Follow our work at FRN for inspiration. By continuing to engage our communities, celebrating our successes, and maintaining our tenacity, we can make a lasting impact, making food recovery the norm. Each action we take, together, brings us closer to that goal.
Photo courtesy of Food Recovery Network
