Arjun Nair is the President of FRN’s student-led chapter at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. In May, Arjun attended ReFED’s annual Food Waste Solutions Summit, an event that convenes representatives from the public and private sectors to discuss solutions to food loss and food waste in the United States. Read about Arjun’s experience attending this in-person event and the key learnings that he found inspiring as an FRN chapter leader.

In May, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the ReFED 2023 Food Waste Solutions Summit in St. Louis. This annual summit brings together the top leaders and pioneers in the food waste space to spark collaboration and innovation, and it was an amazing experience to be a part of this discussion. For three days, I was flooded with information and inspiration about ways that we are combating food waste around the globe, and what struck me most was the endless diversity in how we are all tackling food waste. 

As a speaker on The Future is Now: The Power of Indomitable Youth to Spark Action panel, I had the opportunity to share the Food Recovery Network’s mission and our unique stance as a college-student-driven movement. I also learned about the other panelists’ inspiring efforts, like Ben Collier’s work to rescue surplus food from farms through The Farmlink Project, and Kenneth L. Moss Jr.’s mission to collect and compost food scraps from his neighborhood through the Baltimore Compost Collective. While we all have a niche focus, all of these solutions are equally prosperous and important to mitigate food waste along the supply chain.

At each event, the room was flooded with passionate words from diverse voices, each sharing their approaches to combating food loss and waste, the challenges they face through their work, and the future directions their efforts may take as the landscape for food waste reduction continues to evolve.

Ivan Jaminez

Program manager, hole food rescue

Ivan Jaminez is the Program Manager of Hole Food Rescue located in Teton County, Wyoming, an area where the average per capita income is $318,297 dollars but the median income is only $66,296. As an immigrant from Puerto Rico, he is a part of the substantial immigrant population located in this area, which is disproportionately at risk of food insecurity. His talk at the ReFED Summit focused not on how organizations can increase the number of pounds they recover but rather on how to strengthen their ties with the community. He emphasized how food waste organizations should strive to know the culture and identity of their client populations, positioning themselves as community members rather than an “outside savior.”

These efforts have helped increase Hole Food Rescue’s reach and ties to the community, making food waste and redistribution efforts exponentially more fruitful. As an FRN chapter leader, I feel this advice can and should be applied by all FRN chapters to strengthen the relationships they hold with the communities they serve.

Dr. sara elnakib

department of family and community health sciences chair, rutgers university

Dr. Sara Elnakib is the Department of Family and Community Health Sciences Chair at Rutgers University, and her team visits local K-12 schools to promote child health equity and stewardship in food waste. During her talk, Dr. Elnakib shared a story that really moved me. During her school visits, her team provides a visible demonstration of food waste by lining up the cartons of milk that go to waste at school every day on tables in the cafeteria. She described the shocked looks on children’s faces when they can actually see how much milk their schools toss daily, and how these talks have inspired change by raising awareness among students. Hearing about her creative efforts to make something serious like food waste easier for kids to understand and digest was amazing. Often, younger people are not included in conversations about food waste and recovery/prevention, something that FRN strives to change by working with college students. Dr. Elnakib’s discussion on the importance of starting these educational efforts early resonated strongly with me because of the connection to FRN’s mission.

bruce taylor

President, enviro-stewards

Bruce Taylor is the president of Enviro-Stewards, a consulting company that helps other companies reduce carbon emissions and food waste. One of the many stories he shared was about visiting a cheese packaging company, where he noticed a dysfunctional conveyer belt that dropped several blocks of cheese onto the floor each day. After weighing what seemed like a  minuscule amount of cheese that fell off the belt, Enviro-Stewards calculated that the company was losing $70,000 per year - money that could otherwise be used towards efforts such as food waste prevention. I was shocked to learn how these small, seemingly inconsequential problems can accumulate to become something far greater. Taylor’s story offered a reminder that every step of the food production process should be analyzed for improvement to reduce food waste, regardless of how long-standing or mundane it is. Even seemingly small amounts of food loss add up!

All of these speakers talked about different ideas and problems, yet their respective mission and motivations overlap with each other and that of FRN. Integrating with the communities we serve, reaching out to youth, and ensuring efficient processes are all important, realistic targets that any FRN chapter can pursue. In general, it can be easy to fall into the linear backbone of food recovery and delivery. However, the power of students being in interdisciplinary environments surrounded by collaborative efforts gives FRN’s network a unique opportunity for diverse outreach and impact. 

This summit presented the opportunity to discuss all of the amazing work being done in the food space and revealed to me the variety of impactful approaches that exist to prevent food loss and waste. At every turn, people expressed their desire to interact with the younger generation, and FRN is perfectly positioned to be a vehicle and leader for these efforts. FRN students have the capacity for incredible, multi-faceted change, and this conference served as a reminder of the limitless ways we can improve and collaborate to fight food waste and improve our local communities.