What can we learn from Texas?

The heartbeat of Food Recovery Network (FRN) is our 140 chapters across the U.S., comprising nearly 4,000 students, dining providers, food supplies, and local businesses who work together to recover surplus food and redistribute it to people in need. In a time when more than 54 million people are experiencing hunger, our work is needed more than ever, in certain areas more than ever. Using FRN10X as our guide, FRN is looking to learn how we can expand quickly, in one of the states with both the supply and demand we seek - Texas.

The model around the city of Houston is one we look to replicate across Texas, and eventually, across all 50 states. In Houston, you have both an ample supply of surplus food, coupled with communities where more than 20% of the population is experiencing hunger. Houston is also home to the University of Houston FRN chapters which, since its founding in 2014, has recovered more than 54,000 pounds of food, or 45,000 meals to people experiencing hunger in the area.

Looking at the map, you will see many of the FRN chapters are located in north Texas, but much of the need for surplus food is in south Texas. We look to establish chapters like the University of Houston -  meaning chapters in closer proximity to the need.

Start or join an existing chapter today.

Through outreach to potential students via social media, as well as activation of large and small employers in the state, we are seeking to add at least 20 chapters in Texas and measure how much more food we can put back into the supply chain as a result of this growth. We anticipate by putting more food into the food system faster, in the areas with the greatest need, we will be able to feed more people faster, ultimately lowering the number of people experiencing food insecurity in Texas.

Our learnings in Texas - what it takes to recruit and retain chapters, what it means to work within a new network of nonprofit partner agencies to distribute food, and how it shapes the contributions of our students in a given community - are all things we are looking to learn over the next ten weeks. We will take those learnings and seek to replicate the successes across all ten states of focus in the fall.

Please join us in expanding our network in Texas. You can do this by donating to FRN to support our outreach or connecting with program staff to connect us with the appropriate person at your Texas university.

Start or join an existing chapter today.

Top 3 Reasons to become an FRN Chapter

The COVID-19 pandemic has required humans to adapt in ways which could not have been imagined a year ago, and Food Recovery Network (FRN) as an organization is no different. At a time when more than 54 million people are experiencing hunger, our work is needed now more than ever. Along with our dedicated student leaders, we want you to join in the movement to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S.

So why should you join FRN?:

1. Because there are multiple ways for your chapter to show your commitment to your community. To start a chapter, you will choose one of three “tracks” to organize your chapter around: (1) recovering surplus food from your campus or a business in your community; (2) raising awareness about the fractured food system; or (3) advocating for change through activism and engagement. All are essential components to building a more just and equitable food system. Our program team helps you each step of the way.

2. Because you can help people in your community today. Issues of excess food and access to food can feel huge and rife with reasons that seem too big to begin to address. But FRN offers flexible ways to help your community based on your capacity on a given day. This may involve recovering surplus food at least once during a semester, sharing articles about food insecurity in your community with 10 friends or emailing your elected officials about ways they can help feed people today through a change of policies or regulations. It is about the time you have to contribute, and every little bit helps.

3. No really, every little bit helps. In the last 10 years, FRN recovered enough surplus food to provide 4.1 million meals. To give you an idea of what that means, this is equivalent to providing one meal to nearly every person in Oregon for one day. In 2020 alone, amidst a pandemic, FRN provided 868,771 meals to people in need, that is nearly one meal to every person in South Dakota. It also translates to over 7.4 million pounds of CO2 emissions prevented. This is what happens when every chapter does a little bit – it adds up to a whole lot.

Start or join an existing chapter today.

FRN10X and Top 10 States for Expansion

When I came to Food Recovery Network (FRN), a little under a year ago, our Executive Director Regina Anderson shared with me her vision of a network that would grow ten-fold, and a movement that would represent a more just and equitable food system. My job as the first Chief Operating Officer (COO) was to make that happen. To begin, I leveraged the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Results Count Framework.

Results Count® is a data-driven methodology to close racial and ethnic disparities in your work, regardless of focus area. For us at FRN, this meant getting specific about the result we seek in the world and how we will keep ourselves accountable to contributing to make progress on it. For FRN, our result is to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S.

While we recognize FRN cannot alone achieve this goal, we identified where FRN can have a unique contribution to moving our movement closer to achieving it. Using two publicly available data sets, the EPA’s excess food map, and Feeding America’s Map, the Meal Gap, on the number of people experiencing hunger, we overlaid these data sets on maps where FRN also has chapters. Looking at the states with BOTH ample opportunities of recovering surplus food and more than 20% of the state’s population experiencing hunger, we prioritized ten states where we believe we can replicate FRN’s structure of recovering surplus food from commercial/industrial settings; and then redistributing it so we can feed more people, where there is the most need, faster.

The states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. More details on each state can be found below.

It is important to note our support of chapters across the U.S. will continue as will our growth on campuses across the nation because of the dedication of our student leaders who see access to food as a right, and FRN as a way to help people in their community today.

Please join us in expanding our network in each of these states. You can do this by donating to FRN to support our outreach or connecting with program staff to connect us with the appropriate person at your school.