Food Waste to Zero Waste!

Andy Whitehead is a Program Assistant at Food Recovery Network, and a recent MSW graduate from the University at Buffalo. As a social worker engaged in food recovery, they are passionate about changing the mindsets and attitudes people have towards food recovery as a whole. 

On October 12th and 13th, Food Rescue Hero hosted their annual Food Rescue Conference focusing on innovative and creative solutions to food recovery. This event was live streamed for all food recovery stakeholders wanting to expand their network with other food rescue leaders. 

Read about Andy’s approach to food recovery and their take-aways from the conference for like-minded student leaders.

I was excited to attend the Food Rescue Conference to learn from individuals and organizations who are also passionate about food recovery about how we can advance food rescue and food recovery in our communities. Throughout the conference there was a focus on creating strong collaboration and partnership among the huge variety of people and groups that make up the food rescue community. Working in the human service field, I have worked with a variety of organizations that include food donation or recovery in their programs, and The Food Rescue Conference was a great opportunity to learn from others about various creative solutions to the challenges of food waste and food access.

Our food system is broken in so many ways. There is stigma, personal and societal, around receiving donated food or going to a food pantry. Meanwhile, hunger-fighting groups limit the amount of food people can receive because of a belief that they may run out and not be able to serve everyone who seeks out their program. I have worked with organizations that say no when people ask for more canned goods or for a second helping of food because the organization is worried that they will run out of food, even though there is always food remaining at the end of the day. At the same time, restaurants and other food businesses don't want to donate excess food at the end of the day due to lack of staffing, partnerships, reliability, or profit. These challenges can often be addressed through a successful food recovery program, but the scarcity mindset that leads to these myths and misconceptions around food still persists, so let’s debunk this! 

First, we must shift our focus to preventing food waste, instead of simply operating a charity, so we can change our attitude towards the people we serve and our partners. There is often an assumption of powerlessness or helplessness when we think of people who are receiving food donations, going to soup kitchens, or food pantries. However, anyone can be a recipient of food donations, regardless of socio-economic status. Everyone plays a part in this food waste prevention including food donors, drivers and deliveries, volunteers, and anyone who eats! We can stop filtering who can receive donations and see everyone as a solution to the problem of excess food waste. We can break down our assumptions about people, and stop thinking of people as less fortunate and instead think of everyone as part of the solution. Our attitudes and beliefs are what give power to the system of injustice. But I need to eat, and you need to eat, just as much as anyone else. As the Food Recovery Network, a huge part of our work is focused on student leaders and higher education. Although we focus on building out non-profit partnerships and local community members, many of our own students may be experiencing hardship and food insecurity. Going hungry, does not have to mean that someone is unhoused or below the poverty line, or unemployed.

As a former college student myself, I would try to find different avenues to find free food because most of my money went towards my tuition or on-campus housing. I did not pay for a meal plan and often relied on my friends to give me their leftovers or extra meal swipes. I have privilege. I was attending a higher education institution, I always had housing, but I still was very careful and conscious as to where my next meal was coming from. By shifting our attitudes and beliefs, this can expand our view of who may be going hungry all around us and who can benefit from food recovery. Utilizing a food waste focused approach, this may also assist us to understand that those who identify as food insecure will also fluctuate and change day by day. 

We live in a world of overproduction, consumerism, and waste. Each year in the US, 119 billion pounds of food, equating to 40% of all food produced, is wasted. There should never be a reason that people are unable to eat or that  hunger-fighting programs “will not have enough”. The real problem isn’t will we have enough food, but where is the food and how can we get it to people? How can we build partnerships to expand our network and get people what they need?

how can we get surplus food to people who need it?

One solution discussed in the Food Rescue Conference is a community fridge. The community fridge offers a way for any community member to be able to access fresh, surplus food. Anyone can take as much or as little food as they need each day. These fridges operate on community support and are stocked with what food is available, when it's available. Logistics are shared by community members and food donors can drop off food on their own, or utilize food rescue delivery volunteers to put whatever they have left day to day. There is no minimum amount of food they must give and every bit helps stock the fridge. 

Another solution is reframing the values of food recovery. Students often have this idea that food recovery solely means scooping food and donating it to partners. While yes, this is a big part of food recovery, we can also get creative and bring innovative ideas to the table. Many of our chapters have shifted focus to spreading awareness and educating their community on food waste and recovery, or reaching out to businesses and farms to promote sustainability. If you run into challenges of there not being enough food at a dining hall, or administration not allowing students to recover food, think about different community partnerships to expand to. 

“To fix the brokenness within the food system, we need a more holistic approach across the board. ”

— Andy Whitehead

How can we take a more community wide approach and expand into education and advocacy to bolster the food recovery work that is already being done. Is there a way to destigmatize the need for food by promoting food to anyone and everyone. The Food Rescue Conference was a great opportunity to learn of the creative ways that these issues are being attacked across the country. Getting creative and sharing ideas in hopes of improving the issues of food waste and food insecurity together is the best way to improve the system at hand. Everyone plays a role in food waste prevention and fighting hunger, get involved at a local level through a community fridge or a non-profit nearby.

If you are a current student or know of a student at a higher ed institution that would be interested in joining a chapter or starting their own, reach out to us and we would be happy to have you join the fight against food waste.

Recap of Food Recovery Network’s September 2023 Roundtable Talk

Thank you to everyone who joined us in September for our 7th Roundtable Talk since we began hosting these conversations in July 2020. For those of you who were not able to attend,and for those of you who would like continued access to the information, below is a recap of the conversation and a link to the entire Roundtable Talk.

If you are unfamiliar with our Roundtable Talks, to understand more about what our Roundtable Talks are, why we host them, and what we cover during these biannual conversations, please read this short primer, “What are FRN’s Roundtable Talks.”

The summer Roundtable Talk journeys across two key points in time. First, we discuss progress towards our established goals (also called metrics) for the entirety of our just concluded program year, which runs from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023. Second, we announce our new goals for this current program year that kicked off on July 1,2023. Dispersed throughout the telling of that journey—across analyzing our progress and announcing our new goals—we describe in detail why we were able to accomplish what we did, where there have been difficulties or if the work has been accomplished at a different pace than expected, and importantly, our key takeaways that inform how we chart our pathway for this year.

The analysis and key learnings have accumulated over more than a decade of food recovery efforts to be sure. We are experts in recovering food, and we are dogged about ending hunger forever. In particular, our feedback loop mechanism, built into the strategic framework we launched in 2020, FRN10X, allows FRN to make better decisions based on what our data is telling us, including how the locations in the U.S. afflicted with the highest rates of food insecurity are not the same locations where there is an abundance of surplus food. It is in those locations of food insecurity that our data is telling us we must work alongside communities as much as our resources will allow to literally drive the surplus food in ways that make sense for the communities

Key Takeaways from September:

Though we concluded the Roundtable Talk with our key takeaways, I think it’s important to start with them now to act as a lens with which you can see how we accomplished all that we set out to do, and where we’re forging ahead for this year.

• Cross-sector partnership is essential. As the saying goes, if you want to go fast, go solo, if you want to go farther, go together. We have achieved our success when we partner with aligned groups and individuals. Every single metric requires partnership and when we can spend more time with funders and stakeholders who want to achieve what our framework has set out, as you will see from our results, we are able to do more.

• The toll of routine community disinvestment harms all of us. That makes both human and financial capital required for community change. We talk at great length about our mapping work in this Roundtable Talk, and we will have more dedicated time specifically to the maps we are designing. Our “mapping work,” has been a 2 years long journey bringing together a variety of data-sets from the EPA, Feeding America, location mapping and other data sets such as the MIT living wage. What our data is telling us is that of the 3,144 counties (including DC), in only about 100 of these counties is the average income a living wage income. This is abominable. This means people are suffering way more than the defined poverty line would have us believe. We will persist until the 34 million people who are currently food insecure, are economically secure.

Our accomplishments July 1, 2022 - June 30, 2023:

We surpassed our goals of recovering food and recruiting new chapters (welcome new chapters! Thank you for your efforts!). These are hard tangibles that demonstrate our capacity to recover and donate surplus food to nonprofits on the frontlines helping our community members in need. That’s the first column. The second column demonstrates our work toward wider impact. Recovering food and donating that food is our bedrock work. To end hunger forever, we must understand the impact of our work on the communities. What works for them to access food and what do they need to increase the flow of food? That is where we want to help. And for the student leaders we serve, it is important to deepen authentic relationships with them as they conduct our bedrock work and show up with us in our advocacy efforts to end hunger forever.

Further, together:

When polled, the majority of people tuning in stated they had never attended a Roundtable Talk before. Perhaps reading this now, you haven’t either. I invite you all to become familiar with the knowledge, data, takeaways and celebrations we’ve summarized during our Roundtable Talks. In his book, Sweet Thursday, John Steinbeck wrote, “looking back, you can usually find the moment of the birth of a new era, whereas, when it happened, it was one day hooked on to the tail of another.” That is just like the work of FRN, hooked onto the tail of our creation in 2011 - the moment we recovered 1 million pounds of food, one carload of food at a time in 2015; when we replaced our fellowship program that did not pay a living wage with permanent, full-time jobs that do pay a living wage; when we launched our audacious strategic framework and said, with this blueprint, FRN is publicly putting forward our unique contribution to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the United States. Big or small, you are needed in these efforts. Here are our current program goals and ways you can be involved so that we achieve these goals this year and come ever closer to our larger result.

Announcing FRN’s July 1, 2023-June 30, 2024 Impact Goals:

You are invited to be part of the effort:

• Start an FRN chapter in the priority states: We will bring on 20-30 new chapters this program year and our desire is to have as many chapters as possible to increase the flow of food into communities. And, with our current mapping refinement, we know that the states of California, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania have the greatest opportunity to support communities. You can start a chapter if you are a current higher ed student, alum, faculty member or if you just know someone in one of those roles you can introduce us to them.

• Monetary support ensures we can be where we need to when we need to be there: Please make a donation to FRN. All of our budgets are different and honestly, every dollar counts to allow FRN to show up for recoveries. Many of our large-scale recoveries, where we can recover large volumes of food, are not funded at all. Your donation can help us to feed more people. If a donation is not in your budget, please know we truly understand and thank you everyone for considering.

• Follow us on our social media channels to stay updated and inspired! @FoodRecovery

What are FRN's Roundtable Talks?

A brief history of FRN’s strategic framework and Roundtable Talks

In July 2020, Food Recovery Network made public our strategic framework that we called FRN10X. This framework, FRN10X, is a blueprint, our vision for how FRN plans to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S.* We said three years ago the efforts necessary to change our culture of throwing food away, to recovering surplus food and donating it, would be tremendous—tremendous, but not impossible. We said three years ago no one organization alone could achieve this cultural transformation, that we have to work together to go farther. We said then that FRN’s model and data-driven approach is a critical lever in producing the desired shift towards food recovery and economic security for those experiencing hunger and food insecurity, and our results to date that I’ll discuss in more detail below, have shown that we are making progress.

And importantly, with the launch of FRN10X, we said, in order to go farther together, we wanted to keep everyone in our network updated on our progress.To ensure we kept our progress transparent and accessible to anyone who is interested, as part of the launch of FRN10X, we also started hosting our biannual Roundtable Talks. The Talks are an opportunity for FRN to discuss the progress on our yearly goals and how those yearly goals roll up to our blueprint, our strategic framework, our bigger vision: to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S. No matter how familiar you are with the work of FRN, how knowledgeable you are about food insecurity or the effects on our planet due to the harm caused by wasting food, or to what level of engagement you are involved, we felt it was important to bring as many people together to update them on our progress in a space of knowledge, feedback and idea sharing.

FRN10X explained

*If you’d like to learn more about our FRN10x Framework, please visit our blogpost.

What do we cover during Roundtable Talks?

For the past three years, twice a year, we have hosted our Roundtable Talk discussions as an offering of understanding of what it takes for FRN to feed more people, faster, with our current resources; some of those resources being people, monetary contributions and data.

Summer

Our summer Roundtable Talk focuses on two aspects: a recap of our previous program year and the announcement of our goals for the current program year. Our program year concludes in late June. We restate the goals we had set at the beginning of the program year, and then discuss in detail how we accomplished those goals: what worked, where we are seeing promise, and where we might need to do things differently in the moment, to pivot, and what pivoting might look like for us. Importantly, we highlight our key learnings from doing the work, so that we can accelerate progress to feed more people, or discontinue efforts if they don’t make sense for FRN.

After we overview the previous program year, since we are also in our new program year, we launch a new set of goals for the current program year. These goals, which we call metrics, are formulated based on our key learnings, programmatic momentum, understanding what our data is telling us, and where we have connections to replicate and/or expand upon our work.

Winter

Our winter Talk focuses on our progress towards our goals during the current program year. By the time of our winter Talk, the program year is about halfway through, or, said another way, there is another half year left to achieve our goals. With a critical discernment of our work, we tell everyone our progress, and importantly, our analysis of why we are at where we are. A new program year means we are piloting new initiatives based on our data, or delving deeper into existing programs. We are also continually refining our data-sets and producing new concept papers, all to be applied with our singular focus to recover surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S.

What this means for you

After each Roundtable Talk conversation, we have a written recap that discusses our latest Talk with a link to the video conversation. All our past Roundtable Talks can be found on our website. We hope you read the recap, and listen to the recording if you have a moment or two. No matter your level of engagement, our hope is that you know without a doubt that we are inviting you to be part of this effort in any way that makes sense to you. We need your help, big or small, to make FRN’s vision a reality.

Summer Intern Dives Deeper into Fighting Food Insecurity

Current student leader at Frostburg State University, Rachael Michalski, interned for FRN this summer through the Maryland Public Service Scholars Program to support our development and fundraising efforts. Read about Rachael’s experience interning at FRN and the key learnings that she found inspiring as an FRN staff member.

This summer, I had the opportunity to intern at the Food Recovery Network national office through the Maryland Public Service Scholars Program. When I was notified that FRN had been selected as my host site, I was thrilled to get started and eager to join the food waste movement. 

Through initiatives on my college campus at Frostburg State, I had the opportunity to work with our on-campus food pantry as well as volunteer with the Maryland Food Bank, so I had some hunger-fighting experience going into this internship with FRN from the start. Being an active member of my community and serving those in need is important to me. 

This summer, I truly learned how a strong team can drive a national movement to combat a systemic issue like hunger and make real change.

Behind the scenes, I had the pleasure to get to know the Food Recovery Network National Team and learn about the jobs each person does every day to drive this national movement forward. There are many individuals that make up the FRN team and while each individual works in different roles, together the team collectively works towards a shared goal to mitigate food waste and end hunger in the U.S.

While doing my work, I learned about the intricate details that are vital to a nonprofit’s success. I learned about funders, grant language, CRM software, and many other things that allow an organization to be able to fundraise to support its mission and programs. I learned useful skills for the future of my professional career, and I also grew as a person. I am coming out of this experience with stronger communication, teamwork, and interpersonal skills. But most importantly, I learned about the passion that each Food Recovery Network team member has to help communities experiencing hunger nationwide. 

Beyond working behind the scenes, this summer internship experience also provided me with an opportunity to work directly on the front line where I participated in a food recovery at the Gaylord Hotel in Washington D.C. I was thrilled to have participated in what I would call a successful food recovery, where 38 trays of food and a box of fruit that would have otherwise been wasted were recovered and donated to the Central Union Mission in Washington D.C. to feed individuals facing hunger in the city. That was a really great experience! 

Food Recovery Network works tirelessly to serve communities all across the United States with gratitude and grace. This team and their work is incredible and I was honored to be a part of it this summer! 

At the end of my internship, the FRN team offered me a part-time position to continue working on development initiatives as well as dive into the programming side of the organization. In my continuing work, I will be working to create a nationwide map that will show local food recovery locations, in order to continue to prevent waste. I am excited to continue this impactful journey!

FRN Chapter Leader Shares Highlights from the 2023 ReFED Summit

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. 

Photo credit: Jessica Yurinko

Arjun Nair speaking during The Future is Now: The Power of Indomitable Youth to Spark Action panel.

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.

Photo credit: Jessica Yurinko

Left to right: Moderator, Marvin Hayes, Baltimore Compost Collective; Arjun Nair, FRN Student Leader; Mia Zavalij, co-founder of FRN; Kenneth Moss Jr, Baltimore Compost; Ben Collier, The Farmlink Project

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.

“Overall, this conference opened my eyes to the ocean which is the food waste prevention space, and where our little boat fits into that grand picture. The individuals I met and the organizations I learned about during this conference added new dimensions to how I view FRN’s food recovery efforts, and I want to take the time to highlight their incredible stories.”

— Arjun Nair

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!

Left to right: FRN Student Leader, Riya Chadha; Director of Development at FRN, Cassie Olovsson, FRN Student Leader, Arjun Nair

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.