This time of year is all about giving. However, for one group of student volunteers, giving is more than a holiday phenomena, it is a weekly routine. These students are actively working to eliminate food waste at the University of Maryland.
The student powered organization known as the Food Recovery Network has about 60 volunteers from 11 student groups including Alpha Phi Omega, the Love Movement, MaryPIRG, the Muslim Students Association, Community Roots, Air Force ROTC, Terps Roots and Shoots, Phi Sigma Pi, the Roosevelt Institute, CIVICUS and Hillel.
(Photos courtesy of Lauren Holstein)
Volunteers for the Food Recovery Network pick up the extra food from the campus dining halls, catered events and sporting games that would be otherwise thrown away and donate it to three local shelters, So Others Might Eat (SOME), Gospel Rescue Ministries and Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV). The Food Recovery organization donates approximately 1,400 meals per week and is set to donate around 15,000 meals this fall 2011 semester.
Beyond feeding the hungry, this organization is also helping to reduce the harmful environmental implications that arise from food waste. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), food waste is the single largest component of municipal solid waste in America. Rotting food is a huge emitter of methane, which the EPA estimates to be 21 times more harmful towards global climate change than carbon dioxide.
The founder of the Food Recovery Network, senior government and politics major Ben Simon said, “We started the food recovery network because we couldn’t bare to see good food going to waste while our neighbors were struggling to put food on their plates. One in seven Americans are food insecure while America wastes 64 billion pounds of food every year.”
While it was wastefulness that prompted Simon and other student volunteers to start recovering food surplus on campus, it’s the feeling of giving back that keeps them dedicated and involved in the process. Diana Lim, a junior math and education double major, volunteered with the food recovery network this fall because “it sounded like a great, realistic, direct way to help others out.”
Students pick up the food from the UMD dining hall and directly deliver the food to the shelters. Member of the Phi Sigma Pi co-ed honors fraternity and government and politics major Valerie Caplan says “ I don’t think there’s any reason for all this food to go to waste. [FRN] is a really good hands on way to make a difference on campus.”
The Food Recovery Network has been enormously successful so far, according to Caplan. “The organization has expanded hugely, they have a pretty big presence on campus” Caplain said. Considering the organization’s success and the positive impact they have in the community, Simon would like to see the Food Recovery Network spread to other campuses in America.
Simon says that “after the Food Recovery Network’s success at the University of Maryland, students at Brown University started a chapter and several others are in the works. Within a few years we want every campus in America to have a food recovery program.” While giving back is certainly part of the holiday spirit, it’s inspiring to see students come together and give back year round.