this is crazy
The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that about 90 billion pounds of edible food go to waste each year.
Crazy, right?
Food Recovery Network thinks so too, and they’ve gotten way past the goggle-eyed disbelief stage. They’re digging in to solve the problem — digging in to leftovers in university kitchens around the country to reclaim food that would otherwise be thrown away at the end of each day.
Since its beginnings at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2011, FRN has grown to a network of 155 campus chapters in thirty-nine states that have recovered almost a million pounds of food to date.
The group became a formal non-profit in 2013 with help from the Sodexo Foundation (yes, college cafeteria survivors alums, that Sodexo). In 2014, FRN collected more food than in the previous three years combined. By May 2016, they plan to be on 180 campuses and have recovered 1.2 million pounds of food.
“America is ready to change,” said FRN Executive Director Regina Northouse. After many years in the social justice arena, Northouse is relatively new to FRN, but she’s already noticed a difference in how people respond to her current mission. “My network has always been happy to help with my work, but the amount of care and support they have shown for FRN has been amazing. People want to volunteer, they want to learn more.” (Next)