Food Recovery Network Students Fight Food Waste and Hunger
(PRWEB) August 30, 2013 -- WHO: Food Recovery Network, a nonprofit organization that recovers food from campus dining halls that would otherwise be wasted and delivers it to the hungry.
WHAT: First food recovery of the year for 23 chapters in 13 states.
WHEN: September 9th, 2013 9:00 PM
WHERE: University of MD – College Park MD – Stamp Student Union
CONTACT: Sara Gassman, FRN (914) 355-8824
INTERVIEWS: Ben Simon, Senior at UMD, Founder of Food Recovery Network; student volunteers, hunger organization recipients
WHY: In 2011, students at the University of Maryland – College Park noticed a problem that is common at colleges across the country: large amounts of leftover food from campus dining halls and sports events were being thrown away. At the same time, 1 in 8 people in the Washington, D.C. area were struggling with hunger. Not to mention that food from the University of MD dining halls was sitting in landfills, contributing to global warming.
A group of students came together to form the Food Recovery Network (FRN) at Univesity of Maryland. They put together a team, organized student groups to volunteer one night a week, and worked with Dining Services to start recovering leftover food. In the first weeks, students were recovering 150-200 pounds of food a day. Every night of the week, a different student group on campus would spend an hour recovering food from the dining halls and donating it to shelters in the D.C. area. By the time the 2011-2012 year was over, the group had donated 30,000 meals to D.C. area shelters. Now, 23 chapters of Food Recovery Network in 13 states have delivered 130,000 meals and the movement is growing. The Food Recovery Network hopes to be on 1000 college campuses by 2015.
Lisa Swann, Food Recovery Network, http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org/, +1 2023685033, [email protected]
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