Food Recovery Network Founder Named Finalist for $100,000 Do Something Award
College Park,MD (PRWEB) July 18, 2013 -- Ben Simon, Founder of Food Recovery Network (FRN) has been named one of five national nominees for the Do Something Awards to be broadcast July 31st on VH1 at 8pm. Held annually in Los Angeles, the Do Something Awards are the premier award show for youth under 25 creating change. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, Simon is a finalist for the $100,000 grand prize.
Food Recovery Network takes on two of America’s largest social issues – hunger and food waste – by recovering and donating food from college campuses that would otherwise be thrown away. Since its inception at the University of Maryland, College Park in September 2011, FRN has expanded to fight food waste from 23 colleges nationwide, recovering over 165,000 pounds of food.
According to the EPA, America's food waste amounted to 35 million tons in 2010. Ninety-seven percent of that ended up in incinerators or landfills, where rotting food is a top emitter of methane gas, which is 21 times more harmful toward climate change than carbon dioxide. At the same time, 50 million Americans are food insecure, including one in five children.
“Food Recovery Network is working towards the goal of having a food recovery program on every campus in America,” says Simon. “We’re advancing a very common sense solution – feeding people, not trash cans.”
The five Do Something Awards nominees have tangible created impact in the lives of others in the areas of global development, criminal justice, sex trafficking, immigration reform, and environmental justice. Each of the five finalists will receive $10,000 grants from the Do Something Foundation for their organizations in addition to competing for the $100,000 grand prize.
The Do Something Awards will be broadcast from Los Angeles, CA on Wednesday, July 31 at 8pm Eastern on VH1. It will feature celebrities including Jennifer Hudson, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Kelly Osbourne, LL COOL J and Patrick Dempsey in addition to the five Do Something Award finalists.
For more information about the Do Something Awards and the Food Recovery Network, visit these websites: http://www.dosomething.org/awards/2013 and http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org.
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About the Food Recovery Network
Food Recovery Network unites students at colleges and universities across America to fight food waste and hunger by recovering surplus perishable food from their college campuses and surrounding communities that would otherwise go to waste and donating it to people in need. FRN has been covered by MSNBC, Voice of America, ABC News, the LA Times, and the Washington Post. FRN aims to recover 10 million pounds of food by 2017 and change the face of food recovery across the country.
Lauren Behgam, Food Recovery Network, http://www.foodrecoverynetwork.org/, 972.922.9090, [email protected]
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