When a college dining hall is emptied and the students have had their fill, the kitchen staff has one more group to feed: the dumpsters. The day at most college campuses nationwide ends with perfectly edible food being chucked into garbage trucks, which roll the food along streets filled with the homeless and the hungry en route to a local landfill.
But on this crisp September evening, at the University of Maryland's 251 North dining hall, things were different.
After the meal, the dining hall staff began placing stainless-steel trays filled with unused food on an island countertop near the end of a spacious industrial kitchen. One by one, steaming trays were stacked on top of the other as several college students snapped on latex gloves and discussed their game plan.
Their objective was simple, really: to intercept the food before it's thrown away and deliver it to hungry people in need. That's the ongoing mission of the ever-expanding Food Recovery Network, which was founded on Maryland's campus in September 2011 by Ben Simon, the nonprofit's executive director.
Currently stationed in an eclectic communal office on Maryland's campus called the Startup Shell, Food Recovery Network's staff is working to start a certification program, open a consulting line of business that empowers other organizations to eliminate food waste and ultimately house chapters at 1,000 colleges by May 2018, recovering 10 million pounds of food in the process.
To read more of Nick Cammarota's article, please click here.
Comments (0)