Turning to 1,100 people and telling them that they have the power to feed people in need with just a small amount of effort was a big opportunity for Food Recovery Network. That the audience was receptive and willing is a big moment for the country. I recently spoke at the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) Leadership Summit in Chicago as part of our continued partnership with NAR, which supports FRN’s efforts to recover surplus food to feed those experiencing hunger in our communities.

National Association of REALTORS® has members in every state in the country, and NAR’s Leadership Summit brings together their decision makers and leaders from each state. I addressed these leaders at the summit, who all host large events for their state members, and who in turn host regional and smaller local events. All of these events are centered around food, and like at any event, for a number of reasons there is often surplus food at the end of it. And here, I told the audience of smiling and encouraging faces, is where the power to make big change lies. When you partner with Food Recovery Network, you can implement a food recovery plan for your event’s surplus food and help shift the culture from tossing away great food, to ensuring all good food is redistributed back into your communities. 

I have written before about why FRN’s partnership with NAR is so critical in shifting the norm from food waste to food recovery. As the largest trade association in the world, NAR’s reach is enormous. And NAR’s desire to continually do the right thing with surplus food is emblematic of how individuals have the power to make change and solve immediate community needs. Our federal and state policies do not often capture the day-to-day needs of our communities, but our human drive to ensure people have the food they deserve does not need to wait for policies.

By building a partnership of trust and shared goals with NAR, we have been able to do some important work in the food recovery space. First, we can be transparent about some of the common roadblocks that can accompany implementing a food recovery plan. At FRN, we say putting a food recovery plan in place can be very easy, but it does take time, and sometimes, there are challenges to overcome. For example, some of NAR’s 2021 events do not currently have a food recovery plan in place. This is not because NAR didn’t want to do the work, but because the managers of some of their event locations put up barriers to recovering surplus food. We will continue to support NAR in pushing for food recovery at these events, but we know that sometimes good food is thrown away because of the individual decisions of a few. But, if your goal is to help someone receive food they deserve, well, the juice is absolutely worth the squeeze. 

Through our partnership with NAR, over time we have also learned that not all NAR events need the support of FRN to recover food. At the local level, the number of events that have surplus food is quite small, and first and foremost, that is a great thing! But in the instances where there is surplus, event hosts often don’t need a full-fledged recovery plan. Instead, they can rely on the food recovery instincts and know-how of individual NAR members to, for example, bring those few boxed lunches with them to work tomorrow for their staff, or to ask if others in the building would like to make a plate of food. Through our work with NAR we have a better understanding of when FRN should be activated to support food recovery efforts, and when we can activate individuals to ensure good food is eaten, as it was intended.

Thank you to NAR again for your partnership, the opportunity to talk to your leadership, and the willingness to put yourselves out there for all to see that anyone can make food recovery a reality.