Food Recovery at the Farmers Market

Did you know? The number of farmers markets in the United States has been steadily increasing over the past 20 years, from 1,755 in 1994 to 8,284 in 2014. No matter where you live in the country, there’s probably a farmers market near you. And the farmers who attend these markets often have a huge quantity of produce left at the end of the day that they don’t have the capacity to donate or preserve until the next market. That’s where FRN and other food recovery programs come in. 

According to a 2006 farmers market survey, only about 24 percent of farmers markets were involved in a gleaning program. Gleaning is the act of collecting excess fresh foods from farms, gardens, farmers markets, grocers, restaurants and other food-based institutions and businesses for distribution to those in need. These programs benefit everyone involved; the farmers are often happy to see the food that they put so much effort into growing going to feed people who need it; the gleaners develop new relationships and connections; and people at the food banks, pantries and other hunger-fighting agencies are excited to receive fresh, healthy produce for their clients. 

A few of our chapters have started recovering from farmers markets and have been hugely successful. University of Southern California's FRN chapter recovers from the Hollywood Farmers Market through Food Forward and regularly gleans well over 1,000 pounds of produce per recovery! Working with Food Forward has allowed USC to build strong relationships with many of the vendors at the market and to donate to more organizations than they could if they were working on their own.

FRNds at USC rest in the shade after recovering leftover produce from the Hollywood Farmers Market.

“Students love gleaning from the market — it's fun, they get to eat and shop at the market, and the results are immediate and shocking,” Janice, the USC chapter leader said. “One of the agencies is located right on the corner of the farmers market, and we deliver the boxes of produce ourselves. The residents are very appreciative, and they line up and eagerly select the produce for themselves.”

While working through a larger organization like Food Forward can simplify the recovery process and increase the amount of produce gleaned, other FRN chapters successfully run farmers market gleaning programs on their own. FRN at the University of Houston recently began recoveries from the Urban Harvest Farmers Market and gleans roughly 200 pounds of produce each weekend. Since getting the gleaning program off the ground, it’s been so successful that Second Servings of Houston, a Houston-based prepared food recovery organization, is going to maintain it over the summer! 

FRN at the University of Houston poses with recovered produce during a recovery at the Harvest Farmers Market.

The Susquehanna Community Food Action Team, Susquehanna University's FRN chapter, also established its own recovery program at a local farmers market and found it to be much easier than expected. One member of the team arrives at the end of the market and asks if any of the vendors would like to donate leftover food. Michelle, one of Susquehanna's chapter leaders, says that as long as the chapter representative describes where the food will be donated and expresses gratitude for their donations, “Most farmers have a solid sense of community and are more than happy to help those around them.”

These chapters are proof that starting a farmers market gleaning program can benefit everyone involved. Through partnerships with farmers markets, chapters can strengthen their community relationships, motivate their volunteers and, most importantly, provide high quality, nutritious food to the clients served by their partner agencies.

Interested in starting your own farmers market gleaning program? 

Take a look at our FRN Guide to Gleaning and the USDA’s Let's Glean Toolkit, and find a local farmers market through the USDA's Farmers Market Directory. 

Not ready to start your own program? Check out these organizations that have gleaning programs in place:

Society of St. Andrew (National)
AmpleHarvest.org (National)
Glean SLO in California (San Luis Obispo, CA)
Food Forward (Southern California)
Bread for the City: Glean for the City (Washington, D.C.)
Fresh Farm Markets (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia)
After the Harvest (Kansas, Missouri)
Glean Indiana (Indiana)
Glean Milwaukee (Milwaukee, WI)

FRN at the 2016 Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference

Even after the National Food Recovery Dialogue, we still had energy for one more conference! The day after the NFRD wrapped up, we traveled to Baltimore for the 2016 Smart and Sustainable Campuses Conference. The SSCC is a conference that gathers people working on sustainability issues at the university level for two days of workshops, presentations and conversation. The conference was started in 2005 by the Environmental Protection Agency, which hoped to better understand the roles colleges play in reducing our environmental impact. Since then, the SSCC evolved to be lead by the universities that have a stake in issues of sustainability — such as the University of Maryland — and now covers much wider territory.

FRN was offered the opportunity to present on our work and how we exemplify a sustainable sustainability community in higher education. Speaking to other people who care about food recovery and its impact on the environment and who are working to improve their campuses' impact was a great experience. They offered us a lot of great ideas for how we can continue to build our relationships with campuses, dining service operations and our hunger-fighting partner agencies. These are ideas we're excited to bring back to our whole team and think about as we move into the summer season.

Throughout the SSCC, we connected with many people who had an FRN chapter on their campus and were excited to hear more about our national movement. Many had worked peripherally with our students or staff and had only positive things to say. Others had heard of us and wanted to know more so that they could encourage students at their school to start a chapter. Seeing so many people who were excited about our mission in one room inspired us to keep up the post-NFRD energy and excitement.

Two conferences later, we're more excited than ever to keep fighting food waste and hunger in college and university communities nationwide. Our biggest takeaway from the SSCC? There are FRNds everywhere who are just as passionate about sustainable communities as we are. We can't wait to keep connecting with them.

7 Food Documentaries You Should Watch Right Now

Are you a student leader looking for something new to inspire your team before your next recovery? New to the concept of food justice and want to learn more about the people that grow and pick our food? Just want to watch a movie where they sing songs about a truck? If you fall into any of these categories, get excited. We've complied a list of seven of the best food documentaries out there.

1. A Place at the Table

What's it about? A Place at the Table is about hunger in America and focuses mostly on families with children. It explores in-depth the impact of hunger on a child’s education, goals and long-term success. It also takes a look at the correlation between obesity and poverty and suggests some potential solutions for ending hunger and improving our food system.

Why watch it? To learn more about hunger in America. It’s a great way to motivate new food recovery volunteers as well, as it's full of moving personal stories by people who have dealt with hunger.

2. Just Eat It

What's it about? A Canadian couple decides to eat only food that would otherwise have been wasted for 6 months and are continually shocked to find that there is a huge surplus of food at the different grocery stores that they visit. Over the course of those 6 months, they spend less than $200 on groceries and save more than $20,000 of food.

Why You Should Watch It: Just Eat It is a great film if you want to learn more about dumpster diving and/or other ways to procure wasted food. It’s expertly produced and doesn’t take itself too seriously, so you can have fun while watching it, too.

3. Truck Farm

What's it about? Two friends want to grow a garden in New York City but realize that the only space they have to grow in is their truck bed. This doesn't stop them; they outfit their truck with a fancy drainage system designed for a roof and proceed to grow an abundance of vegetables and herbs in it while driving it all over the city.

Why watch it? If you’re trying to teach kids about urban farming, Truck Farm is a great option! They explore several creative ways to grow produce in a city. Check this one out if you’re in a goofy mood but still want something informative -- this movie doubles as a musical (featuring songs like “Truck Farm, It’s Like A Roof”)!

4. Food Chains

What's it about? Food Chains focuses on farmworker justice, specifically on the plight of farmworkers in Florida who are being paid a penny for each pound of tomatoes they pick. The film follows the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as they take on huge corporations like Walmart and Publix.

Why Watch It? To learn more about farmworker justice and the impact that our food system has on the people who pick our food. It’s also a great film to watch to better understand exactly where our food comes from and the systems that exist to grow, pick, and bring it to market.

5. Dive!

What's it about? A group of friends go dumpster diving for most of their meals and find that they have way more food than they need. They try to find a way to donate or reroute it but realize that the process of recovering the wasted food is more complicated than they expected.

Why Watch It? Dive! is a great movie to watch as an introduction to food waste. These filmmakers are incredibly knowledgeable about wasted food and its impact on the environment and cite strong statistics and existing legislation that viewers should consider.

6. The Starfish Throwers

What's it about? The Starfish Throwers follows three people who are making a difference by feeding the hungry: a man who goes out each night with sandwiches for those in need, a young girl who grows gardens all over the U.S. to serve free dinners, and a man in India who drives food to people on the street on a daily basis.

Why Watch It? To learn more about three individuals who are leading inspiring efforts in the fight against hunger.  The three leaders profiled are incredibly passionate about their work -- their energy and commitment is contagious! 

7. Food, Inc

What's it about? Food, Inc. is an expose on corporate agriculture that explores how large-scale industrial farming is harming people, animals and the environment. Featuring interviews with food experts Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Gary Hirshberg and Joel Salatin, the film addresses everything from factory farming to food safety to GMOs. 

Why watch it? This film is a must-see for anyone who is interested in the politics behind our food. If you haven't seen it already, watch it for a strong introductory overview of the major issues facing our food system.

Excited about watching the above films? If you're attending the National Food Recovery Dialogue or in the D.C. area on Sunday, April 3, get tickets to our screening of Just Eat It. A Q&A with filmmaker Jenny Rustemeyer will follow the screening.

Learning To Be A Leader

Erin and Hannah (on either end) met awesome student leaders from the University of Maryland at The LeaderShape Institute this past January.

As a student-founded and student-focused organization, Food Recovery Network greatly values the development of student leaders. That’s why Hannah and I (Erin) jumped at the chance to speak at the University of Maryland’s LeaderShape Institute in January. This five-day retreat gives students an opportunity to develop a plan to make their vision of an ideal world a reality, and encourages them “to adopt a healthy DIS-regard for the impossible.”

When we arrived, the students had just finished a workshop in which they were asked to write a headline representing a big picture goal that they’d like to see achieved in their lifetime. They thought of things like bringing an end to poverty, hunger, and disease -- all things that most people would say cannot be done. The next day would be all about developing an action plan to understand what part they could play in creating that ideal world.

Hannah and I spoke to two groups of students about FRN, about our work with other student leaders like them, and how FRN could be taken as an example of exactly what they were trying to do: make the impossible (or improbable) possible. The students had a lot of great questions about what made FRN so successful, how we measure that success, and how they could get involved in FRN and similar organizations on their campus. Some of them spoke to us about how they could take the model of FRN and apply it to the issue they were most inspired by, whether that was hunger, inequality, or global health.

Hannah and I were blown away that these students -- most of them freshmen and sophomores -- had such a good grasp on their goals and were already working to achieve them. They were dreaming big and not letting the word “impossible” keep them from trying. Although we are lucky enough to work with students like them every single day through FRN, it was still a great reminder that young people can create change. It was students like them that founded FRN, and it’s students like them that keep it going today.

On that inspiring note, here are some thoughts from FRN student leaders across the country on what it means to be a leader:

“Our leadership team went from being a group of low-key, shy individuals to forces of change on campus who took home the university's 2015 Emerging Student Leader Award! We aced through our communications/public speaking course as well.”

Bilal, University of the Sciences

“Before this, I had never been the true leader of an effort. I had a supportive figure, or a co-leader, but being the founder of this Chapter required me to take the responsibility for implementing a plan and taking all the steps necessary to engage people in it. It has helped me further develop my communication, public speaking, and marketing skills. It has also helped me realize all the dedication it takes to be a primary leader, and I have learned to be assertive when I have to and prepared for all outcomes." 

Megan, Western Washington University

“Before FRN, I had very minimal experience with organizing people and being a leader.  FRN has helped me learn how to organize and coordinate volunteers, along with how to articulate to others specific tasks that need to be accomplished.” 

Mackenzie, Colorado Mountain College

“Being in a position of leadership has helped the leadership team and myself in all of the ways above because of the work we do. Each of our positions overlap and we help one another and the volunteers. For example anyone who volunteers with us has to have an older member with them for at least 10 recoveries. That means everyone has been a trainee and everyone who stays with us will one day become the trainer. It's a lot of fun to think back to when someone was teaching you and now you're helping someone else become a member. It helps with communication and building relationships in the club. you can't be a leader without being able to talk to your "followers."

Allison, Rochester Institute of Technology

“I have been impacted by seeing for myself that students and young people really can make a change if they are empowered enough. When a common cause unites so many people, it's amazing.” 

Mallory, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

“Three out of the six leadership team members from our Food Recovery Network Chapter are currently serving on the planning team for a tri-campus leadership summit for all three of the University of Michigan campuses to take place in February, myself being one of them. I would have never pictured myself in a position such as this if it were not for the leadership experience that I gained through FRN. There is a chance that I may give a presentation about community action at this event, which I know I would not have even considered partaking in two years ago (before I was involved with FRN). FRN has given me the opportunity to use my voice, raise awareness and act around the issues I've always cared about but never knew how to address.”

Kelsey, University of Michigan Dearborn

“FRN has helped me personally by finding something I am passionate about, and want to work with as a career. It has allowed me to become a better student leader, learn to delegate, time management, and other skills I needed to fine tune.”

Carly, Salem College

 

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