From Regina's Desk: Growing Stronger Every Day

Our FRNds on a recovery at Florida State University, one of our 170 chapters nationwide that are working to make the fight against food waste stronger every day.

FRN has accomplished so much in these almost 5 years of existence. The temptation might be to take a break, to slow down and let the accomplishments speak for themselves for a little while. And, if FRN were but one person, that might become a reality. However, FRN is a network blazed all across the United States of students, community partners, sustainability directors, funders, Fellows and alums who are sparked by those ambitious accomplishments and brighten that network all the more. Our pulse is becoming noticeably stronger by those who never before questioned food insecurity. They now stop and think, “How can I provide support to those who do not have enough to eat?” The pulse is so strong, people who never gave a moment’s notice to where their uneaten food goes are now commenting, “Did you know the biggest source of waste in landfills is food?”

At FRN national, we know it’s endless work--there are more partner agencies to identify, more places to call up to recover food, more volunteers to recruit. Your support sustains the movement and quickens that pulse, and it’s working. We are supporting the dialogue shift from food waste to food recovery. YOU are supporting this work.

I’m inspired by all of you, and the following quote sums up how I feel about this intrepid network of leaders:

"COMMITMENT is what transforms a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions which speak louder than the words. 

It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism."  --Anonymous

Cheers to you, and to 2016 being the year of deeper relationships, achieving our chapter goals and recovering more food.

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Brown University's chapter gleaned 1,450 lbs. of apples from Pippin Orchard in November.

This post is written by our FRNds at Brown University, Megan Kelly and Aida Feng. For more information about Brown's chapter, click here or email Megan at megan_e_kelly@brown.edu. 

Early November generally marks the effective end of the harvest season in New England, as freezing temperatures set in and apple picking trips are traded for bonfires and visits to Christmas tree farms. At the same time, hundreds of pounds of quality produce remain unharvested in the orchards. Last month, members of Brown University's FRN chapter went on a gleaning expedition to a local orchard and set out to answer an unusual question: What does one do with 1,450 pounds of recovered apples?

FRNds at Brown asked: what does one do with 1,450 pounds of recovered apples?

FRN@Brown organized our second annual apple gleaning event with Farmer Joe Polseno at Pippin Orchard in Cranston, RI. For those unfamiliar with the term, gleaning refers to the act of collecting excess unharvested fresh food from farms at the end of their season. In one morning, we were able to recover 1,450 pounds of apples that would otherwise have gone to waste and donate fresh, nutritious food to our local partners.

On top of this, we also wanted to spark a specific conversation about food waste and sustainable food consumption on the Brown campus. In order to engage the student body with our work, we planned a campus-wide event, “Good to the Core.” With enthusiastic support from Brown University Dining Services, we chopped, cooked, and served 200 pounds of the recovered apples in our main campus dining hall. Through this event, we engaged more than 300 students in conversations about food waste and recovery and added more than 30 interested students to our representative pool.

FRN@Brown students partnered with Brown University Dining Services to serve 200 pounds of recovered apples to students. 

Our campus-wide project inspired our current Leadership Team to expand their own visions and drive as well. Following the success of this project, we began an uncomfortable but necessary conversation about FRN@Brown’s true impact. The majority of the 55,000+ pounds of food we’ve recovered over the past four years has consisted largely of bagels, breads, and other bakery items. While it is better to provide these resources to food-insecure members of our community than to send these pounds to the landfill, we reevaluated the impact of these largely nutritionless donations. The outcome of these conversations have led to new community partnerships with produce and hot food donations. These efforts have the potential to enhance our chapter’s fight against local food insecurity.

With the help of Brown University Dining Services, FRN@Brown whipped up recovered apple compote to share with students, spreading the word about food waste as they passed out samples. 

From One Milestone to the Next

Regina with students Elle from Gordon College, Jenna from Framingham State University, and Ethan from Brandeis University.

Happy holidays everyone!

Here at FRN headquarters, we have so much to celebrate, as you’ve noticed in the last several newsletters. For us, this year has meant many milestones: our second cohort of Fellows are almost halfway through their term, we hit one million pounds, our chapter numbers are growing at a pace we’ve not seen before -- I could go on. However, I want to pause here and reflect on how we actually arrived at these milestones. We got here with creativity, with grit, and with the acceptance of a lot of change. 

Let me stress change. I am sure all of you are experiencing an equal amount of change in your lives -- often, the holiday season is synonymous with change: where you celebrate the holidays and with whom, incorporating new rituals that may or may not become tradition, and what has captured your attention in this most reflective time of year. Our milestones are preceded by a host of tries, by rethinking what has worked well in the past, and also by a lot of misses from which we’ve learned. That’s what it takes to be a leader in the food recovery movement and we’re propelled by the passion of knowing we have a solution to solving one of our community’s most complex issue. We thank you for supporting us, and we say cheers to you as you embrace the change in your life that will guide you to your next milestone.

Announcing Exciting Food Waste Legislation & FRN Lobby Day 2016!

FRN's Executive Director, Regina Northouse, and New Chapter Coordinator, Maddie Cunningham, on the Hill to put plans for FRN Lobby Day 2016 in place.

Today, Representative Chellie Pingree announced an exciting piece of legislation that aims to tackle food waste on a national scale. Pingree’s Food Recovery Act is a comprehensive approach to the complex issues of food waste and recovery; it incentivizes donations of surplus food, clarifies misleading “use by” dates, encourages the sale of imperfect produce, and supports efforts to digest non-edible food scraps into energy. This is the type of concrete action we need to see real gains in the fight against food waste. We currently waste 40% of the food we produce, and we need to be the generation to change this!

Food Recovery Network is proud to support this bill, and extremely excited to announce its first annual Lobby Day taking place on April 4th, 2016, immediately following our National Food Recovery Dialogue. FRN Lobby Day will give motivated student leaders the chance to meet with Senators, Representatives, and legislative staff members to advocate for Pingree’s bill and other legislation related to FRN’s mission.

For more information on the Food Recovery Act, check out Chellie Pingree's discussion of the bill at the New York Times 2015 Food for Tomorrow conference.

Meet HC, FRN Member Support Fellow!

FRN Member Support Fellow hc counts M&Ms to help celebrate reaching one million pounds of food recovered.

Take a second to meet Hannah Cather, one of FRN's 2015 Member Support Fellows. Better known as hc, Hannah hails from Nashville and and can be found on Instagram both in and out of the office. Read below to learn more about hc and the work she does with FRN.

Name/Nickname: hc

Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee

Position at FRN: Member Support Fellow // Coordinator of Project Amplify 

What's one thing you love about FRN? I dig the fact that FRN is a national network -- there are students working towards the same goal all across the country. 

What's a project you're excited to be doing? Ooo, definitely Project Amplify. I'm working on connecting our students with one another on the Internet. Even if you haven't met the FRNd you're Facebook messaging in real life, the fact that you can connect with someone on the other side of the States who knows what you're doing -- what your struggles and triumphs are -- that's just the coolest. 

What do you like to do when you're not helping fight food waste and hunger? I'm probably either reading cookbooks or Instagramming. Photography and food are the best parts of being alive. Oh, speaking of Instagram! Follow FRN @foodrecovery for a glimpse behind the scenes of our national office and the occasional food photo.