“How do we continue to support a growing movement? How do we provide leadership opportunities to students at the National level? How do we ensure that our policies, programming and protocol are aligned with what our FRNds want, need and can comply with?”
Our new Food Recovery Network Regional Outreach Coordinators program (FRN ROCs) is one solution.
Cam, our Director of Innovation and Operations, harvests swiss chard during an afternoon volunteering with City Blossoms in Washington, D.C.
If you haven't heard, we're big fans of Food Tank and all the awesome information they generate. It's one of the reasons why we invited Danielle Nierenberg to speak at the National Food Recovery Dialogue. When they asked to interview our very own Cam Pascual, Director of Innovation and Operations, we couldn't help but be excited. Here's a look at the great things Cam said in the article written by Emma Tozer and published on Food Tank.
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In the United States, 95 percent of food not consumed is discarded in landfills where it breaks down to produce methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. Food Recovery Network was founded in 2011 to mitigate this waste by targeting food disposal on university campuses. Since its inception, Food Recovery Network has rescued more than one million pounds of food and has a presence on 180 college campuses across the United States. Food Recovery Network empowers citizens, communities, and food businesses to reconstruct their perceptions and habits of food surplus.
Food Tank had the opportunity to speak with Cam Pascual, Director of Innovation and Operations, at the Food Recovery Network.
Food Tank (FT): How do you contribute to creating a better food system?
Cam Pascual (CP): Food Recovery Network turns problems into solutions. Problem 1: College campuses send an estimated 22 million pounds of quality surplus food to landfills each year. Problem 2: One in six Americans don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Problem 3: College students need opportunities for meaningful service work. FRN combines these problems and turns them into one high-impact, simple solution. We unite college students at universities across the country in collecting the surplus food from their campuses and donating it to local hunger-fighting nonprofits.
FT: What is a project, program, or result you are most proud of?
CP: In under four years, Food Recovery Network went from a student group at the University of Maryland to a national nonprofit with programming at 150 schools in 36 states across the country that has so far recovered over 650,000 meals that would have otherwise been thrown away.
FT: What are your goals for this year and beyond?
CP: We plan to expand our programming beyond college campuses in coming years. We've already put higher education on track to be the first sector in which food recovery is the norm--not the exception. For 2015 and beyond we plan to expand our work to even more colleges across the country. We also offer consulting services for businesses interested in starting up their own food recovery programs, and our Food Recovery Certified program certifies businesses that do the right thing by donating their surplus food, letting consumers know where to spend their money if they care about food recovery.
FT: In one sentence, what is the most important thing eaters and consumers can do today to support a more sustainable food system?
CP: Eaters and consumers should only buy as much food as they'll consume.
FT: How can individuals become more involved in your organization?
CP: Interested college students can either start a chapter on their campus, and others can spread the word about FRN via social media, volunteer with a local chapter, or host a fundraiser to help support the work we do. We want people to start demanding food recovery--at the restaurants they visit, in their grocery stores, at their office cafeterias--because there's no reason for us to be wasting 40 percent of the food we produce while so many Americans don't know where their next meal is coming from.
Sara, FRN's Director of Member Support & Communications, gleans strawberries with the FRN team.
Have you met Sara yet? As FRN's Director of Member Support & Communications, Sara is thankful to be working to build a community of active and engaged young people that generate tangible, positive progress. She can't wait to meet everyone at the 2016 National Food Recovery Dialogue! Read more about Sara below.
Name/Nickname: Sara
Hometown: White Plains, NY
Position at FRN: Director of Member Support & Communications
What's one thing you love about FRN? Only one thing?! The FRNdship. I'm so motivated, inspired and thankful to be working to build a community of active and engaged young people. The issues of hunger and food waste (and the way they stem from and relate to social and environmental justice, poverty and climate change...) are tremendous and it's so easy to feel small and powerless. But being part of FRN is a way to take tangible, positive steps to fixing systems that are broken; changing the status quo alongside thousands of other student and community leaders. Also it's fun! As our core value says, "do good, feel good."
What are you most looking forward to at the 2016 National Food Recovery Dialogue? Lunch! No but seriously--as a national Network, the chance for all of us to be in the same physical space chatting and laughing is so special and exciting and lunch will be the first time that that will happen. I also can't wait to bring so many leaders together to celebrate our accomplishments and to dream about what's next.
What do you like to do when you're not helping fight food waste and hunger? I spend my time baking, reading, catching live music in unique spaces, visiting friends and drinking/learning about beverages.
What's your favorite food? I'm an advocate for breakfast all day, so I have to choose the open-faced waffle-egg sandwich. It starts with a waffle, then thin slices of Coulommier cheese and a fried egg, plus salt and pepper to taste. I actually haven't found Coulommier cheese since I lived in New Hampshire, but luckily brie and sharp cheddar make fine substitutes.
Are you as excited about the 2016 National Food Recovery Dialogue as Sara? Register here today.
Florida State University's FRN chapters made new FRNds at the 2015 Food Waste & Hunger Summit, inspiring their "FRNdly Neighbors" program.
This post was written by Gabrielle Maynard, a leader of Florida State University's FRN chapter. You can learn more about FSU's awesome work here and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
At the FSU chapter of FRN, we value networking as an instrumental tool for generating collaborative ideas and initiatives. Attending the Food Waste and Hunger Summit in 2015 allowed us to do just this. The Summit provided us with a platform to engage in discussions with other chapters around the nation about the tools they have found to be effective in the realms of campus engagement, member outreach, fundraising and community involvement. As a young chapter, we’re still in search of ways to most efficiently expand within our campus and the surrounding Tallahassee area.
Piggybacking off of the dialogue we engaged in at the summit, we decided to create a program called “FRNdly Neighbors” that aims to facilitate ongoing relationships between our chapter other chapters around the country. At every meeting, one of our new members is appointed with the task of researching and communicating with chapter leaders at other schools across the country to explore the ways they operate within their campus communities. The process is simple: we seek out the directors of other chapters through social media and with the contact information provided to us by FRN national, and a constructive discourse inevitably follows. Generally, we try to learn from the successes of each chapter and the diverse methods they employ on their campuses in order to ensure the sustainability and growth of their organization. For example, we’re still in the process of transitioning from recoveries at smaller establishments (Starbucks, Einstein Bros. Bagels, etc.) to recoveries at the dining halls on our campus. Networking with other chapters to find out the ways in which they have worked with their dining providers and partner agencies to recover food from their dining halls helps us to understand the practices that we need to adopt here at Florida State.
As an evolving chapter, we will continue to prioritize the ability to spark conversations about functionality and growth among other chapters -- it allows us to communicate our goals and foster relationships with other universities similar to ours. Further, joining forces with other chapters provides us with a creative platform on which to devise new recovery and outreach techniques, ultimately contributing to FRN’s objective of reducing food waste and food insecurity in our local communities.
If you’re interested in having your chapter highlighted at our next meeting, please contact myself, Gabrielle Maynard, at gam14@my.fsu.edu.
Roger Williams University's chapter takes a break from a recovery to snap a photo. (From left to right: Evan Cassani, Katie Boyd, Josh Henessey (food services director and chapter advisor), Kate Gladsky, Trevor Nelson, and Kelsey Rogers)
Kelsey Rogers first heard about FRN when she saw a video of co-founder Ben Simon talking about FRN's start at the University of Maryland. Kelsey immediately sought out her campus chapter, signed up to volunteer and, as she says, the rest is history! Read more about Kelsey and her chapter below.
Name: Kelsey Rogers
School: Roger Williams University
Year of Graduation: 2017
Major/area of study: Graphic Design (minor in Film and American Studies)
Position on leadership team: President
Where are you from? I am from Billerica, Massachusetts! For those who have no idea where that is (AKA everyone), it is just north of Boston.
How did you get involved in FRN? I first heard about FRN on Facebook when I saw a video about Ben Simon and how he and his friends began the first chapter in Maryland. I decided immediately that I wanted to start a chapter on my campus, and when I looked into it, I realized someone already did! That was Katie Boyd, a local who reached out to Bon Appetit at RWU to get things going. I e-mailed her and got started right away; the rest is history!
Can you share a favorite FRN memory? To be honest, that is a hard question! There have been so many small memories that have built up into one, memorable experience. One of my favorite memories would have to be all of the car rides to and from the local shelters with Katie and the other officers, Trevor, Evan, and Kate, singing at the top of our lungs to "Uptown Funk"! To this day I will always think of those great times whenever I hear that song!
What's one thing you love about Roger Williams University? The FOOD. Ask anyone who goes here. It is by far the best (sorry, Mom!). We all wait all year long for steak and lobster dinner, midnight breakfast, Halloween dinner, and Thanksgiving feast. So much of our food is locally grown and we have so many options that people never get tired of it. We are so privileged and it is so important that we share what we have.
What are your ambitions post-graduation? What a loaded question! Well to get to the point, I’d like what everyone would like, to be happy and able to support myself! I would love to go into the publishing business. Working for a publishing company such as Simon & Schuster would be amazing. However, I have a passion for Pixar, and working as a story artist or animator for such a prestigious animation studio would be a dream come true. I think it is a good thing to have many plans for myself; I’ll do it all someday!
Tell us something unique about yourself! Just one?! Well, I had a pretty unique high school experience! I graduated from Shawsheen Valley Technical High School in 2013. I matriculated through the health technology shop, and competed for my school in SkillsUSA. SkillsUSA is a student-governed organization that encourages students in vocational schools to be better prepared for the world of work. I truly owe my self-confidence, initiative, and leadership skills to my experience with this organization as a competitor and student leader. Without SkillsUSA, I would not have had the strong ability to organize our FRN chapter at Roger Williams.
Interested in learning more about Roger William's University's chapter? Check them out here.
