National Association of REALTORS® and FRN - Opening Back up to Continued Leadership

I remember a couple of years ago when the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) came into Food Recovery Network’s...well, network. FRN’s team member, Erin, told me that NAR was interested in having a member event Food Recovery Verified. We were very happy to support that effort.

The information about NAR’s event kept coming in: could we also support a pledge campaign to  Realtors® across all 50 states who also wanted to have their local events Food Recovery Verified? The pledge would see Realtors® sign up on their phones to state they would work to put a recovery plan in place for their events. I stopped what I was doing to learn more about what was unfolding. Upon learning from Erin that thousands of Realtors® would attend the event, and that event highlights would be shared with thousands more across the country, I realized what this reach could mean for the work of food recovery and shifting from a process based on wasting perfectly good surplus food because that’s just what has always been done, to one based on recovering that precious food instead. I asked Erin if she felt prepared for this incredible opportunity and there was no hesitation: Yes. We were ready and able to support Realtors® to create food recovery programs.

NAR CEO Bob Goldberg and FRN Program Manager Erin Price

Bob Goldberg championing food recovery at an NAR event

As this new partnership developed, we learned so much about the different events Realtors® host across the country and were thrilled to meet so many people who would rather see the surplus food from their events help their communities. We were able to talk directly with NAR CEO Bob Goldberg and learn more about his long-standing commitment to ending homelessness and hunger.

As we emerge from the closures of the pandemic, NAR has populated a calendar full of events for its members and has not wavered from its dedication to ensuring the food from its events is redirected into local communities. FRN will continue to support these efforts. In 2021, Bob joined the FRN National Board of Directors to further support the mission of FRN. We know that when we work together, we can redesign structures to ensure people have the food they deserve faster.

Please read our shared press release about our partnership. I want to highlight this partnership because if the largest trade association in the world can commit to doing the right thing with their surplus food, surely all event hosts can work to put food recovery plans in place. We’ve all either wondered what happens to the extra food at the end of an event or seen for ourselves the food being tossed away. We all have the power to ensure that food doesn’t get thrown away today.

I want to give a huge THANK YOU and hug to all of the Realtors® across the country. Thank you, NAR, for your leadership in changing the culture from easily tossing away food to instead, just as easily, helping our community members.

Giving back to your community in a time of crisis is an act of self-care

I remember our last national conference, National Food Recovery Dialogue (NFRD), in 2019 so clearly. It wasn’t the fact that we had our national conference in Philadelphia, rather for the first time we hosted the conference in a city outside of Washington DC, which made it memorable. And seeing so many new and familiar student faces absolutely added to my sense of community and belonging. What made the conference so memorable to me, was that for the first time since I started at Food Recovery Network in 2015, and from what I’ve known of our history prior, the reason why students were so drawn to our mission had altered.

Image: National Food Recovery Dialogue (NFR) 2019

What we were hearing from students as to why they wanted to volunteer with FRN took on a clear-eyed and very mature tone that brings tears to my eyes literally every time I think about it. I know, and our surveys of our student leaders conclude that students volunteer with FRN for two very distinct reasons that for FRN are inextricably linked. Our student leaders know that food is a right and that people shouldn’t be without food. Our students also believe that we need to be better stewards of our planet and by recovering precious food instead of throwing it away, we can counteract excessive C02 gas emissions.

During this particular NFRD gathering, our students were talking about the environment in a different way. We heard during interviews and conversations with our student leaders that they've been born into a climate crisis. Unlike me, a child of the 80s where recycling was the bandwagon we younger kids could jump on, and that climate change was maybe something more progressive circles talked about, but it wasn’t really a common phrase to me as a young kid. Our students of today have been born into a climate crisis and there is no denying that. That is stark, and chilling understanding for anyone at any age to grasp and to live within.

But, what makes our students so incredible to me, so inspiring to me to be around, is that our students understand this very stark moment in human history and they still believe they have the opportunity, and dare I say, the responsibility, to do everything they can to keep working toward a better environmental future. They told us time and again during NFRD that volunteering gives them hope. That by giving their time to do the right thing for their communities and the environment, gives them hope within a situation that can feel overwhelmingly big. Our students told us that their actions today can help contribute to a better future, that they are on the right side of a systems change that can positively support a better environment and help their neighbors get the food they deserve.

The average recovery for an FRN chapter takes about 45 minutes, and in that short, productive amount of time, our students interact with other like-minded students, they interact with the dining staff who made the food that might have been destined for the trash had the chapter not been there to respect and value the people making the food, and the precious food itself, and they get off campus to build a relationship with other like-minded people who also volunteer their time at homeless shelters, soup kitchens, afterschool programs and many other critical nonprofit organizations.

In a way, I think of this amazing act of volunteerism as also an act of self-care during difficult times. The work is a hard reminder of the inequities we have built across the country and our students see that first hand. Yet, the very act of recovering food, of putting others first, and knowing you are actively supporting humans and our environment can help us to tether ourselves to hope that we can steer things to a better place. By recovering food we can deepen our belief that when more and more people care the way we do, we will make better choices for our environment and the future of our planet.

What I’ve relayed is the thinking of many of our students across a vast and diverse cultural movement. Our students have a lot to say and I invite you to listen to these leaders and to be involved with us. Our student leaders at Food Recovery Network believe in hope for a better environment and community tomorrow, and as long as they are at work to make this happen at a systems-change level, so will I.

Two years after the unification of FRN & CKP, FRN's movement is stronger than ever

In 2019, Food Recovery Network (FRN) and Campus Kitchen Project (CKP) united under FRN to expand food recovery to colleges and universities across the nation. Starting that August, Campus Kitchens Project and Food Recovery Network began transitioning Campus Kitchens Project Chapters to Food Recovery Network Chapters. This strategic transition aligned student-led food recovery efforts with a single, strongly positioned national organization and set up Food Recovery Network, individual Campus Kitchens, and the wider food recovery movement for lasting success.

Two years later, the unification of FRN and CKP is now complete. As the food recovery movement moves into its next chapter, a unified national Network of student-led chapters at colleges and universities presents a unique opportunity to command change within higher education nationwide. This expanded Network of passionate students will make food recovery, not food waste, the standard on their campuses and within their communities.

Image: Food Recovery Network and Campus Kitchen Project volunteers

Our students across the country understand that food is a right, and that’s not up for debate. They also understand the food system is not working for everyone. FRN’s unification with CKP coincided with the next phase of FRN’s work, FRN10X that seeks to expand our stakeholder base from 4,000 to 40,000 people over the next 10 years. 

FRN10X launched in 2020 and seeks to feed everyone who is hungry in the United States with surplus food. We understand there are currently more people in this country who are hungry than our surplus food provides, and that is why FRN’s movement also seeks to understand the economic systems that prevent the currently 42 million people in this country from having consistent access to the food they deserve, and to remove the structures that cause this to happen in the first place. Our students work hard to feed people every day, and they work hard through advocacy and education, to ensure people have the food they deserve each and every day after that.

Please look here and here to learn more about FRN10X and our current work to achieve our goals. Also, be sure to read our blog for more stories from the movement.

The Farmlink Project and FRN - A Partnership that has Recovered Over 1 Million Pounds of Surplus Food

In August 2020, Food Recovery Network (FRN) joined in partnership with The Farmlink Project to provide immediate food recovery assistance during the pandemic, as farmers across the country experienced unprecedented levels of surplus food and food insecurity rates skyrocketed. 

To help increase The Farmlink Project’s impact, FRN activated our incredible network of passionate and capable leaders to help reduce farm food loss, which resulted in the recovery and donation of 1,062,000 pounds of farm-fresh produce, equivalent to 885,000 meals! 

“FarmLink is an incredible solution to combating both food waste and food insecurity. As a member of the FRN e-board and as a farmworker— I’ve seen how much good food gets wasted on the farm and how much-prepared food gets thrown out that could have otherwise been recovered. I love being part of a team that works together to circulate fresh produce and food items to people with less access in such a creative and innovative way.”

— Theresa Ferrigno, Syracuse University

FRN students and alumni dedicated 456 hours of virtual volunteer service to help contact farmers and offer support to purchase or transport their surplus food to a hunger-fighting nonprofit or community organization. With help from FRN, The Farmlink Project worked with 120 farmers in 48 states over the last year, and they continue to recover millions of pounds of food as a result.

“Volunteering remotely with Farmlink has given me the chance to maintain activism towards food insecurity during a time when solutions are needed more than ever. I am very grateful for this experience and I look forward to more power hours in the near future.”

— Billie Porter, University of Massachusetts Amherst

In the fall, FRN and The Farmlink Project will continue to work together to move quality, nutritious food to communities where food insecurity rates are highest. Whether you can give one hour of time or twenty, it makes a difference to prevent food waste and combat hunger. We’d love to have you join us! 

Colorado College Chef shares low-waste Ramen Bowl recipe

This year we asked our Food Recovery Verified Chefs to share their favorite low-waste recipes with the network, and we are delighted to present Chef Cody Rodger’s recipe for a Ramen Bowl*, which was served at Colorado College this spring. 

*Please note this recipe is intended to serve a large crowd and students may not have access to the necessary equipment or ingredients to make this at home. For students and other home chefs, we’ve found a few alternative Ramen recipes that are easily prepared at home. See note below. 

About the Dish:

“We strive to be sustainable by working with local farms, using fresh seasonal produce, using all scraps possible to make our own in house stock, and working with students and local food recovery systems to minimize waste.  Our future depends on it. The broth for this recipe was a house-made stock (as ours always is) that utilized a lot of product that would often be discarded in other kitchens.” said Tyler Dexter, Operations Manager, Bon Appétit at Colorado College

Let’s get cooking:

 Broth Recipe

Ingredients: yield 10 gallons

• 40 pounds chicken carcasses

• 40 pounds chicken feet

• 15 pounds onions, quartered with the skins left on

• 6 bunches celery, rough chopped 1 inch in size using all of the celery (wash well)

• 5 pounds ginger, rough chopped with skin left on (wash well)

• 5 pounds whole garlic bulbs, skin left on (washed well)

• 15 each bay leaves

• 1 pound cilantro

• 1 cup black peppercorns

• 30 gallons water

Directions:

Place all the ingredients into the steam kettle, fill a large pot all the way until you are six inches from the top with the 30 gallons of water. Turn the kettle on all the way to 8 (med-high) and bring the water to a boil, immediately cut to a simmer, and cook for another six hours, strain into two Lexans, label, date, and store.

Choose how you want to top your ramen noodles: chashu pork, scallion, fish cake, marinated egg, bok choy, nori, wonton skins, potato, burdock root, carrot, turnip, and tofu.

Alternative Recipes for the Home Chef:

This recipe from Pinch of Yum provides a great foundation for a vegan/vegetarian Ramen bowl when you use vegetable broth as your base. If you enjoy meat-based Ramen, check out The Kitchn’s recipe for Chicken Ramen. If you enjoy a challenge and have a free weekend, try your hand at making Delish’s Shoyu Ramen. 

Did you make one of these recipes? Let us know! Tag FRN on social media with your final creation @foodrecovery. We can’t wait to see what you’ve cooked up!

About Colorado College: 

Colorado College has been Food Recovery Verified for four years. Since 2017, Colorado College staff have consistently donated their surplus food to Food is Power (formerly Colorado Springs Food Rescue), an organization dedicated to cultivating a healthy, equitable  food system in the greater Colorado Springs community, and The Place, which provides crucial support to youth in Colorado Springs. On behalf of the team at FRN National, we thank Chef Cody and his team for their continued commitment to reducing food waste, fighting climate change, and supporting their community by donating surplus food. 

About Food Recovery Verified

Food Recovery Verified (FRV) is a program offered by Food Recovery Network (FRN) to help businesses safely donate their surplus food. Businesses and events that donate their surplus food can be recognized for their commitment to sustainability by applying for Food Recovery Verification. If you are interested in learning more about the FRV program, please contact our team at foodrecoveryverified@foodrecoverynetwork.org. We’d love to help you start a food recovery and donation program!