Annual Report FY24

Food Recovery Network (FRN) now mobilizes 8,000+ college students and food system partners in fighting hunger and building a more sustainable and equitable food system, while creating the necessary changes to protecting our planet in the process. That means we’ve doubled the movement since implementing our strategic framework FRN10X in 2020 (4,000→8,000 people).

Together, we have united college student-led chapters, food businesses, and community partners across the U.S. in the fight against hunger and climate change. We are now preventing more C02 emissions through food waste reduction and serving more communities experiencing hunger than ever before.

For 13 years, FRN has been harnessing community power to reduce food waste through our network of nearly 200 college and university student-led chapters, along with business and community partnerships. In total we’ve recovered 18.3 million pounds of delicious food, donated 15.2 million meals and prevented 9,800 metric tons of additional CO2 emissions from unnecessarily entering our planet’s atmosphere.

In the past year alone, our volunteers contributed nearly 28,000 volunteer hours to recover more than 3.6 million pounds of food, helping to serve 330 local hunger-fighting partner agencies on the frontlines in communities across the U.S. Through our student chapters, elementary school produce distributions, community fridges, and large-scale event recoveries, we have put $931,562 back into local communities, in human and financial resources, where it is needed most.

Our work is far from over. 47 million people in the U.S. are hungry right now. The large-scale nature of our current climate crisis can seem insurmountable and immeasurable. With your support - through powerful partnerships - and our collective action we can achieve our vision of recovering surplus food to feed everyone who is hungry in the U.S. We are strengthened by the growing momentum behind the food justice and climate action movement. You are part of that movement, and we can’t stop now.

Together, we are creating a future where our planet is cared for, every person has access to delicious food, and our food systems are sustainable, equitable, and just.

In 2020, FRN adopted a data-driven strategic framework called FRN10X, which set in motion our vision to grow our network from 4,000 to 40,000 people by 2030. In the short four years since we implemented this strategic framework, we have grown to a nationwide network of 8,000 people, doubling our network. We recovered more food in 1 year than the entire 10 years prior and distributed 329% more meals than we did in 2019.

FRN geographically targets our work in areas of heightened need for food access and greater opportunity for our food recovery programs - leading to exponentially effective programming.

Our work is possible because of our generous funders who believe no one should be hungry. Thank you for your financial support.

• Andrew Family Foundation

• Annenberg Foundation

• Aramark

• Clif Family Foundation

• Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta

• Crawford Heritage Community Foundation

• Dr. Scholl Foundation

• EDL Northwest

• fairlife

• From Now On Fund

• Gerald L. Lennard Foundation

• Harbourton Foundation

• Hellmann’s Mayonnaise

• Homestead Foundation

• Ida & Robert Gordon Family Foundation

• James C. & Norma I. Smith Foundation

• Kenneth Goldman Donor Fund

Get Involved

Join us—take action in the fight against climate change and hunger by supporting our efforts to recover good, surplus food from across the supply chain.

For more information about Food Recovery Network, email info@foodrecoverynetwork.org. or visit www.foodrecoverynetwork.org.