Like many of our student leaders, I became involved with Food Recovery Network during college because I had an interest in sustainability and I wanted to make my campus and community a better, more equitable place for everyone. I jumped at the chance to help start an FRN chapter at West Chester University (WCU) and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be the first president during my last year at WCU and even stayed involved during my first year of grad school.
For anyone who has started an FRN chapter, or became involved early on in the chapter’s existence, you know how much work it is to get a food recovery program up and running. Between coordinating with dining services, recruiting volunteers, and making sure you have transportation to your partner agencies, it really was a struggle sometimes.
However, the struggle was always worth it at the end of each recovery. Being able to provide nutritious food to my fellow students and community members always made every miscommunication, last minute cancellation, and panic solo food recovery worth it.
At the end of our first year as a chapter, we even won the WCU Leadership in Sustainability Award!
Moving From FRN Student Volunteer to Staff Member
I started my FRN National position as Stakeholder Engagement Associate in the beginning of August and it has been an exciting, busy, rewarding whirlwind of a time. Since joining the FRN team, I’ve successfully helped recover and reroute surplus food from all over the United States to serve communities nationwide, coordinating food recoveries both virtually and in person as part of our Food Recovery Verified program.
Compared to my food recoveries at West Chester, FRN National food recoveries feel familiar and different all at the same time. At West Chester, I was active in most of the recoveries during my two years with the chapter, so coordinating virtual food recoveries and not actually being there in person to recover the surplus food myself was foreign to me.
Yet each time a new conference, Gala, or business event successfully donates their surplus food with our virtual support, I’m reminded just how easy it would be for other businesses to do the same. We don’t need FRN staff in place to perform recoveries when we can coordinate with local FRN chapters and hunger-fighting partners in the community that are committed to ensuring all surplus food is donated.
In-the-field with the FRN National Team
In a slightly more familiar sense, I recently had the opportunity to travel to Indianapolis to help recover and donate surplus food from the NFL Colts VIP Tailgate Parties this past fall. This was my first in person food recovery as part of the FRN national team, and it was exciting to travel to a new place to do something I’m passionate about.
Actually being on the ground transporting food for donation brought me right back to 2018 when I was picking up surplus food from my campus dining hall to bring to our chapter’s hunger-fighting partner agency. At the end of our Indianapolis food recovery efforts, our team successfully recovered and transported over 450 pounds of food to our local partner agency, Wheeler Mission.
In November, I was also able to do a solo food recovery in Philadelphia for the National Association of Realtors Conference, where 250 pounds of surplus food was donated and distributed to the local community. I even helped run a super cool fresh produce pop up market in Atlanta as part of FRN’s gleaning initiative this month!
While food recovery work with FRN National may look a little different than it did in college, (and may involve hopping on a plane or two), at the end of each recovery, the feelings are the same - I am overjoyed that I get to spend my days ensuring people across the U.S. have access to nutritious food.
Our work is not always easy, but it’s always worth it. Our team is currently planning out our 2023 support for nationwide events, and I can’t wait to continue my journey in fighting food waste and feeding people and see where this next year takes me!