The Food Recovery Network At Wagner College 's Campus

School lunches are often unsung heroes of many modern American households. Frequently overlooked and disregarded because of their stigma, school lunches are a key ingredient that may help make the world a better place. Unknowingly, great numbers of individuals in our communities deal with food insecurities every day of their lives. It baffles me that in an advanced society many people do not have the resources to provide food for themselves or their families. Until it affected me personally, I was unaware nor passionate about the struggles of food insecurity. My passion for solving food insecurity in my local community has led me to gain both experience and leadership through understanding and advocating for those around me.

The USDA claims that each year, 25.9 million tons of America’s food is thrown away, the equivalent to a quarter of the total amount produced. Nationally, the wasted food is a damaging financial setback, amounting to $1 billion just to get rid of during a time of ascending food prices, nonetheless (Oliver, 2007). Food waste has skyrocketed since 1970 at an astonishing 50% increase rate, yet according to the FAO, one-sixth of America doesn’t get enough to eat.

While everyone may love to go out and enjoy a fine meal with friends and family, most will never stop to think the process of how the food came about, or the production thereof. John Oliver’s piece on “Food Waste” outlines all the problems of food waste and how they can impact society, animals, nature, and even the farmers who harvest the produce. America and its businesses should try to decrease the amount of food being wasted. By doing so, not only are we a contributing factor to help reduce waste, save time and money, but we are also aiding the less-fortunate in a society, while still saving natural resources and the planet as a whole.

Many colleges and universities have utilized the food pantry approach. Food pantries are easier for campuses to utilize because of the ability to be flexible with the services rendered (Dubick., et al., 2016). Students can utilize the services without having to travel far, they are also more apt to use the services because it is a college program, not a community or public program. Seventeen percent of food insecure students utilized a campus food pantry, while 14 percent reported going to an off-campus food pantry or food bank (Dubick., et al., 2016). Traditional students are more apt to reside on campus and be aware of the services offered to them through their institution, they will also have the means to use the services provided without having to travel off campus. The student’s ease of access to food programs on campuses may not ease food insecurity, there is no research that indicates whether food pantries are effective in alleviating food

Though many local food banks and schools have contributed to fixing this issue, there is much more that can be done alleviate the problem. Contacting Solano County’s schools and community leaders to expand summer food programs will benefit students who rely on school food for their daily meals. Furthermore, working with care and homes centers will not only assist the staff members, but will also ensure children and adults get a nutritional meal every day. Donating cans of food whenever there is a food drive at school or any place asking is another way to provide food for those who need it. Raising awareness to those who do not know about local food drives and programs will also help. Of course, there is always an option to start a new food drive. By lending a helping hand, there will be more smiles on the faces of children and adults who have not done so in a long

Being homeless brings the challenges of eating nutritionally and at regular intervals. Thus, food poverty (Jenkins, 2014), food insecurity (Martins et al., 2015), health risks, chronic health conditions, and obesity as an adaptive response (Koh, Hoy, O’Connell, & Montgomery, 2012) to the aforementioned, are the priorities of my future academic work. My immediate goals then, are to ensure that food donations, for disbursement and preparation purposes, meet the recommendations provided by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d.) as to decrease health discrepancies, the rates of incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases (specifically Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Hypertension) and other health risks like dental caries. The objectives to reach these goals are: educational workshops focusing on nutritional guidelines (Hamm, 2010) for applicable agencies, churches, pantries and soup kitchens, and homeless

Food waste is an issue that is present at Cornell College. By going into Bon Appetit, the issue becomes clear. Students are given more food than they can eat. To go boxes are not available for students who dine in, and most students do not bring reusable containers with them. Most do not think about how much food they waste. By going over to where we put out plates when we are finished, it is easy to see many students leave a good portion of their meals on the plate. Whether they did not like what they were eating or they were in a hurry and had to leave, big amounts of food are wasted during each meal of the day. Steps can be taken to decrease the overall amount of food that is wasted on campus. Ideas such as smaller plates, vermiculture, competitions, and others can be utilized in the efforts to decrease food waste on campus.

The DC Central Kitchen is trying to solve the issue of food waste. Robert Egger founded this organization from past experiences of volunteering to help problems like hunger and homelessness. “DC Central Kitchen’s mission is to use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. DC Central Kitchen is committed to getting students excited about eating their vegetables.” They “transform 3,000 pounds of otherwise wasted food into 5,000 healthy meals.” The meals are cooked by chefs and not pre-packaged or canned goods and they distribute the food to 80 partner agencies that consist of homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers and afterschool programs. Last year they recovered 743,885 pounds of food from grocery stores

Metropolitan region are increasing simultaneously while donations to local food banks are decreasing. According to Federation of Virginia food banks, (2014) “Virginia’s 11.8% food insecurity rate means that over 912,790 people do not know from where their next meal will come. With the average cost of a meal in Virginia being $2.68, Feeding America ‘Map the Meal Gap ‘concluded that an additional $406,935,780 would be needed to meet the state’s food needs”(para. 1). The research further explains that “… With donations over the past years, decreasing by as much as 50% and food assistance requests increasing as much as 40%, our food banks are in crisis and need major support to meet the needs of Virginia’s food insecure” (para. 4). In addition, according to the Darden Foundation, (2014) “about 35 million tons of food waste reaches landfills and incinerators each year in the United States” (para. 1). Devising and implementing programs to reduce our food waste as well as a donation program, has multiple benefits for all stakeholders and the

Recently, I have found myself pondering the individuality and peculiarities present in all things. Certain aspects of entelechy have changed the lens through which I view things. I have been very interested in the theme that vitality, and therefore some sort of power or agency arises in part because of the peculiarities and the uniqueness of matter. In the text, a couple of passages struck me such as the passage regarding metallurgist and their deep familiarity with the specific quirks and characteristics of metal, and the passage about how metal fractures in a specific way based on the “certain defects” (Bennett, 59) in turn, demonstrating the entelechy of the matter. Both of these instances demonstrate that it is not the mundane and ordinary, but the uniqueness of individual pieces of matter that allow vitality to material. This concept rings true and important for me through a multitude of contexts.

Nowadays, students are coming face to face with their food waste, and its environmental and social impact, a lot more often. They also have more opportunities do something about it, Ben Simon, founder Food Recovery Network, has helped college students recover untouched food and donate it to local organizations that need it. This organization has established concepts relating to food waste that students see and understand. Simon also brings light to facts that the college student doesn’t want to think about, “About 40 percent of all food in the U.S. never even makes it to the plate before it's tossed. Yet 1 in 6 Americans goes hungry” (Poon 1). College students collaborating with organizations like Food Recovery Network are making a difference and helping the world to become a better environment for future generations. The generations before these “millennials” didn’t care to think about the devastating effects the earth would experience due to their constant pollution and waste. They didn’t care about the planet or wasting food. Stopping food waste does not just involve the food from dining halls, it also involves the food bought. “It’s estimated that 6 billion pounds of U.S. fruits and vegetables are discarded annually, often for cosmetic reasons. Tasty and nutritious produce is being rejected by exacting retail standards because of blemishes: an orange that isn’t exactly 1 ¼ inches across, an apple with minor surface scarring or a bell pepper that won’t stand up” (Rosenberg 1). Instead of throwing out they imperfect fruit and vegetables like grocery stores would do, college students would rather buy them. It is cheaper and better for the earth. Those 6 billion pounds of fruit can feed people for a long time and help when they are in need. It will also make the world “greener” and promote a better way of live. People would be less snobby with their food, and realize that a blemish doesn’t

Have you ever thought food waste is a really severe problem? I think food waste is a big problem because a lot of families are without food and I don’t want families to starve. Up to forty percent of food in the United States is wasted. Also one in eight families struggle to put food on the table. Article two. Sixty-two million tons of food is wasted every year. Globally up to one-third of all food is spoiled. Article one. Food waste is the biggest occupant in America's landfills. 160 billion dollars is wasted on food waste. Article three.

Ben Simon, fromer student at the University of Maryland, has taken charge in findling a solutuon to this madness. He started this program called "Food Recovery Network"(Jameson). Food Recovery Network takes the wasted food from the dinning hall and delivers it to the local programs to feed the needy (Jameson). It does not stop wasted food but it provides a benefit. It gives a sloution instead of just throwing away the food. While this was going on, UM provided a study at there dinning hall each day to see how much food was being wasted. For one year, there found an average student was wasting 142 porunds of food and a total of 22 million pounds total was being wasted as a school(Cammarota). "To date, students in the network have salvaged nearly 640,000 pounds of food, which they repackage and driven by students in their own cars to local agencies

In 1997 a study was conducted by Kantor el al. on food loss in the U.S that resulted in 96 billion pounds of food lost “or 27% of the 356 billion pounds of food available for human consumption” (Buzby). That lost and wasted food could make a magnificent change in the amount of starving families that are in the U.S. but still food waste continued to grow. In 2008 food loss and waste went up to 29% at retail and consumer levels. That food could have been used for other purposes if the correct procedures would have been done. All of this food is sent to landfills and processed with other forms of garbage and waste. In 2005 and 2006 11.4% of fresh fruit, 9.7% of fresh vegetables and 4.5% of fresh meat was either lost, wasted or spoiled at retail

Almost everyone encounters food every day, and a lot of times, it is taken for granted. According to worldfooddayusa.org in 2009, 2.3 billion tons of food was wasted worldwide, and in the U.S. alone 20 pounds of food is wasted per person each month. The amount of food wasted is ridiculously high and needs to be stopped. If Trine University takes steps towards preventing food waste, it could not only save the university money, but also save the environment in the process. There are simple solutions to help solve the food waste issue at Trine University, like creating a voting system for food choices, lowering the portion size, and recycling unused or extra food. Taking steps to prevent food waste will benefit the university, the economy.