A new organization to cutdown food waste in dining halls and the UT community

One in six Americans face food insecurity, or the lack of access to enough food.

Yet 40 percent of all food is thrown out in the United States every year, totaling about $165 billion of wasted food that could feed roughly 25 million Americans, according to DoSomething.org.

Sirena Mason was horrified by these statistics. After watching a video on Upworthy.com about Food Recovery Network (FRN), she knew then and there that she wanted to start a chapter at the University of Toledo to help reduce the amount of food waste.

“I contacted FRN and applied to make the University of Toledo a chapter this past fall,” said Mason, a fourth-year majoring in biology and vice president of public relations and community outreach for FRN.

Founded in 2011, FRN is a nationwide organization that unites students on college campuses to fight waste by donating surplus unsold food from their colleges to hungry Americans. Each chapter works with on-campus dining halls and off-campus eateries to divert food from the landfill to community members in need, while also raising awareness on issues of food waste and hunger in America.

According to FRN’s website, it has grown to include chapters at more than 140 colleges and universities in 35 states that have recovered nearly 800,000 pounds of food.

Mario Toussaint, senior director of operations at UT, said he is currently talking with FRN and is excited by its promise for local change.

“This organization has worked on other Aramark higher education facilities with great success,” he said. “I believe that if UT can help our community in need in any way possible, we should.”

According to Mason, FRN is now an official organization and is working to finalize a partnership with UT’s dining services.

Despite the organization’s success, Mason said she isn’t the only one who deserves recognition. She knew the group needed a passionate president who could devote the time and energy that she alone couldn’t provide — so she asked her friend, Anna Crisp, to join the cause.

“She was so enthusiastic about Food Recovery Network from the start that I knew she would do a phenomenal job as president of our chapter,” Mason said. “She has worked so hard to get this organization off the ground and has inspired me so much.”

Crisp said she “eagerly agreed to help” and accepted the position of president on the spot.

“I was very excited about the idea and honored that she had reached out to me about it,” she said.

Both Mason and Crisp believe UT is a perfect venue for food recovery due to the buffet-style dining halls, which typically warrant leftovers.

“Dining services at the University of Toledo does a great job keeping excess food to a minimum in the dining halls, but generating no waste is almost impossible,” Mason said.

However, UT’s chapter of FRN isn’t solely focused on the university’s dining halls. Crisp points out that the purpose of the organization is to “help end hunger within the community,” which she believes can be accomplished by involving a variety of local businesses and organizations.

“By recovering excess food from UT’s dining halls, local restaurants, country clubs and hotels, students will deliver food to those in need,” Crisp said. “FRN will work with UT student organizations to assist in food recoveries as well as with partners in the Toledo community capable of donating excess food or serving it to the hungry.”

Crisp said they’ve also partnered with Cherry Street Mission Ministries and The University Church Toledo.

“Our organization has grown from the two of us to an ambitious group of nine members,” Crisp said.

According to Crisp, they are working to schedule a date for a large food recovery on campus at the end of the semester and plan to begin regular recoveries in the fall.

She wanted to highlight that although she believes UT’s dining services “values sustainability and makes the arrangements necessary to ensure there is very little excess food after mealtimes,” FRN recognizes every bit of wasted food is an opportunity to feed someone else.

“FRN believes that any amount of food is important because it is food someone may not otherwise have,” she said. “We appreciate UT dining services’ generosity in sharing the little food they may have leftover for our purposes.”

Crisp encourages students interested in helping the cause to contact her and find out how they can get involved.

For more information, contact Crisp at [email protected] or visit foodrecoverynetwork.org.