According to The Natural Resources Defense Council, 40 percent of food in the United States goes uneaten, which is the equivalent of $165 billion wasted each year. Three students at the University of Maryland–College Park noticed a great deal of quality food from their dining hall was being tossed in the trash at the end of the day. As a result, Ben Simon, Mia Zavalij and Cam Pascual created the Food Recovery Network (FRN), the largest student movement against food waste and hunger in America. Today the organization has almost 170 chapters across the country, including three in Indiana.
In February 2015, Brittany Finigan, a student at the University of Indianapolis (UIndy) was speaking with a few friends when the topic of food waste emerged. After the then-college-freshman learned what a great deal of food was being wasted in the dining hall, Finigan grew angry, because she was aware of how many people were in need of food. Then she got to work.
“I found out about FRN through research online. I Googled ways to reduce the amount of wasted food on campus, which brought me to the idea of donating it to shelters in the area, and that is when the Food Recovery Network came up. It was a perfect match,” said Finigan.
On Tuesday nights at 7:30, chapter members meet in the dining hall kitchen, where they sort packaged food and record the type of food, date and name of the shelter where items will be donated. Currently, the UIndy chapter serves Wheeler Mission Ministries, Holy Family Shelter and Salvation Army Women and Children’s shelter.
As president of the UIndy Food Recovery Network chapter, Finigan’s role is to ensure the program runs smoothly and promote the chapter’s mission to the community, among other duties. Finigan said it is important to educate students on what they can do to help reduce the amount of food being wasted in their lives.
UIndy’s chapter is an example of why FRN was formed in the first place, said Zavalij, FRN director of development and one of the three cofounders.
“We all began reaching out to other schools when we saw how successful the program was on one campus. Currently we have 169 chapters across 40 states,” said Zavalij.
This fall semester 2015–16, the UIndy chapter contributed to the Food Recovery Network’s 1 millionth pound of food recovered in the nation, with 167.5 pounds recovered from the UIndy Dining Hall.
Finigan said she balances FRN duties with her studies, as a psychology major with a concentration in occupational therapy, by being very organized and operating with daily to-do lists. Since she was recruited into the university’s Direct Admit Occupational Therapy program to earn a doctorate degree as an incoming freshman, she keeps busy, but always makes FRN a priority.
“A task that has to do with FRN is usually on that (to-do) list,” said Finigan. “I know this program has a lot of potential to grow, and it is not something I want to push aside, because I recognize the importance of it.”
By May 2016, FRN aims to have 180 chapters on college campuses to work toward recovering 1.2 million pounds of food.
