FRN on TerpVision

If you didn't get a chance to see FRN being featured on TerpVision this past Saturday, Oct 20 on Channel 9 news, then don't worry. You can watch the video again by clicking here. And then, if you really like the video, watch it again and pass it along to your friends. ;)

About Tristram Stuart

This entry by Piotr Wielezynski, a Research Assistant at FRN, will help familiarize you with one of the most significant individuals connected to food waste- Tristram Stuart. 

Stuart got interested in the topic of food waste when he was just a kid. What is interesting is the fact that he started dealing with other people’s food waste strictly for economical reasons. He thought that by collecting other people’s waste he can save money and still feed his newly acquired pigs. With all the food he collected from his school-dining hall, local grocers and farmers, who couldn’t sell their produce to supermarkets because they didn’t meet certain criteria, his pigs grew bigger. Eventually they themselves turned into delicious pork that he sold at the local market. 

Nowadays, Stuart is one of the most well-known experts on the topic of food waste. In October of 2009 Stuart published his first book called “Waste-Uncovering the global food scandal”. His book was welcomed with great reviews. A reporter for the Financial Times (FT) said that: “Waste is certainly one of the most important environmental books to come out in years… It made me more angry than any book I have read for a long time.” 

The book aims to shed light on our global food system and its biggest pitfalls. This book is very timely, as we just began to recuperate from a global financial crisis. Yet as the world’s population grows, so does the number of people going hungry. While this traditionally affected mostly developing countries, millions of people in developed and rich countries, such as the USA, are no longer able to afford feeding their families. Learning about the path of our food from farm to fork, and what makes this process inefficient, should be obligatory for everyone. 

Stuart’s work and collected knowledge, has led him to become an adamant supporter of the freeganism movement. This is when individuals collect discarded food and feed themselves off of their scavenged goods. In the book “Waste” Stuart retraces his start as a freegan, sharing stories of the homeless in London that have survived for years off of supermarket’s food waste. Most go on to admit that, they have never eaten so well in their lives. Suddenly they had taste of expensive French cheese, exotic fruits or bio-yoghurts. Some people work hard to afford such produce, while others simply open up the trashcan of a local store and dare to eat its content.

As a continuation of his passion, Stuart created the Feeding 5K organization. As its name stands, the goal is to feed 5,000 individuals on food that was heading to the landfill. Most of this food comes from supermarket’s food waste. This first-ever large scale meal time was organized at London’s Trafalgar Square on December 16^th 2009. It has now become an annual event and is being exported to other cities, countries, and continents.  Each year more than 5,000 bellies are fed thanks to Tristram’s idea. 

Feeding 5K is now supported by many British organizations, such as Love Food, Hate Waste and Food Cycle. We invite you to find out more about Tristram Stuart and his actions by watching his TED talk presentation at this link: 

http://www.ted.com/talks/tristram_stuart_the_global_food_waste_scandal.html

Those who are interested about food waste and Stuart should also look at: 

Tristram’s website: http://www.tristramstuart.co.uk/

Feeding 5K website: http://www.feeding5k.org/

Love Food, Hate Waste: http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

Food Cycle: http://www.foodcycle.org.uk/

Why we do what we do

Water Stream at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This year's World Water Week conference was heavily focused on the connection between food and water waste.

Trays of food recovered by FRN volunteers

The annual conference, which takes place in Stockholm, serves as a get together of various influential organizations, leaders and experts to discuss the management of our globe's water resources.

During the week long event, the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) revealed the findings of their new report. The statistics from the report are shocking. They demonstrate that 40% of purchased food in the USA is simply thrown away.

This information is disappointing, especially since we already use 70% of our scarce freshwater resources to irrigate crops and grow food. This food is also the biggest source of use and misuse of our water supply.

With the estimation that before 2050 our world will have to accompany 2 billion new inhabitants, who will also need food and water for survival, the inefficiency of how these vital resources are being used becomes very apparent.

This is why the mission of the Food Recovery Network (FRN) is to recover nutritional meals, and provide them to those who do not have access to food. Of course, thrown away food can be used as compost and even generate energy, but those are only secondary uses.

Since the beginning of time, it was always known that food's main purpose was to provide nutrition and  calories to its consumer. What is important to remember is that in today's world there is no shortage of food, in fact, we are experiencing a surplus of food on our markets.

What is missing, though, from this food equation is its effective distribution. This is why, the role of FRN is to fill this void and ensure that the produced food achieves its main intention of providing nutrition to the consumer.

FRN volunteers deliver food to a nearby food bank

With hard work, amazing volunteers and hours spent on creating a process for recovering dining hall food and donating it to local food banks, the FRN has been able to redistribute over 50,000 meals in one year. With the plans of expanding our network to other campuses, in addition to the existing chapters at UM, Brown, UC Berkley and Pomona College, we aim to bring this number up to 500,000 meals a year.

While this number is surely shy of providing good nutritional food for millions of Americans who go hungry in the USA, it is definitely a start and a step in the right direction.

Fresh New Look

On Wednesday, September 12, the Food Recovery Network unveiled its brand new logo. While the look might be new, the mission of the organization remains the same- Recover Food, Feed People.

For those who love FRN and our new image, you will soon be able to get stickers, shirts and other goodies to show your support. But for now, enjoy the fresh look and share it with friends.

FRN in Washington Post Article

FRN and its Executive Director Ben Simon were profiled last week in The Washington Post. Check out the coverage here!

FRN Leadership Team Applications

Are you pumped about FRN? Do you want to get more involved in the coming year, spend more time with the awesome people that help run it, and contribute your own talents to an amazing, rapidly growing nonprofit? Then you should apply to join the FRN National Team!!

We're looking for people to expand FRN to new schools, help fundraise, manage our blog, facebook, twitter, and more! Want to apply?

1. First read the instructions about how to apply here along with descriptions of the positions on the National Team.

2. Download the application here. Once you're finished, email it to info@foodrecoverynetwork.org. Applications are due by September 6th. 

If you have any questions, email info@foodrecoverynetwork.org.

Hope to hear from you soon!

FRN Wins 15K Grand Prize in DC Youth Competition

Last Saturday July 30th, Lauren Behgam (a member of the FRN at Brown University team) pitched for  FRN, and won us the grand prize of a whopping $15,000 to be used for FRN's national expansion! Check us out in an article in The Wall Street Journal's Market Watch online.