Multiple campus organizations partnered this semester to address hunger and food waste at UW-Eau Claire. An on-campus food recovery program was launched in early fall through a collaboration between the Administrative Office of Sustainability (AOS), Food Services (FS), the Student Office of Sustainability (SOS) and Campus Harvest food pantry.
“We want to make sure that our students can get the food they need, and we want to reduce waste while doing it,” Sustainability Coordinator Lily Strehlow said.
According to Strehlow, the recovery program involves collecting untouched, leftover food from dining halls on campus, freezing that food and bringing it to the Campus Harvest pantry in Davies 103 for students to take.
Third-year ecology and environmental biology student Kristen O’Brien was the driving force behind this effort. Currently an AOS intern, O’Brien said she first started working toward this project last fall upon hearing of a similar program at UW-Madison.
O’Brien said she was able to get things off the ground through communication with partners and her time at AOS.
“There, I can work with food equity and security,” O’Brien said. “With that internship, I was able to write funding proposals for SOS to obtain containers.”
Strehlow said she and Sodexo were first contacted by O’Brien last fall, and that communication between the parties has gone smoothly.
“There’s a lot of energy around this and dining has been really responsive and easy to work with, and I’m thankful we have such a great partner on campus,” Strehlow said.
Currently, O’Brien said she and John Arnold, head of Dining Experiences, do the bulk of food packaging and transport to Campus Harvest. She said she spends roughly four or five hours a week packaging food.
The supplies used for the program, which include freezer and microwave-safe containers, scales and thermometers, were supplied through the SOS Green Fund.
“The food that we’re taking is leftover meals from Hilltop that hasn’t been touched by anybody and has been kept in food-safe containers,” O’Brien said. “So far this semester, we have packaged and donated over 400 meals. Almost all of them have been taken.”
Campus Harvest Food Pantry Director Sarah Snyder said the meals have been popular among students and that the additional food is helping save the pantry’s resources.
“Now the pantry gets flash-frozen/microwavable food a couple times a week from the efforts,” Snyder said. “This not only helps UWEC reduce food waste but helps support our students with food insecurity, and we are hoping will help reduce the pantry’s spending so our budget can stretch further.”
O’Brien said starting next semester, volunteering for the food recovery program will qualify as service learning hours. She said students interested in volunteering can contact her at [email protected], or the sustainability office at [email protected].
Another related effort O’Brien is spearheading, which will begin next semester, is the use of the Free Food Alert app on campus.
According to O’Brien, this app will help reduce food waste at university events. When there’s a catered event, the host can send out a mass notification if there is leftover food up for grabs. Students interested can download the app and sign up using their school emails.
“This is something SOS and the student body were excited about. I mean, we’re college students — everybody loves free food,” O’Brien said.
Next semester, both of these projects will be overseen by third-year student Libby Nelson.
Strehlow said there are a myriad of benefits to reducing food waste.
“When we reduce food waste, it means that all the energy it took to get food grown, shipped to a processing place and to campus — all of those steps, it doesn’t go to waste,” Strehlow said. “The main benefit is that we’re reducing student hunger and increasing access to food.”
Wojahn can be reached at [email protected].
