Assessing Food Waste : Over one week, we weighed what was thrown into the compost after each meal in Saga dining hall. An average of 83 pounds of food scraps and food waste is disposed of daily from Saga. Our goal is to redistribute what is still good to eat of the overproduced food. The Process: Define food recovery: finding a solution for overproduced food that would otherwise go to waste Assess the need in our community context by finding potential community partners, finding gaps in food distribution, assessing the gaps within food distribution programs Assess the need in the community: East Lakeview Neighborhood food desert and food insecurity in Geneva Conversing with students, faculty, staff and community members about different food related issues/solutions Plan a pilot program with consideration of Sodexo Dining Service’s capacity, the Geneva community need, sustainability of a long-term program, inclusion of different stakeholders, following food safety guidelines and following legal regulations. The Issue : Nationally, 40 percent of the food produced in America goes to waste. The food waste hierarchy from the FDA says overproduced food should be distributed first to people in need. Our campus has food waste that can potentially be redistributed to people in need or hunger relief organizations. Set up for success : This project will be passed on to another student leader who will coordinate in the future. Twice a week, volunteers will package overproduced food from Saga Dining Hall and store it at safe temperatures. The following day, a van driven by volunteers will deliver the foods to the Community Lunch Program for their use in their meals as they see fit. Challenges: Education on food safety guidelines: Considering national programs: Campus Kitchen’s Project, Food Recovery Network, Food Recovery Challenge Often expensive to start but provide support for long-term programs Finding volunteers to sustain a long-term program Time of year: need for more hunger relief sites rises in the summer: how can we support that? Funding: How will we pay for food safe containers, transportation, record keeping, volunteer management Legal barriers: waiver forms, consent forms, food safety guidelines By Maggie O’Reilly ’16, Community Based Research Project (Fall 2015) in collaboration with the Finger Lakes Institute, HWS Office of Sustainability, HWS Center for Service Learning and Civic Engagement, and Sodexo HWS Dining Services GOALS : The goal of this project was to create a sustainable food recovery program between Sodexo Dining Service’s Saga dining hall and the Geneva Community Lunch Program. This was done through assessing the capacity for donations from campus, assessing the need in Geneva, assessing what national hunger relief programs would support this, and planning a pilot project. This accomplishes the goals of addressing food insecurity, diverting food waste and building relationships amongst community members. Support : Food recovery is made possible and addresses liability issues through the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act which protects any persons or organization that donates food in good faith. Sodexo partners with Feeding America, which is a network of hunger relief organizations in America. The closest affiliate is FoodLink. Special thanks to: Sarah Meyer, Katie Flowers, Jeremy Wattles, Rod King, Adam Maurer, Mark Robinson, Lynn Pelkey, Stu Einstein and all other supporters. Successes: 75 pound donation of produce to Salvation Army in December 2015 Potential Geneva Food Distribution Sites: Geneva Community Lunch Program: served meal Monday through Friday 11:45 to 12:15 First Baptist Church: served meal Saturdays 11:45 St Peter’s Episcopal Church Neighbor’s Night: Served meal Wednesdays Salvation Army: Served meal Monday and Thursdays, food pantry Monday through Thursday 9:30 to 11:30 AM Canandaigua Churches in Action Food Zion Fellowship Church Mondays 4-5 and Thursdays 7-8 PM Lewis Street Senior Housing Food Pantry Faith Community 90 Lewis Street Our Lady of Peace Parish Phelps Food Pantry Center of Concern Food Pantry Geneva Coalition Food Pantry Mt. Olive Baptist Church