Razorback Food Recovery Expands to New Campus Partners

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Student volunteers at a training session.

The Volunteer Action Center-Razorback Food Recovery Program is a part of the Center for Community Engagement at the University of Arkansas. Razorback Food Recovery works to recover unused, wholesome food that would otherwise be wasted and donates it to hungry people in the NWA community.

Razorback Food Recovery volunteers work with Chartwells Dining employees to recover surplus food daily as well as other dining partners across campus. During the 2014-15 school year, 22,642 pounds of food was recovered from campus and 4,402 pounds have been collected so far this semester. Amid continued success, the Razorback Food Recovery program has established new partnerships across campus and expanded to Brough Commons dining hall.

During the fall semester Razorback Food Recovery has established a number of new food recovery partnerships on campus. This expansion began when the Honors College approached Razorback Food Recovery about recovering food from events they put on through out the year. The two groups began by recovering food at the Advanced Placement Institute last summer where over 200 pounds of food was recovered. Honors college staff member, Chelsea Hodge, noticed this success and worked with Razorback Food Recovery to create an internal recovery model with Honors College Ambassadors student volunteers. Razorback Food Recovery offered training and technical support to Honors Ambassadors and the successful partnership has recovered over 400 pounds of food this semester.

Razorback Food Recovery is also very excited about the recent partnership established with Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority. This group is the program's pilot Greek house to begin food recovery. In the first week they recovered from 3 meals and recorded over 100 pounds of food. Several other chapters have expressed interest as well, and the Razorback Food Recovery board is creating a recovery model for Greek Houses with the hope of launching 5 programs this spring.

Razorback Food Recovery will work with each organization to train 10-15 of their members in food recovery and offer technical and logistical planning support. The Alumni Association has also recently joined the food recovery program, recovering food from their tailgates this fall. So far they have recovered 40 pounds of food and there are still two tailgates left! RFR is also working with Sodexo Dining Services to develop a recovery model for surplus food from athletics concessions sales.

Another exciting venture is the launch of a recovery site at Brough Commons, which took place on Oct. 26. A group of volunteers recover food on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays this semester and we hope to expand to five days a week starting in the spring. The group recovered 59 pounds of food on the first day and it has increased since then. We are so thankful for the support and dedication of the Chartwells Dining mangers and associates who facilitate this process.

We are very excited to support the expansion programs this far. We are eager for the new campus partners to join the fight against food waste on our campus. The food poundage has doubled per week since the expansion of these four new programs.  This number will only continue to grow while also providing meals for more community members facing food insecurity.

About Razorback Food Recovery: In February of 2014 the Volunteer Action Center launched Razorback Food Recovery with the mission to reduce food waste and combat food insecurity at the University of Arkansas and the community. Students work with Chartwells Dining Services and community partners to devise a plan of action to recover wholesome food from the dining halls and retail locations on campus. The group has established three recovery sites on campus and captures food for donation seven days a week. Razorback Food Recovery has donated over 42,000 pounds of food to date. For more information please visit service.uark.edu or email recovery@uark.edu.