Student Volunteers, Chartwells Crew Provide Tons of Food to Local Agencies

Distributing the food

Agency worker loading the food

Passing on the recovered food

Student volunteer at work

Another load of recovered food

Photo by Emma Schock

Student volunteers unload recovered food from a refrigerator truck.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – U of A student volunteers from Razorback Food Recovery gave away 11,600 pounds of unserved food to four local relief agencies during the annual Walmart Shareholders week.

 Chartwells Dining Service associates collected and sorted the unserved food during the Walmart Week events, determining what could be saved and distributed. The food was stored in a refrigerator trailer donated by Tyson Food’s Office of Corporate Social Responsibility.

“A tremendous amount of work goes into this initiative, and we are very proud of the extra effort our Chartwells associates make,” said Kim Johnson, Chartwells marketing manager. “Walmart Week is very intense for everyone involved, but our associates know the student volunteers from working with them during the academic year and they all share a passion for this project. Together they make it happen.”

Chartwells also provides the fuel for the generator that runs the Tyson trailer’s refrigeration unit during the week.

Representatives from four local agencies -- LifeSource International, 7 Hills Day Center, the House of Hope Mission Center and Salvation Army – arrived to pick up the unserved food through the course of the week, with the student volunteers unloading the truck and helping with the “heavy lifting.”

Razorback Food Recovery is a program of the Volunteer Action Center at the U of A, and has been active on campus since early 2014. It was established to recover unserved food from the dining services and donate it to local organizations that feed hungry people.

Chartwells Dining Services provides food services for the University of Arkansas all year, which includes preparing the meals for the week-long Walmart Shareholder’s events.

This is the third year that Razorback Food Recovery, Chartwells, and Tyson Foods have teamed up for the Walmart Week project.