Students Recover Tons of Food for Community Partners During Walmart Week

In early June, student leaders from the Volunteer Action Center's Razorback Food Recovery recovered 8,140 pounds of excess food from Walmart Associates Week to redistribute across the Northwest Arkansas community.  

Razorback Food Recovery, a student-led program within the Volunteer Action Center, was founded in 2014 and has since made it their mission to prevent food waste by recovering food from both on-campus and community partners and redistributing it back to the community. 

Razorback Food Recovery partners every year with Chartwells, the university's dining service, to recover the excess food from Walmart's Associates Week meals. Chartwells collects the surplus food and stores it in refrigerated semi-trailers, where Razorback Food Recovery sorts and loads the food to distribute it to RFR's local partners such as 7Hills Homeless Center, Salvation Army and St. James Food Pantry.  

The Northwest Arkansas Food Bank arrived alongside Razorback Food Recovery to distribute the recovered food to partners outside of Fayetteville, like Samaritan Community Center.  

"The food we've received from Razorback Food Recovery has made a tremendous impact on what we've been able to serve our neighbors here at the Samaritan Community Center Cafe," said Rogers Samaritan Community Center's Head Chef Aaron Atwell. "Thanks to all the efforts and donations involved, I was able to pay those blessings forward and have served more than 2,000 plates over the past few weeks at no cost." 

"It's amazing to watch this event come together," said Emma Johnson, Razorback Food Recovery's summer intern. "Everyone involved really believes in the work we do, and it's impressive how much we can give back to the community in one week."  

This is Razorback Food Recovery's 12th year recovering from Associates Week and continues to give back to the community through its efforts. They are currently accepting student volunteer applications for the fall 2026 semester.