Cornell University

FOOD RECOVERY NETWORK

SERVING TOMPKINS COUNTY

As the Cornell Chapter of the Food Recovery Network, we couple two community problems into one innovative solution. We reduce dining food waste and at the same time tackle our community's hunger by donating surplus meals from Cornell's dining halls to local food pantries. Rather than ending up in the compost, Cornell's extra food now finds itself where it's most at home-- in the hands of the hungry.

On Cornell's campus, our team began recovering food from Becker House Dining Hall in Spring 2014. Surplus meals from the dining hall are donated to the Friendship Donation Network, where they are redistributed to pantries all over the county.

The national organization was founded in 2011 by Ben Simon, then a Maryland University student, who sought to fight waste and feed people by donating dining hall leftovers to his local food pantry. Since then, the organization has grown to more than 198 college campuses, and has donated over 1.76 million pounds of food.

ABOUT OUR CHAPTER

We recover at four dining halls on campus five times per week: Becker House, Cook House, Bethe House, and Toni Morrison Dining. Two to five volunteers go into the dining hall as it is about to close and package the food. The food is then picked up by a driver, who delivers it to Friendship Donation Network in Downtown Ithaca.

In addition to dining halls, we also recover food from other events on Cornell's campus as well as local farms (called gleaning). We also host other events focused on food waste, food justice, and food insecurity on campus, such as documentary screenings and speaker events.

We could not do any of this without the help of our large general body as well as volunteers from other organizations at Cornell including Alpha Phi Omega (APO), Phi Delta Epsilon (PhiDE), and the Pre-Professional Associaton Towards Careers in Health (PATCH). General body members are required to do one recovery per cycle and there are three cycles per semester. Any G-Body member who has been on at least one recovery can apply to be on the Officer Board. O-Board members lead two recoveries per cycle. We have G-Body and O-Board meetings each once a month and open E-Board meetings once a week.

If you are passionate about reducing food waste and fighting food insecurity in Tompkins County, join us!

UPCOMING EVENTS AND COLLABORATIONS

E-Board Meetings

Every Thursday at 5:30 pm

Online this semester

All are welcome to join E-Board members during meetings- contact us for the Zoom link. We love getting to know our members!

Next G-Body Meeting

March 24 at 6-7 pm

Rockefeller 105 or over Zoom (link to be updated)

This week, we will be having a speaker from Blueprint Geneva

Join us at our G-Body meetings to discuss and learn more about topics relating to food waste and food insecurity on campus and beyond.

Info Sessions

February 7th and 8th at 5:00 pm

Rockefeller 105

Join us at a short info session to learn more about FRN and how you can get involved!

Interested in getting more involved?

APPLY FOR OFFICER BOARD POSITIONS!

Click on the Blue to apply!

Recovery Officer Application - Accepting Applications!

Recovery Officers are responsible for leading our dining hall recoveries. As a Recovery Officer, you will be actively managing and teaching your volunteers while directing your recovery to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Recovery Officers are required to participate in 1 training recovery per semester, lead 2 recoveries per cycle, and attend monthly meetings with other FRN officers.

Preferred Qualifications (not required): Has attended at least 1-2 recoveries during time in FRN

Training will occur prior to your first solo recovery (within the limits of the requirements stated above), so we encourage everybody with the necessary qualifications to apply even if you do not feel completely comfortable leading a dining hall recovery yet.

Please meet our

PARTNERS!

OUR PARTNERS

Fighting Waste. Feeding People.

Cornell Dining

Partner Organization

Becker House Dining Room, West Campus

Cook House Dining Room, West Campus

Bethe House Dining Room, West Campus

Okenshields Dining Room, Central Campus

Morrison Dining, North Campus

Cornell Dining is committed to serving high-quality foods that are healthy and creatively prepared with genuine care for a diverse community. Their food has consistently been ranked as some of the best in the nation, provided by universities, such as the Princeton Review, and they take pride in providing a rich dining experience, not just a meal.

Cornell Dining has been an important partner organization for us throughout this project. Without their cooperation, safe and easy food recoveries would not be possible.

Friendship Donations Network

Partner Organization

Ithaca, NY

Founded in 1988 by Sara Pines, MSW, PhD, Friendship Donations Network (FDN) redistributes fresh, nutritious food that would otherwise be thrown away in stores and farms to neighbors in need. Each year, FDN diverts over 500,000 pounds of food to feed the hungry.

FDN accomplishes its mission through an extensive network of volunteers who pick up donations of mostly perishable surplus food and deliver them to community pantries and programs. Combined, the pantries and programs serve over 2,100 people weekly.

Local Farms

Tompkins County, NY

We glean (collect produce at the end of the season that is not economically viable to harvest) from several farms in the area surrounding Ithaca! In the past, we have worked with Indian Creek Farms, Grisamore Farms, Dilmun Hill, and several others.