Critical Issue Fund grantee organization Food Recovery Network was recently featured in Forbes for their efforts in supporting a nationwide effort among college students and farmers to rescue 12 million pounds of surplus food.
“When COVID-19 struck the organization faced record food waste, record food need, and hundreds of Food Recovery Network volunteer chapters within universities transitioning to remote learning. The organization’s mission—to recover food waste and mitigate hunger—became ever more urgent as the country’s food distribution chains began to fray, news outlets documented massive amounts of food being thrown away, and food banks faced extraordinary demand.
An urgent call for assistance from a local food bank in Santa Monica in mid-April prompted James Kanoff, 22, to gather friends and begin cold-calling local farms to see if they had surplus food. Once they realized this model was scalable, they created an organization called The FarmLink Project. They were able to onboard over a hundred student volunteers from Food Recovery Network, who were no longer on campus but wanted to be involved in the nationwide relief efforts. Food Recovery Network has been able to offer infrastructural support, connecting The FarmLink Project with their network of food banks across the country.”
The FarmLink Project has now grown into an organization with over 150 active volunteers. Click here to read the article.