CLC awarded Food Recovery Network grant

Central Lakes College is one of only five community colleges nationwide to be selected for the Food Recovery Network’s Community College Recovery Grants expansion.

The colleges include:

• Central Lakes College (Brainerd, Minnesota)

• Green River College (Auburn, Washington)

• Montgomery County Community College (Blue Bell, Pennsylvania)

• San Diego College of Continuing Education (San Diego, California)

• State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education and Community College of Aurora (Aurora, Colorado)

The Food Recovery Network focuses on recovering food to feed everyone experiencing hunger in the US. Community College Recovery Grants provide the technical and financial assistance to design and implement food recovery programs to ensure these local communities can address their specific needs.

“The CLC Food Pantry is excited to join the Food Recovery Network as we continue working towards creating a hunger-free campus,” said Erich Heppner, Director of Student Life at CLC. “Currently, the CLC Food Pantry helps eliminate food waste by rescuing thousands of pounds of food from local retailers through our partnership with Second Harvest Northland. The Food Recovery Network will help us employ strategies that will enhance this work and make it sustainable for the future.”

Regina Harmon Executive Director of the Food Recovery Network said, “Our data analysis revealed that it is more often two-year community colleges, rather than four-year universities, that exist in communities with greater food access and food waste disparities across the U.S. These five new chapters will lead the way as FRN continues to implement our data-driven strategic framework that aims to feed more people, faster.”

For almost 15 years, FRN has been utilizing community power to reduce food waste through our network of nearly 200 college and university student-led chapters, along with business and community partnerships. FRN’s data-driven strategic framework, FRN10X, helped recover more food in one year than in the previous 10 years combined and distribute 329% more meals than in 2019. Just last year alone, the network contributed 27,690 volunteer hours, the equivalent dollar value of $905,892.00 (Independent Sector), to enrich communities across the U.S.

Food Recovery Network is a national nonprofit that mobilizes 6,000 college students, food providers, and local businesses in the fight against climate change and hunger by recovering perishable food across the supply chain that would otherwise go to waste and donating it to organizations that feed people experiencing hunger. As one of the largest student-driven movements against food waste and hunger, FRN’s programs are on nearly 200 college campuses and 100 food businesses in 46 states and D.C., and they have recovered more than 16.5 million pounds of food to date — the equivalent of 13.8 million meals donated to feed individuals experiencing hunger and 9,300 metric tons of CO2 emissions prevented from entering the atmosphere.