UB’s Food Recovery Network reduces food waste on campus

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A student group is making progress toward reducing the amount of food wasted on UB’s North Campus.

The UB chapter of the Food Recovery Network (FRN) packages leftovers from dining halls for delivery to charitable organizations in Buffalo, providing its members with volunteer hours to meet requirements of certain programs, as well as the knowledge that they are making a difference in the community.

FRN is a national student-led organization that fights food insecurity by recovering perishable meals that would otherwise go to waste. FRN’s UB chapter was founded in 2020 by Matthew Taboni, a third-year JD/MBA student, who worked with UB Sustainability to bring the FRN mission to campus.

“I’ve never been more excited to start a semester of FRN than this upcoming year,” Taboni says. “The last two years were a mix of successes and growing pains, but now we have an amazing team, a spectacular group of student volunteers, and operational support to continue to make impacts within Western New York.

“With South Campus now serving dinner, FRN is eager to begin expanding to that community and working with new partners to recover more meals for our nonprofit community,” he explains. “We are anticipating this year to be our most successful yet and cannot wait to on-board our new volunteers and get recoveries started.”

During the 2022-23 academic year, FRN recovered 16,600 pounds of food at the North Campus dining halls, Starbucks in the Commons, and at a couple of on-campus events, such as the Senior Champagne Toast. FRN engaged 146 individual volunteers and contributed 1,107 volunteer hours to the Western New York community.

Student Engagement recognized FRN for its efforts last academic year by naming it the Student Organization of the Year at the most recent Pillars of Leadership Awards. That same year, FRN also received the SLICE Award from UB Sustainability. Taboni hopes this success will grow as FRN continues to develop its relationship with Campus Dining and Shops and its charitable partners in Buffalo. 

FRN will begin recoveries about two weeks into the semester to give dining halls and new students ample time to settle in. “It’s just about getting everyone excited to start with food recoveries and getting people back into dining halls, recovering as much food as possible, and trying to make as much of an impact as we can,” Taboni says.

On the horizon, the club will work with the Blue Table food initiative on opportunities to partner and provide meals for members of the UB student community who are food insecure.

Club members meet for an hour four evenings a week to package leftover food from dining halls in the Ellicott and Governors complexes for delivery to shelters, including St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy in Buffalo. Six volunteers are needed each evening, and Taboni says slots fill up quickly. FRN keeps additional spots open each evening for new members or students who need some quick volunteer hours, so there are always opportunities for others to participate. Some clubs are routinely involved with FRN, hosting recoveries instead of club meetings to get their members involved in community outreach. 

“Clubs are such a vital part of our efforts and our friends. We’re in the process of reaching out to new club leaders to see how much they want to be involved with FRN,” Taboni says. 

FRN also holds club meetings for educational purposes and to foster togetherness for its members. There are also a few larger, recreational events during the semester, such as Family Feud.

“It’s a nice mix of education aspects and social aspects, and then we also host small social events throughout the semester as well because we were trying to build the community of FRN up last year,” Taboni says. 

Last spring, FRN worked with Campus Dining and Shops to host a cooking class for students to learn about reducing their food waste in the kitchen. “We’re planning all of that again for this year. We also host our annual foodies every year, which is our big recognition event to recognize all of the hard work of our volunteers,” Taboni said.

How to join: Anyone interested in participating in recoveries with FRN this semester should contact Matt Taboni.