The Bearcats Food Recovery Network began in the fall of 2019. Their mission is to bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity. The group takes food waste from dining halls and local Clifton restaurants to redistribute it to food-insecure students and community members.
It isn’t uncommon for college students to joke about being broke and hungry as they navigate their way through early adulthood, making light of the stress of figuring out how to provide for themselves. For some, though, there’s a significant amount of truth behind the gag; being able to afford a healthy amount of food throughout the week is not a luxury that everyone can afford.
Hoping to brainstorm a solution to this problem, six University of Cincinnati (UC) students created a model for a food recovery program that would help their peers and others in the Clifton community. Within a matter of months, the idea went into implementation and began a full-fledged, student-led organization.
The Bearcats Food Recovery Network (BFRN) began in the fall of 2019. Their mission is to bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity. The group takes food waste from dining halls and local Clifton restaurants to redistribute it to food-insecure students and community members.
Ahmed Ashraf, president of the organization and a fourth-year medical sciences student, highlights the importance of their cause both in and outside of campus. According to Ashraf, food insecurity has become a prominent issue in Cincinnati and Hamilton County.
“I believe it is about 33% of families report some form of food insecurity in the Cincinnati area,” Ashraf said. “That’s about 10% higher than the national average.”
Food insecurity has been known to pose a significant problem among college students in general. According to a 2016 report by Hunger on Campus, 20% of college students at four-year schools experience food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that food insecurity refers to a “lack of available financial resources for food at the household level” and a “lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.”
“If we translate that out into how many students are on campus [at UC], that’s about 8,000 students who potentially could face some form of food insecurity,” said Ashraf. “If you’re unable to get a meal like even once or a few times a week, that will still fall under the category of food insecurity. We would like to help close that gap by providing the surplus food that’s around instead of going ahead and wasting it.”
Brandi Thomsen, the vice president of student outreach for BFRN and a fourth-year biology student, says that she noticed a huge impact when the organization presented its ideas to some of the leaders and administrators at UC at the start of the organization.
“When we met with the [executive] chef [of UC dining services], he was taken aback by how many routes we were interested in recovering food,” she said. “And it wasn’t just directed at dining halls. It was like we had a holistic view of this ideal approach to food waste. That, I think, was why he got excited about it.”
The Bearcats Food Recovery Network began making their food runs, using MarketPointe dining hall as their primary source of food surplus collection. Beyond campus, the volunteers also make recoveries at local Clifton restaurants such as Chipotle, Starbucks and Domino’s.
With administration on board, BFRN began making their food runs, using MarketPointe dining hall as their primary source of food surplus collection. Ashraf says he believes that they recovered approximately 438 pounds of food from MarketPointe in spring of 2021.
Beyond campus, BFRN volunteers also make recoveries at local Clifton restaurants such as Chipotle, Starbucks and Domino’s.
The process starts with the chefs themselves, who freeze the food waste they have from the week and save it for pickup by a BFRN food-runner. Once the food has been collected by food-runners at each location, they will then start the recovery process and move the surplus food to a nonprofit for distribution.
Pinning down these nonprofits wasn’t easy. Sahaja Ampolu, the vice president of external relations and a fourth-year medical sciences student, said that they had a list of qualities they wanted from the nonprofits they would work with.
“We wanted nonprofits that are inclusive to all kinds of people and from all different backgrounds,” she said. “We wanted the nonprofits to be able to use the food that we give them and not use half of it and throw it away. And we wanted the nonprofits to be close by so that in case our volunteers can’t drive or use any vehicles to get there, they can still walk.”
With that, BFRN narrowed their search down to two: New Foundations Transitional Living and Little Sisters of the Poor. The food-runners would make drop-offs of the food waste at the nonprofits to be redistributed to those who needed it.
The experience has been completely worth it to the group. Alongside the responsibility of salvaging the waste comes a sense of pride in serving those in the community.
Thomsen said that getting to see the people they were donating meals to has had the biggest impact on her during her experience with the organization. “I’m just looking forward to having more of these moments.”
“We actually got this really big thank you from [New Foundations],” said Ashraf. “30 women, all of which were experiencing some form of food insecurity that we were able to help through the last semester, gave a big ‘thank you’ to us, and we took pictures and everything.”
Beyond their recoveries, BFRN wants to spread awareness about the issues regarding food waste and food insecurity to the campus community. Throughout the last academic year, the group hosted meetings to educate students on the issue and how to reduce waste themselves. In the months following, they even developed an app for students to connect with volunteer opportunities for food recoveries.
As pandemic restrictions have lightened up and other students begin to get involved, BFRN hopes to see their outreach broaden. As the group starts making recoveries again in the coming months, they are seeking to start collecting food waste from UC catering events, athletic games, and other dining halls on campus.
“Spring semester last year was really our pilot, so now that we’ve got the plane off the ground, we can really start moving fast,” said Ashraf.
BFRN is now looking to bring in more student volunteers to assist them with their food recoveries. Students can reach out through the CampusLink page or find volunteer opportunities at volunteer.uc.edu.
“With just a little bit of education and collaboration, we can really, really create a change,” said Ampolu. “Protecting our people and the land that we live on is a mutual responsibility. It is something that we have to do for our future generations.”
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