• About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
The Wellesley News -
  • News and Features
    • Four Cases of COVID-19 Reported During Winter Break
      Four Cases of COVID-19 Reported During Winter Break
    • Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus
      Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus
    • Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali
      Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali
    • News
      • News in Brief
      • Nation & World
      • President’s Corner
      • Senate Report
    • Features
      • Alumnae Spotlight
      • Eye on Science
      • Faculty Focus
      • LGBTQIA+ Column
  • Opinions
    • Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
      Wellesley, why can’t you meet our dietary needs?
    • The block system is a joke
      The block system is a joke
    • Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
      Spineless nonpartisanship: how the Girl Scouts convinced me they no longer care about girls
    • Staff Editorial
    • Letters to the Editor
    • The Elephant in the Room
  • Arts
    • Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
      Music Performance Courses Adapt to an Altered Semester
    • Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
      Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of “Rebecca” fails to deliver compared to its classic counterpart
    • “Dash & Lily” Find Love, Stranded
      “Dash & Lily” Find Love, Stranded
    • Arts In The News
    • Reviews
    • Music Peek
  • Health and Wellness
    • No image
      Athletic impacts of Covid-19
    • No image
      A new kind of PE
    • No image
      Maintaining wellness as the cold sets in
    • Athlete of the Week
    • Boston Sports Update
    • The Vegan Digest
    • The SHE Corner
  • Miscellanea
    • No image
      Remote students experience existential crises; change class years in email signatures
    • President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
      President’s Column: The Butterfly Effect
    • Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
      Your next on-campus romance isn’t going to work out
    • The Artichoke
    • The Dose
    • The Olive Branch
    • Multimedia
      • Galleries
      • Infographics
      • Videos
By Mary Meisenzahl News, News and FeaturesMarch 7, 2018

Wellesley College to donate meals through Food for Free program

Wellesley College is one of many in the Boston area that is working with Food for Free Photo Courtesy of Vera Ye ’21 Staff Photographer

In December, Wellesley College began participating in the Cambridge-based program Food for Free, which facilitates donations of surplus food to people in need. Wellesley will join Olin College of Engineering, Babson College, Wellesley Public Schools and Bentley University as a local participant in this program. AVI Foodsystems, the company that operates Wellesley Fresh, is working with Food for Free to donate the excess food.

Food for Free describes their food rescue program as the heart of their work. “By recapturing fresh food that might otherwise be discarded, we reduce food waste while guaranteeing access to fresh produce and healthy meals for emergency food programs and individuals in need,” its website explains. The food collected as part of this program goes to over 100 different organizations, including various food pantries, shelters and youth programs in the Greater Boston area. This food has fed 30,000 people already.

Food for Free’s approach addresses not only immediate concerns of hunger, but long term health effects as well. “Our Produce Rescue program prioritizes fresh fruits and vegetables, ensuring we address not only hunger, but also nutrition, obesity and diet-related disease,” according to the website.

The participation of several institutions in the town of Wellesley made the College’s partnership with Food for Free possible. “Because these institutions collaborated and came to us as a group, we were able to view this as a single collection, making them a viable food donation partner,” said Sasha Purpura, executive director of Food for Free.

The Food for Free program aims to combat food waste and commit Wellesley to food sustainability Photo Courtesy of Vera Ye ’21 Staff Photographer

The collaboration between local schools and Food for Free was formed with the help of Wellesley’s 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) Working Group. The group is made up of participants from the Department of Public Works, the Natural Resources Commission and the Sustainable Energy Committee, who formed Waste Wise Wellesley with the goal of promoting sustainable materials management throughout the Wellesley community. Waste Wise is a voluntary program sponsored by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which aims to reduce waste.

The 3R Working Group reached out to Food for Free in December 2016, according to Program Director Fiona Crimmins. “We offered our expertise on food rescue, and we shared our experiences about our current food rescue programs,” Crimmins said. In January 2017, the Working Group visited Harvard to see how the program operated in a college setting.

“Translating this dream into a reality has been a complicated challenge, as there were few precedents of such a comprehensive and collaborative initiative,” said Ellen Korpi, vice chair of the Sustainable Energy Committee, in a press release about the project. Regarding the commitment of the food service organizations involved, 3R Working Group member Alison Cross said, “They are responsible for moving the surplus food through the process of collection, storage and preparation for pick-up, while protecting the integrity and safety of the food.” Workers at the colleges, universities and schools involved in the program play an integral role in ensuring that the process runs smoothly, Korpi said.

“Food for Free has also had a great deal of success in highlighting to food service directors that food rescue is great tool to reduce overproduction. Once schools start donating their surplus food, they’re aware of how much excess food they’re actually producing, and many schools adjust their production levels as a result,” Crimmins said. She noted that although food waste is a national issue, the Massachusetts Food Waste Ban, which prohibits institutions from dumping more than one ton of food waste per month in landfills, has resulted in local institutions being unusually aware of how much waste they produce.

“We find that sustainability offices at local colleges and universities are very interested in working with us because that want to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability to their school communities,” Crimmins said. Food for Free continues to look for opportunities to expand their operation to other local colleges and universities.

Share on

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Google +
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
Previous articleSnapshots of Studying Abroad: Four easy steps to combat culture shock abroad
Next articleFirst Committee On Inclusive Excellence Town Hall takes on achievement gap

You may also like

Four Cases of COVID-19 Reported During Winter Break

Students With Medically Restricted Diets Struggle to Eat On Campus

Students attending the puja ceremony

Students find new ways to celebrate Diwali

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Email Newsletter

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

Top Articles

  • Four Cases of COVID-19 Reported During Winter Break

Recent Tweets

Tweets by @Wellesley_News

The independent student newspaper of Wellesley College since 1901.

Sign up to receive our weekly digest in your inbox

* indicates required

  • About
  • Editorial Board
  • Advertise
  • Join Us
  • Archives
COPYRIGHT © 2021 THE WELLESLEY NEWS
Back to top