College of St. Elizabeth's Food Recovery Program

More than 40% of food in the US ends up in the trash, while millions of Americans struggle daily with hunger and food insecurity. The Campus Kitchen at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown recently launched an initiative to help address this disconnect.

Each week, student volunteers from the college collect unused food from local grocers and eateries, such as Trader Joe’s, Panera Bread and the college’s own dining hall. In the Campus Kitchen, the food is transformed into meals by dietetic interns and undergraduate students in the college’s food and nutrition program working under the supervision of trained faculty and employees. Prepared meals are then delivered, frozen or fresh, to local organizations in need. Deliveries also usually include breads, baked goods, coffee and other food items.

The program has recovered more than 6,000 pounds of food since launching in late 2018, and its weekly drop-off service has become a bright spot in the regular routines of a nearby low-income senior housing facility, the Interfaith Food Pantry and Morristown’s Community Soup Kitchen and Outreach Center (Nourish NJ), to name a few benefitting organizations. Another recipient is the campus’s own Food Pantry. Opened last year, the pantry addresses the increasing inability of many college students to afford adequate and nutritional meals daily.

According to Kathleen Carozza, director of the college’s dietetic internship program, the goal of the grant-funded Campus Kitchen program is to recover food that would have otherwise been thrown out and to repurpose it in a variety of ways. “It’s addressing the ecological problem of food waste and the social problem of food insecurity.” We’d say a high grade is in order.