Apr 7, 2014 10:30 AM ET -
GAITHERSBURG, Md., April 7, 2014 /3BL Media/ –The Campus Kitchens Project honored Sodexo with The Vision Award, highlighting the organization’s leadership and commitment in communities across the United States in the fight against hunger.
Since 2001, Sodexo and Sodexo Foundation have supported student-run The Campus Kitchens Project (CKP) in its mission to share high school and college on-campus kitchen space, recover surplus food from cafeterias and engage student volunteers to prepare and deliver meals to millions of community members.
CKP presents The Vision Award to partners that help students make a difference in their community and work side-by-side with The Campus Kitchens Project volunteers. Engaging employees, clients, customers and even suppliers are all part of Sodexo’s STOP Hunger efforts, but it is the company’s commitment to mobilizing youth that makes it the first company to be recognized with the new annual award from CKP.
“Sodexo’s support has allowed us to engage hundreds of young people who believe no food should go to waste while people are hungry. Sodexo employees work side-by-side with our students each day, empowering us to serve more than 2 million meals nationwide in our fight against hunger, and support our work to grow The Campus Kitchens Project to more campuses in the years to come,” said Director of The Campus Kitchens Project Laura Toscano.
Sodexo Senior Vice President and General Counsel Robert Stern accepted the award April 4 at the Food Waste & Hunger Summit at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
“Frequently access is the biggest barrier that stands between a healthy meal and a hungry child,” said Stern, who is also chair of Sodexo Foundation. “Sadly we waste a third of the food produced in our country. That’s more than $161 billion in surplus food that could be diverted to feed hungry children and their families rather than landfills.”
Sodexo works with high school and college students across the nation who are the next generation of leaders fighting hunger in their communities. To further support young people in fighting hunger, Sodexo recently announced a larger commitment to help the nationwide initiative Food Recovery Network (FRN) grow its presence across the U.S. and donate double the amount of food to hungry Americans. This commitment to expand gives Sodexo units across the country the ability to work with Food Recovery Network.
FRN engages youth to package and transport surplus food from campus dining halls to needy community members, reducing the amount of food that goes to waste. With support from the Sodexo Foundation, Food Recovery Network has donated nearly 300,000 total pounds of food nationwide and more than tripled its on-campus chapters to 75 since May 2013.
Sodexo Foundation served as a founding funder for the network, and recently donated $150,000 in 2013 toward program costs – this year, Sodexo Foundation will again donate $150,000 to help the network hire staff and implement new processes.
Sodexo’s expanded involvement in Food Recovery Network includes:
Donating surplus perishable and prepared food to FRN, a move that aligns with Sodexo’s STOP Hunger engagement activities and Sodexo’s Better Tomorrow Plan commitments to reduce food waste. Sodexo’s expanded involvement will help take the network’s food donations from 245,000 pounds to 310,000 pounds this year.
Helping guide FRN with the support of Sodexo’s Chicago-based Food Safety expert Brian Turner as the network’s food safety advisor. This new role continues to ensure that FRN is in line with Sodexo’s industry-leading food safety and quality assurance standards.
Promoting chapter growth to help the network continue its expansion across the country. In 2011, FRN launched on one campus. Today, the network is present on 70 campuses, 13 of which are directly supported by Sodexo.
For more information about Sodexo’s commitments to the communities we serve like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @sodexoUSA. Visit Sodexo Foundation on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @STOPHungerUSA
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ABOUT SODEXO, INC.Sodexo, Inc. (http://www.sodexousa.com/), leading Quality of Life services company in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, delivers On-site Services in Corporate, Education, Health Care, Government, and Remote Site segments, as well as Benefits and Rewards Services and Personal and Home Services. Sodexo, Inc., headquartered in Gaithersburg, Md., funds all administrative costs for the Sodexo Foundation (http://www.sodexofoundation.org/), an independent charitable organization that, since its founding in 1999, has made more than $22 million in grants to end childhood hunger in America. Visit the corporate blog atblogs.sodexousa.com.
ABOUT THE CAMPUS KITCHENS PROJECTFounded in 2001, The Campus Kitchens Project is a national organization that empowers student volunteers to fight hunger in their community. On 34 university and high school campuses across the country, students transform unused food from dining halls, grocery stores, restaurants, and farmers’ markets into meals that are delivered to local agencies serving those in need. By taking the initiative to run a community kitchen, students develop entrepreneurial and leadership skills, along with a commitment to serve their community, that they will carry with them into future careers. Each Campus Kitchen goes beyond meals by using food as a tool to promote poverty solutions, implement garden initiatives, participate in nutrition education, and convene food policy events. To learn more about our work or bring The Campus Kitchens Project to your school, visit www.campuskitchens.org.
ABOUT FOOD RECOVERY NETWORKFood Recovery Network unites college students to fight food waste and hunger by recovering surplus food from their campuses and local restaurants that would otherwise go to waste and donating it to hungry Americans. FRN was founded by students in fall 2011 and the movement has quickly spread across the country to 70 colleges as of March 2014, donating over 283,000 pounds of food to hungry Americans. For more information about Food Recovery Network, visit our website at www.foodrecoverynetwork.org. Follow us on Twitter @FoodRecovery and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FoodRecoveryNetwork.
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