Food Recovery Efforts for Upstream and Downstream Benefits

RFR has been collecting data since its inception in 2014. Improvements in the collection of data continued to occur as dining halls were added to the food recovery. The data and data analysis were shared with Chartwells to assist them in achieving UN Goal 12 (Responsible Production). Due to the data collection improvements achieved during the program’s growth, this analysis makes use of two years of RFR data collection (January 1st, 2018 and December 16th, 2019). This timeframe was selected to compare year-to-year monthly data and to show: 1) Chartwells’ progress on food production in order to eliminate waste; 2) food delivered to community partners; and therefore 3) food diverted from landfills.

The data was collected by student volunteers. Each data form submission records the date timestamp of recovery, dining hall, weight of food, food group, food more specific (actual title of dish served), food storage method, quantity of pans used, and size of pans. The student volunteer(s) weigh the food.  Data is input by volunteers through a Google form and once submitted, the information goes directly into a Google Sheets document. Weight of the food is our most valuable variable when seeking solutions to reduce that weight semester to semester.