Leftover Wahoo BBQ from a department meeting. Untouched Take It Away sandwiches from a career fair. Trays of cookies from an alumni reception. Dozens of food-centric events happen across the University of Virginia daily, making post-event leftovers inevitable.
The UVA Office for Sustainability’s partnership with Free Food Alert, an app launched in 2017 at Johns Hopkins University, makes sure that food reaches students instead of dumpsters. The program connects event hosts with hungry community members through real-time notifications when surplus food is available. In 2023, the new version of the app became available to all universities worldwide.
Hosts simply fill out information about their leftover food, the pickup location and the availability window. Community members who have signed up for the service receive the notifications and can claim the food.
“I love Free Food Alert because the positive impacts feel incredibly tangible,” said Lela Garner, sustainability manager for student outreach and engagement in the Office for Sustainability.
Garner calls Free Food Alert at UVA a “win-win-win”: It diverts food waste from landfills, simplifies cleanup for event hosts and provides free meals to people who need them.
Bringing the service to Grounds
Free Food Alert came to UVA because a student saw a problem and took action. During her first year, Jessica Chung interned with UVA Dine in the Sustainable Food Collaborative and witnessed the amount of perfectly good food going to waste.
Jessica Chung, a third-year materials science and engineering student, is making a difference in her community. She heard of Free Food Alert and through her internship with UVA’s Sustainable Food Collaborative, helped bring the service to Grounds. (Contributed photo)
She realized the waste extended far beyond dining halls; events across Grounds generated significant food waste, too. The third-year materials science and engineering student discovered that Free Food Alert was working at Johns Hopkins University and several other schools across the nation.
“Seeing it at other schools encouraged me to start looking into what this would look like if we brought it to UVA,” she said. Chung contacted the CEO of Free Food Alert and received a free trial of the service last spring. The service has been renewed for another year at UVA.
“Jessica planted the seed and is now nurturing it,” Garner said. “It’s a great example of a student seeing a need in the community, finding the proper channels to navigate within UVA, and then making a really good pitch for a new program and finding a home for it.”
How it’s going
Since launching at UVA, more than 1,350 people have signed up for Free Food Alert. Fifty trained hosts are active on the app, and more than 48 alerts have gone out. The program has proven especially helpful for UVA faculty and staff members managing post-event cleanup.
Ryan McCarthy, facility manager for the Division of Student Affairs, supports building operations and maintenance across Newcomb Hall and other Student Affairs spaces, where she witnesses the waste problem firsthand.
Physics doctoral students gather around leftover catered Wahoo BBQ from a Facilities Management employee appreciation event on Sept. 25. A Free Food Alert connected them with the surplus food shortly after the event’s conclusion. (Contributed photo)
“Something that sets my hair on fire from time to time is the amount of food waste that comes through (Newcomb Hall),” she said.
A few weeks ago, McCarthy’s staff meeting featured Roots catering. Afterward, half-full trays of barbecue tofu, kale and salad toppings remained. McCarthy issued a Free Food Alert, and within minutes, UVA community members arrived to pick up the leftovers, making clean-up a breeze.
“Using Free Food Alert means I don’t have to go around trying to foist food on people or put it in a community fridge somewhere, and it maybe doesn’t get eaten,” McCarthy said.
For third-year material science and engineering major Anisha Jarang, Free Food Alert has become a valuable resource during high-stress weeks.
