At the end of every school year, college students chaotically pack up the remnants of the past 9 months as they get ready to head home for the summer. A plethora of items are thrown away in the process, however, including perfectly good food.
More than 40% of the food we produce ends up in a landfill. According to the Huffington Post, more than 130 billion pounds of food are thrown away each year. Stockton University student and Move For Hunger's Program Assistant, Raquel Yuhas, decided to take action and help reduce food waste at her school.
As president of the Public Health Society on campus, Raquel decided the end of the school year was a perfect time to host a "Move Out" food drive. At the end of April, she set her plan in motion by decorating two large boxes as Easter bunnies to make the drive festive for the season. The decorations made the food drive unique, captivating, and grabbed the attention of many passersby.
As students cleaned out their dorms for summer, they joyfully took their unused food items to the boxes on campus. In just two weeks, the Stockton University community collected more than 120 pounds of food - that's enough to provide 100 meals! The donations were delivered to Fulfill food bank by our friends at Lowy's Moving Service, a Wheaton agent.
There are more than 114,000 people, including 1 in 7 children, in Monmouth and Ocean Counties who are struggling with food insecurity each day.Thank you, Racquel, the Stockton University Public Health Society members, and the crew at Lowy's Moving for working together to fight hunger and reduce food waste!
Find out how you can host a food drive for your community.
