Last week’s talk at Stanford went really well. I would have posted about this sooner, but the whole ‘fly cross-country with a one-year-old’ thing wiped us all out.
Anyway, I had a blast visiting campus, speaking with students, observing student-run food recovery in action and, of course, spreading the word at Thursday’s event. From where I stood, it seemed like great crowd, and the discussion afterwards was lively.
Best of all, I got my fellow food-waste-avoider, the Eco-Chef (Aaron French), to participate, livening up the proceedings. After I gave my talk detailing where and why we waste food, Aaron really brought the topic to life in speaking about waste reduction in his two restaurants.
Earlier in the day, I had the pleasure of eating lunch at Ricker Dining Hall with some students interested in food recovery. It was nice to see the “Love Food, Hate Waste” slogan atop the plate/tray return in Ricker (There are trays available to take, but they’re discreet). Same goes for the stop-sign like red “landfill” label on the trash bin and the green “compost”
bin, into which students scrape their food waste (awareness!).
Perhaps the most fun, though, was helping Kyle from SPOON do a food recovery run. The student-run food recovery operation salvages every day from most campus dining options, including the faculty club. We recovered 45 pounds of potatoes, fish, rice and more in about 45 minutes. The goods, like all rescued items, were then frozen to await the weekly collection by the Palo Alto Opportunity Center.
Thanks to all who made the trip possible, especially SPOON leader Tommy Tobin, who has a bright future in food recovery and hunger prevention.
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