Free food for college students: the Free Food Alert initiative goes live

Photo Illustration by Samantha Rosinski, Staff Photographer

When has a college student ever denied free food? Never. 

The new Free Food Alert program, launched by the Student Government Association (SGA) in partnership with Chapman’s Office of Sustainability connects student need or want for food with leftovers. The new program notifies subscribers of excess food from campus events that is up for grabs through the Free Food Alert app or email notifications. 

Since its launch last month, and as of April 10, the Free Food Alert initiative at the university has 371 subscribers, 19 hosts and has held two official giveaways, excluding two test events in October of 2024. 

These giveaway events have already been attended by subscribed students, like first-year marketing student Evelyn Gaona on March 18.

“I was leaving the library because I was going to go get something at Qdoba,” Gaona said. “But I got the alert when I read my email. I'm like, ‘Oh, there's free food? I might as well!’”

The March 18 event held at Musco Lawn gave away tuna sandwiches, chips, fruit and cookies according to Gaona and Alexsandra Abrantes Pereira, a sophomore English major who was also notified and in attendance.

“(A giveaway) could be pizza that was left over after a meeting, or it could be a full breakfast bar that was catered for a staff department meeting,” Chapman’s energy conservation and sustainability manager Jenny Kaufman told The Panther. “It looks different every time.”

This program is already benefiting subscribed students. In particular, it positively impacts commuter students like Gaona and graphic design first-year Dayma Lopez Hernandez who might not have a dependable meal throughout their day of classes. This program is also important to Lopez Hernandez because of the ecological efforts it promotes on campus.

“Getting free food is always like a great alternative to using my meal swipes or Panther Bucks,” Lopez Hernandez said. “But then I also think it's really important to prevent food waste.”

The Free Food Alert program’s start dates back to Johns Hopkins University in 2017. Then, it was founded to address systematic food waste on the university’s campus. The Free Food Alert app was developed to be applied to university campuses worldwide in April 2023. At Chapman, with involvement and oversight from the Office of Sustainability, the Free Food Alert program tackles these same wasteful habits.

“(This program) makes sure our resources are being used efficiently and that we're making food available to as many people as possible and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions as best as possible,” Kaufman said.

The idea for such a program at Chapman was introduced and spearheaded by former SGA president and class of 2024 health sciences alumnus Rachel Berns. She presented the idea to the Office of Sustainability in the fall of 2023, according to Kaufman. 

Berns noticed systematic food waste from regular on-campus events. Though people attempted to save as much as they could, there was no streamlined way to invite students to take home leftovers and reduce the amount of food thrown away.

“I would see people at the end of events bringing Ziploc bags or Tupperware containers to try and pack up some of the extra food … I think it was something that people were trying to do (informally),” Berns told The Panther. “I wished there was a more formal way for people to be able to pick up this food as opposed to event attendees having to run around a building trying to gather as many people as they could so that food wouldn't go to waste.”

Berns then researched pre-existing programs at university campuses such as California State University, Fullerton’s Titan Bites and Free Food Alert and pitched the idea to bring the initiative to Chapman to campus partners. She began work on the project with the Office of Sustainability, Sodexo, Information Systems & Technology (IS&T) and Chapman’s Event Operations. Berns found unanimous agreement to start developing the program at the university.

“Everyone was sort of in agreement that, yes, this is a good thing that we would love to see happen,” Berns said. “It felt really empowering and gratifying to be working in a team of campus partners as opposed to just kind of fighting on my own to convince someone that something was a good idea.”

The united and passionate team behind the Free Food Alert initiative touched Berns and marked her SGA presidency.

“Overall, it was a highlight of my entire SGA presidency because it really felt like such a collective effort where everyone was so invested in the cause because everyone thought it was a worthwhile initiative to pursue,” Berns told The Panther.

Inheriting the initiative, 2024 to 2025 SGA president and economics and philosophy double major Eric Hall has overseen its development until the program’s official launch last month. Despite it being nearly ready almost a year ago, there were still concerns at that point from Chapman’s legal and risk departments according to Kaufman.

“It takes time for software to get adopted,” Eric Hall said. “But I'm hopeful for the future that it will be a highly utilized program.”

Giveaways can be hosted by Chapman faculty and staff who have completed the necessary training, which consists of watching several videos about the logistics, safety measures, terms and conditions and responsibilities of event hosts. It culminates in a quiz and approval from the Office of Sustainability.

“I'm sure anyone who's hosted an event on campus can tell you it's devastating to see food thrown away, especially because you know that others could take advantage of it,” said Sonya Hall, the assistant vice president of event operations and the host of two test giveaways in October.

You can subscribe to receive Free Food Alerts for giveaways on campus by signing up for email or app notifications with Chapman credentials.

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