University of Connecticut, Wesleyan University and 21 other New England colleges have joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Challenge, an effort to cut the amount of food that goes to waste on college campuses.
By joining the challenge each school pledges to reduce the food waste being disposed on their campuses, and the total 1.64 million tons of food wasted each year in New England.
In 2011, New England had 11 schools participate in the program and recovered 4,538 tons of food.
The challenge has been endorsed by The Food Recovery Network, a group of 19 colleges and universities that recovered more than 130,000 pounds of food in its first year of operation, and promotes the connection between wasted food on college campuses and opportunities to aid in local hunger relief.
