Two students started the local Food Recovery Network chapter at HWS in 2024–25. By year's end, surplus dining-hall food was reaching shelters and pantries across the Finger Lakes — and being turned into more than 5,000 meals.
Through the Food Recovery Network, student volunteers collect surplus food from campus dining halls and deliver it to community partners across the Finger Lakes — transforming leftovers into meals and taking measurable steps to fight hunger close to home while reducing food waste.
Volunteers package leftover food from Saga Dining Hall and other food-service areas on campus that is still consumable but ineligible to be sold, and then transport it to places like the Geneva Methodist Church for the daily Community Lunch Program, in addition to local shelters and food pantries.
The local chapter was founded in the 2024–25 academic year by Abigail Cole '25 and Aiden Greiff '25, joining a national network with chapters in 49 states. The numbers from year one tell the story.
A dozen measures of what the HWS Food Recovery Network did in its first year — from pounds of food rescued to volunteer hours spent.
11,000+
lbs · Total food distributedThe headline number for 2024–25 — the total pounds of food the HWS Food Recovery Network put back into the community across the academic year.
9,500
lbs · Recovered, edibleFood recovered from campus that was still safe to eat but ineligible to be sold.
5,000
lbs · DonatedEquating to roughly 5,000 meals delivered to community partners.
3,000
SandwichesPeanut butter & jelly sandwiches made and distributed across the year.
1,200
SandwichesTurkey sandwiches made and distributed.
1 ton
ApplesOne full ton of apples donated to community partners over the year.
$1,100+
Funds raisedBy HWS Student Government's "Hearty Meals in a Bag" drive.
35
VolunteersStudents providing food recovery and distribution.
200
Hours · Volunteer serviceTotal volunteer hours logged across the academic year.
6
EventsFour sandwich drives and two food drives.
10
Community partnersIncluding the Community Lunch Program in Geneva, Helpful Hearts in Lyons, and the Samaritan Center in Syracuse.
49
States · National FRN reachU.S. states with Food Recovery Network chapters nationwide, including the local chapter at HWS.
Food packaged on campus reaches ten community partners across the region. Some of it stays in Geneva for the daily Community Lunch Program; some travels further afield to shelters and food pantries that meet urgent need every week of the year.
Geneva Methodist Church · Community Lunch Program
GenevaHelpful Hearts
LyonsSamaritan Center
SyracuseLocal shelters & food pantries
Finger Lakes region
Abigail Cole '25 and Aiden Greiff '25 launched the local FRN chapter at HWS in 2024–25. The numbers from year one are theirs to claim.
Co-founder · HWS Food Recovery Network
One half of the founding pair who saw a national service model and built a local version of it from scratch — Saga to Geneva Methodist Church to ten partner organizations across the region.
Co-founder · HWS Food Recovery Network
After helping launch the chapter, Greiff joined the Peace Corps as a Community Environmental Promoter. Though the community changed, the instinct to serve stayed the same.
Now in Senegal · Peace CorpsThe HWS chapter joins a national Food Recovery Network of 49 states' worth of student volunteers — but the work that matters happens locally: in dining halls, in church basements, in the food pantries where the meals actually land. Year one is a foundation. Year two starts now.
Andy Satter '75 reopens a 50-year-old box of diner photographs — and brings them home to where they were taken.
See the photosTwenty-five years bridging communities — Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Read the profileTwo Hobart football alumni — separated by 37 years — answer the same questions.
Read the Q&A