Dining hall food that goes uneaten is helping feed people in the community surrounding USC. In a process called food recovery, USC Hospitality recovers uneaten food and packages it for donation to the surrounding community.
“Food is recovered as part of the cleanup process after every meal,” explains Carlos Perez, USC Hospitality’s Operations Manager. After this recovery process, “uneaten food is packaged and prepared for next-day pickup by the St. Francis Center.”
This partnership began at least seven years ago and has “provided around 3,000 to 3,400 meals to the St. Francis Center,” said Perez.
Located just 1.5 miles northeast of USC campus, the St. Francis Center works to provide “hunger relief to homeless and extremely low-income families and individuals in Los Angeles,” according to their website.
The center is open to everyone from Wednesday to Saturday, and allows people to pick up food from both their walk-up and drive-through distribution lines. Excess food recovered from USC dining halls typically “helps to feed upwards of 200 people every day,” said Ariana Vega, a Program and Operations Supervisor at the St. Francis Center.
“Anyone is eligible to receive these food donations,” said Vega. The St. Francis Center serves “anyone unhoused, families, individuals, community members, really anyone.”
Although the university is making efforts to limit food waste with the help of the St. Francis Center, food excess is still prevalent in USC dining facilities. Since the USC dining facilities serve such a large number of students, prepared food is often not finished by the end of scheduled meal times.
The excess sprawls beyond food waste and into the decor of the facility. The 8,000-square-foot Hogwarts-inspired space is the largest dining hall on campus, boasting daily specials, a full soup and salad bar, as well as made-to-order crepes and ice cream.
USC students concerned about dining hall excess and food accessibility for unhoused community members can get involved in the food distribution process at The St. Francis Center.
Student volunteers usually come on Saturdays, explains Vega. If students are interested in volunteering with the St. Francis Center, they can visit their website.
Students interested in promoting food accessibility also have another way to help feed their community. USC Hospitality’s Dining Dollar Donation Program gives students “the option to donate their extra dining dollars through the USC Mobile Dining app,” said Perez.
These donated dining dollars are then repackaged as meal swipes to be distributed by the Student Basic Needs program. “Last semester, 174 students were provided with meal swipe packages” through the program, said Perez.
Those involved in feeding the community around USC find the work impactful. “The most rewarding part for me is just seeing people,” said Vega. “When they get their food, they’re just smiling and telling me that it really helped them a lot.”
Those interested in volunteer opportunities with the St. Francis Center can email Vega at ariana@sfcla.org.