mizzou food
recovery network
The Food Recovery Network at Mizzou
Joe Plevel, a former Mizzou football player, brought the Food Recovery Network to the University of Missouri-Columbia to life. He started the program in March 2013 after hearing about its success at Brown University. Plevel is passionate about helping the community, which motivated his efforts to start the program at Mizzou. He said he has always been bothered by the enormous amount of food that goes to waste while there are people going hungry here in Columbia.
In the first few years, Mizzou FRN provided donations of food twice a week to St. Francis House, a Catholic worker house that provides hospitality for people who live on the street as well as the near-homeless in Columbia. Mizzou’s Food Recovery Network collect leftover food that would have ended up in the garbage from the Sells Family Dining Hall. The student volunteers deliver the leftovers to St. Francis every Tuesday and Thursday night after the dining hall closes. When planning where to donate the food, Plevel first looked into several different shelters in Columbia and found St. Francis to be the most in need.
Mizzou FRN has made significant progress, more than any of the inital creators ever thought it could. It has now been officially recognized as an official Mizzou organization, which opens up oppurtunities for greater recognizability and volunteer recruitment.
The Food Recovery Network at Mizzou is always open to getting more volunteers involved. Plevel started a Facebook page called Food Recovery Network-University of Missouri, on which he posts pictures and updates about the success of each pick-up. He also created a Google document in which volunteers sign up for different pick-up days throughout the week. The Google document contains a record of the amount of food that has been recovered and donated each day so that Plevel and his volunteers can track their progress. Currently the largest recovery included 157 pounds of food.
“We are making a difference in the Columbia community and providing meals to hungry people. And that’s all you can ask for," Plevel said.
Mizzou Food Recovery Network Looks to Expand
Meet the website creators.
Becca Johnson
Becca came to the University of Missouri from Pewaukee, Wisconsin and is currently a sophomore studying Journalism with an emphasis in Strategic Communication. She competes on the Mizzou Gymnastics team and hopes to be a Sports Information Director in the future.
Ciara is a sophomore Journalism student with an emphasis in strategic communications and a minor in psychology at Mizzou. She hopes to one day work in advertisement or to do public relations with a magazine publication. Ciara is originally from Chicago.
Ciara O'Shea
Mitchell Hatten
Mitchell Hatten is a sophomore at the University of Missouri and is originally from Cameron, Mo. He is studying journalism with an emphasis in strategic communications.
Hannah Knight
Hannah Knight is a sophomore at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is majoring in journalism with a double minor in English and political science. She hopes to become an investigative reporter.