BLUE BELL/POTTSTOWN – Montgomery County Community College’s Food Recovery Program has been recognized among 28 community colleges across the country with the 2023-2024 Innovation of the Year award. The award is presented by the League for Innovation in the Community College, an international nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering innovation in the community college environment.
According to the college’s website, the award, created more than 30 years ago, recognizes innovative programs and the staff behind them at affiliated community colleges that improve service to students and communities.
The Food Recovery Program uses surplus food from MCCC’s Culinary Arts and Baking and Pastry programs to prepare free, healthy meals that are delivered to the Wellness Center’s Stock up for Success food pantries. Launched in fall 2023, the program has begun reducing the amount of wasted food, helping fight climate change, and alleviating hunger among students.
Karima Roepel, director of the Hospitality Institute, and Jennifer Fanega, first-year Food Sustainability Fellow at the Hospitality Institute, developed the program.
“We are incredibly proud to receive this award because it represents something that it stands for,” said Roepel. “In just its first year, the Food Recovery Program has changed students’ lives for the better. We have helped reduce food insecurity across campus and prevent food waste altogether. We thank the League for Innovation for recognizing all that we have accomplished so far and will continue to accomplish in the future.”
“The Food Recovery Program is truly an innovative way to address both food insecurity and climate change,” said Fanega. “I am honored by this recognition and so glad the program has received so much attention. It will no doubt help the college expand the reach and impact of the program.”
Fanega is an AmeriCorps Vista Fellow who worked at the college as part of a year-long fellowship program from August 2023 to July 2024. A 2021 MCCC graduate with a liberal arts degree, Fanega transferred to West Chester University in May 2023 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in nutrition with a concentration in sustainable food systems management. She is also a trained natural food chef and has worked with people who have health issues and dietary restrictions.
The Food Recovery Program is part of a response to the growing need among students who report being food insecure.
In September 2020, MCCC’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Innovation and Business Intelligence conducted a survey on student basic needs. It found that 38 percent of the 1,068 respondents reported experiencing some degree of food insecurity. Today, that percentage is likely even higher.
Barriers to eating healthy foods include a lack of financial resources. Benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, have been cut while food prices have risen.
In addition, the Food Recovery Program is an effort to combat climate change by reducing the amount of food that ends up in local landfills.
A 2021 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that “food loss and waste in the United States results in greenhouse gas emissions of 170 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent each year,” and according to the USDA, “methane, an even more potent greenhouse gas, is produced when food ends up in landfills.”
Finally, by providing free meals, students have access to nutritious meals and can help prevent hunger on campus.
During the fall 2023 semester, the Food Recovery Program provided the equivalent of 937 meals to food banks. Food banks were visited by 218 unique visitors with 979 visits, an estimated 200 percent increase from previous semesters.
“After SNAP benefits were cut in March 2023, we saw an upward trend,” said Dr. Nichole Kang, director of the Wellness Center. “We measured the first full month of spring 2023 and then again in fall 2023. That’s how we saw the 200 percent increase.”
Kang said a special QR code was created for students to log in, allowing them to track each of the 218 students.
The Food Recovery Program uses additional ingredients as well as student-prepared foods. The meals prepared through the program are typically vegan so that as many students as possible can eat them. Everything is packaged, labeled and donated, and any inedible leftovers are composted by Plymouth Meeting’s Back to Earth Compost.
Fanega’s one-year fellowship at the college ended in June 2024. For the program’s second year, Roepel said the college has hired a new fellow to take on her role and continue to grow the program. Lianna Beauchamps holds a bachelor’s degree in sustainability from Stockton University and has teaching experience. Beauchamps will teach students in the Hospitality Institute basic cooking skills and food sustainability concepts.
“In the second year of the Food Recovery Program, we will continue to provide meals to the Wellness Center while maintaining strong relationships and partnerships in Montgomery County and the region,” Roepel said. “We want to connect with the health and agriculture communities to support a more robust, holistic approach to wellness.”
The continuation of the Food Recovery Program is just one feature of the new Hospitality Institute, scheduled to open in the fall 2024 semester. The new 24,000-square-foot building on the Blue Bell Campus will house MCCC’s certificate and degree programs in Baking and Pastry Arts, Culinary Arts, and Tourism and Hospitality Management, as well as community and professional courses. Highlights of the building include the chocolate, pasta and fermentation labs and event space. For more information about the Hospitality Institute, visit the landing page.
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