Community Engagement
Community Engagement
Fighting food waste and expanding access to healthy food
Globally, food production and distribution account for roughly a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, one-third of all food produced goes to waste, while nearly 800 million people go hungry. The School of Environmental Sustainability is tackling these complex challenges through academic programs and growing real-world initiatives focused on fighting hunger, reducing waste, and building more equitable and sustainable food systems.
On the academic side, SES offers a bachelor’s degree in environmental science with a concentration in food systems and sustainable agriculture. Students can also get hands-on experience with local, sustainable food production through the school’s Urban Agriculture Program.
To increase Loyola’s impact, well-established sustainable food programs in SES are expanding partnerships with community groups fighting food waste and hunger. SES Senior Sustainable Agriculture Manager Kevin Erickson is leading the drive.
“As advocates of sustainable and local food systems, we realized that a more holistic approach should include addressing food access, recovery, and food waste,” says Erickson. “And because of our location in Chicago, we wanted to address unique challenges and opportunities in the urban environment.”
In 2023, Erickson established a partnership with the nearby church Saint Thomas of Canterbury, part of the Mary Mother of God Parish. The parish manages a food pantry and soup kitchen, and parishioners were interested in establishing vegetable gardens on parish properties.
Erickson provided expert guidance on urban gardening methods and arranged for two student interns to support the initiative over the summer. The students brought fresh produce from Loyola’s greenhouse and garden, assisted in the food pantry, and worked on the parish’s newly established garden beds. Canterbury House director James Murphey said that the collaboration made it possible to offer more healthy, fresh produce to community members in need.
Later, gifts from the Ferdi Foundation and the Gore Family Memorial Foundation allowed Erickson and his collaborators to officially establish the Loyola Food Security and Food Distribution Program and offer two paid student internships to support the initiative year-round.
SES seniors Mereya Riopedre and Ellie DeMilt started as Loyola’s first food equity coordinators in November 2023. They came to the roles with leadership skills and experience gained through their work with the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a national, volunteer-based student movement dedicated to fighting food waste and hunger. Since Loyola’s FRN chapter started in 2016, members have collaborated with Aramark, Loyola’s food service vendor, to recover extra food from campus dining halls and deliver it to A Just Harvest, a Rogers Park food pantry.
Ellie DeMilt (left) and Mereya Riopedre (right) interned as food equity coordinators during the 2023 to 2024 academic year.
Riopedre and DeMilt say that the new paid coordinator positions allow them to accomplish far more than they could as FRN volunteers.
“Stepping into this role of food equity coordinator means that we have set aside time for this work and deeper connections to Loyola administrators so we can make more significant change,” says Riopedre.
The food equity coordinators organize more than 100 student volunteers, coordinate food recovery runs, organize campus food drives, and build partnerships with community organizations and businesses.
During the fall 2023 semester, the coordinators and FRN members worked with Aramark to expand food recovery from one campus dining hall to three. At the end of the semester, they facilitated a campus food drive that collected 475 pounds of food for donation—more than double the quantity collected in the previous semester. Riopedre and DeMilt also trained new student volunteers and led a food recovery training session for over 100 Aramark employees.
Before graduating in May, Riopedre and Demilt helped hire and train Scotty Monteith and Maddie Mizon to fill their coordinator roles. Over the summer, Monteith and Mizon expanded the recovery network to include more restaurants and farmers markets, including the Edgewater Farmers Market, Horner Park Farmers Market, and Vee Vee’s Ethiopian Restaurant. The student workers also planned and designed a food storage facility in the SES building. The new storage room includes industrial refrigerators (purchased with support from the Ferdi Foundation) and dry shelving. The facility allows the team to collect and store more food items for donation, increasing overall recovery efforts.
Monteith and Mizon recovered 2,507 pounds of food during the summer, reaching nearly half the group’s annual goal. In the 2024-2025 academic year, the Food Security and Food Distribution Program team aims to increase total campus food recovery to 5,800 pounds, a 20 percent increase from the previous year.
“This is a really exciting time to be involved in food justice efforts on campus,” says DeMilt. “Mereya and I are excited to watch the Food Recovery Network and the food justice effort on campus expand and grow long after we both graduate.”
On the academic side, SES offers a bachelor’s degree in environmental science with a concentration in food systems and sustainable agriculture. Students can also get hands-on experience with local, sustainable food production through the school’s Urban Agriculture Program.
To increase Loyola’s impact, well-established sustainable food programs in SES are expanding partnerships with community groups fighting food waste and hunger. SES Senior Sustainable Agriculture Manager Kevin Erickson is leading the drive.
“As advocates of sustainable and local food systems, we realized that a more holistic approach should include addressing food access, recovery, and food waste,” says Erickson. “And because of our location in Chicago, we wanted to address unique challenges and opportunities in the urban environment.”
In 2023, Erickson established a partnership with the nearby church Saint Thomas of Canterbury, part of the Mary Mother of God Parish. The parish manages a food pantry and soup kitchen, and parishioners were interested in establishing vegetable gardens on parish properties.
Erickson provided expert guidance on urban gardening methods and arranged for two student interns to support the initiative over the summer. The students brought fresh produce from Loyola’s greenhouse and garden, assisted in the food pantry, and worked on the parish’s newly established garden beds. Canterbury House director James Murphey said that the collaboration made it possible to offer more healthy, fresh produce to community members in need.
Later, gifts from the Ferdi Foundation and the Gore Family Memorial Foundation allowed Erickson and his collaborators to officially establish the Loyola Food Security and Food Distribution Program and offer two paid student internships to support the initiative year-round.
SES seniors Mereya Riopedre and Ellie DeMilt started as Loyola’s first food equity coordinators in November 2023. They came to the roles with leadership skills and experience gained through their work with the Food Recovery Network (FRN), a national, volunteer-based student movement dedicated to fighting food waste and hunger. Since Loyola’s FRN chapter started in 2016, members have collaborated with Aramark, Loyola’s food service vendor, to recover extra food from campus dining halls and deliver it to A Just Harvest, a Rogers Park food pantry.
Riopedre and DeMilt say that the new paid coordinator positions allow them to accomplish far more than they could as FRN volunteers.
“Stepping into this role of food equity coordinator means that we have set aside time for this work and deeper connections to Loyola administrators so we can make more significant change,” says Riopedre.
The food equity coordinators organize more than 100 student volunteers, coordinate food recovery runs, organize campus food drives, and build partnerships with community organizations and businesses.
During the fall 2023 semester, the coordinators and FRN members worked with Aramark to expand food recovery from one campus dining hall to three. At the end of the semester, they facilitated a campus food drive that collected 475 pounds of food for donation—more than double the quantity collected in the previous semester. Riopedre and DeMilt also trained new student volunteers and led a food recovery training session for over 100 Aramark employees.
Before graduating in May, Riopedre and Demilt helped hire and train Scotty Monteith and Maddie Mizon to fill their coordinator roles. Over the summer, Monteith and Mizon expanded the recovery network to include more restaurants and farmers markets, including the Edgewater Farmers Market, Horner Park Farmers Market, and Vee Vee’s Ethiopian Restaurant. The student workers also planned and designed a food storage facility in the SES building. The new storage room includes industrial refrigerators (purchased with support from the Ferdi Foundation) and dry shelving. The facility allows the team to collect and store more food items for donation, increasing overall recovery efforts.
Monteith and Mizon recovered 2,507 pounds of food during the summer, reaching nearly half the group’s annual goal. In the 2024-2025 academic year, the Food Security and Food Distribution Program team aims to increase total campus food recovery to 5,800 pounds, a 20 percent increase from the previous year.
“This is a really exciting time to be involved in food justice efforts on campus,” says DeMilt. “Mereya and I are excited to watch the Food Recovery Network and the food justice effort on campus expand and grow long after we both graduate.”