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Cowboy Food Sharing: Supply the Soup Kitchen and Reduce Waste

Brant, Samantha L.
Abstract
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In the US 40% of our food is thrown away, and yet over 50 million Americans struggle to be sure there will be enough food to put on the table. Across the nation, some corporations, restaurants and universities have taken a lead in developing food recovery programs, that take high-quality food that would otherwise be wasted and donate it to organizations that share it with people who are facing food insecurity. In 2013 a group of students at the University of Wyoming (UW) recognized the issues of food insecurity in the Laramie community and proposed to help UW enact their own rood recovery program. Cowboy Food Sharing was born that year and in the fall of 2015, UW's Residence Life & Dining Services began sharing good, safe food that would otherwise be thrown away with the Laramie Soup Kitchen. The following will share the story of this project, including the process of drafting and implementing a new food sharing policy and how many people and partners were involved, and will discuss future directions for this work. The work done by The University of Wyoming's Cowboy Food Sharing program has resulted in over seven months of donations, which have helped the Soup Kitchen supply 600 more people in 2015 than they did in 2014.
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University of Wyoming. Libraries
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Keywords
food recovery,food waste,community and public health,Laramie,Wyoming,consumer issues,Washakie,policy reform
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