How many times do you attend a reception or a luncheon meeting on campus and one or all of the following occur:

a.) You’re not able to eat everything in your boxed lunch so you throw the uneaten apple or unopened bag of chips in the trash.
b.) Leaving an investiture you notice that there are multiple trays of fruit, cheese and decadent desserts half full.
c.) Your department sponsored a retirement reception and they ordered way too much food so the remainder is brought back for staff to eat or take home to their family.

If you answered “any of the above”, you’re not alone! With so many people going to bed hungry in our community, wasting food like this and not putting it to good use is a travesty. With the support of David Adkins, Vice Chancellor for External Affairs and the KUMC legal department, a task force has been created to explore the idea of establishing a food donation program. This would be a campus-wide effort for the medical center (university departments) only. It could be expanded in the future to include the KU Hospital and Kansas University Physicians. A protocol would be developed for collecting uneaten packaged foods and for distributing these foods to local organizations in need. This could include but is not limited to area schools, Friendship House, homeless shelters, etc.