UW-Green Bay Student Group Competes For Grant To Help Feed Hungry

A student group at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay is hoping to win a national contest that will help them feed the hungry.

UW-Green Bay is one of seven schools in the running to get a “campus kitchen” grant. Its entry is from a student organization called, Feeding the Hungry and Reducing Waste.

Alex Stenner, the group’s student coordinator, said members have worked with the campus’s food service provider, A’viands, and have distributed things like baked goods to charities, but would like to branch out to serving hot meals.

Stenner said A’viands’ food service coordinator tells him there is a lot of food that can be salvaged.

“They have six 80-gallon barrels that they fill up every week with compostable material,” said Stenner. “Basically, six 80-gallon barrels is going to waste. A portion of that is what we can use — a significant portion at that.”

Stenner’s group entered the Campus Kitchen Project contest. There are seven schools in the running to get $5,000 grants to “kick start” food projects. The top five vote recipients get the money.

Stenner said that the money will go towards “kitchen equipment, knives, pots, and pans and supplies.”

“Let’s say they have a bunch of chicken that’s going to go to waste and they don’t want to waste it,” said Stenner. “So, the business gives us half, we cook it up, we throw some stuff with it. Make a wholesome meal and we deliver it out into the community.”

Stenner has identified several charities and soup kitchens that would accept food from campus. If Feeding the Hungry and Reducing Waste wins the contest, he said it could help feed up to 100 people in Green Bay each week.

Online voting in the national contest ends at midnight on Wednesday.