Mount St. Mary’s has become the first college to participate in Chefs to End Hunger, a program that donates excess food from restaurants and hotels to local agencies serving meals to those in need. Since February, Mount St. Mary’s has been saving food leftover from its cafeterias and campus events, donating about eight large boxes of food each week to The Midnight Mission in downtown Los Angeles.
Chefs to End Hunger is the creation of LA & SF Specialty, a food distributor based in four Western states. The Mount’s partnership with LA & SF Specialty is the fruit of two years’ work to find a safe, reliable way to get unused food from the College to those in need. Bon Appétit, the Mount’s on-campus food provider, helped connect the College to Chefs to End Hunger.
“We have food that goes unused after events, at the cafeteria,” says Jotanna Proescholdt, Mount St. Mary’s director of auxiliary services and food services. “But there are issues with donating food, keeping it safe, and a lot of red tape with regulations.”
Partnering with LA & SF Specialty enables the Mount to get its leftovers to the Midnight Mission safely, efficiently and consistently. “They provide us with proper boxes, instructions, and when they’ll pick-up food during the week,” Proescholdt says. “Then they take the food to their facility where it is combined with any other donations and delivered all together to the Midnight Mission.”
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