Oberlin junior Laura Franks and James Kastro, executive director of north-central
Ohio's Second Harvest Food Bank, have plenty to smile about. Each year the
organization makes a two-million-pound local dent in the nation's estimated
40 billion pounds of discarded food. And, thanks to the efforts of Franks
and her fellow volunteers--junior Joshua Sin-ger and sophomore Erin Claflin--the
College's dining services are helping the food bank feed the area's hungry
with weekly donations of surplus food from the campus dining halls.
Oberlin has been interested in making excess food available for some time, but lacked an effective means of distribution, says David Jensen, director of campus dining services. Franks, Singer, and Claflin brought the two organizations together last December.
One of 188 food banks across the country, Second Harvest collects prepared and perishable foods from donors and delivers them to 125 area organizations that operate soup kitchens, day-care centers, rehab programs, centers for the elderly, Head Start programs, and shelters, helping nourish about 30,000 people each month. --CN