Dining Services donates leftovers to needy

by Tara S. Donahue

Salads, pastas, meats, breads, vegetables and finally, dessert. These mouth-watering dishes line buffet and party tables across campus. But at the end of the party, leftovers often remain. When Vanderbilt Dining Services finds themselves in a situation such as this, they send the still-edible food to Nashville's Table, a local not-for-profit organization.

According to Frank Gladu, director of Dining Services, Vanderbilt has been donating food to Nashville's Table for the past five years.

"What's good for us is that when we have food left over from a dining event, there's an outlet to call," Gladu said.

Representatives come to Vanderbilt and pick up the food with their own containers.

Nashville's Table "harvests excess prepared and perishable food from area establishments and distributes it, at no cost, to agencies serving hungry, needy and homeless populations," according to its mission statement. After the food is picked up, the charity distributes it to any of 98 recipient agencies serving the homeless, elderly, women and children.

For the most part, the food that Vanderbilt donates comes from Vanderbilt Catering. Planning parties for a large group of people often comes with "built-in waste," Gladu said. No science exists to calculate the exact amount of food that a group of people will eat, and sometimes fewer people than expected attend the event.

At Freshman Orientation, for example, 300 bagged lunches did not get picked up by students. Vanderbilt called Nashville's Table, which came and retrieved the extra food.

Because each party is unique, there is no way to predict what kind of food or how much will be left over. Gladu estimated that they provide food to the organization once every seven to 10 days. Recently, Nashville's Table received 140 pounds from two separate University events.

Usually, the day-to-day operations of Vanderbilt Dining Services does not need Nashville's Table to pick up food. Once in a while, especially before students leave campus for vacation, Dining Services might have too many perishable foods such as produce, which they also donate.

Nashville's Table records indicate that the non-profit has collected 2,794 pounds of food from Vanderbilt Dining from Jan. 1, 2000 through Sept. 1, 2000.