MADISON, Wis. — Leaders with the University of Wisconsin-Madison said food waste accounts for about 30% of the solid waste the university generates.

There is work being done to redirect that waste away from the landfill. The goal is to be a zero-waste campus by 2040.

Christina Treacy, a senior studying environmental and political science, is part of that effort. She’s the co-president of UW-Madison’s chapter of the Food Recovery Network, a national organization.

“Their mission is to minimize food waste and mitigate food insecurity on campuses,” Treacy said. “So, what we do is recover leftover food.”

Most of the chapters of the organization collect unused food from dining halls and markets on college campuses and deliver it to local food pantries. Treacy’s group takes things one step further by preparing the food into a hot meal twice a week for anyone on campus. Everyone is welcome to eat, no questions asked. They also offer sandwiches and snacks to go, and containers to take leftovers home in.

“Sometimes we have to purchase ingredients to ensure that we’re providing a full meal because that’s obviously our goal,” Treacy said. “We can’t control what we get, because it’s different every day.”

Food waste is a problem that Travis Blomberg, a campus resource coordinator with UW-Madison’s Office of Sustainability, has been trying to solve.

“We want to first do source reduction and feed hungry people, that’s what we would like to do,” he said. “The flip side is at the end of the day, there could be food still wasted, or food that doesn’t meet the Wisconsin health food code.”

The university is trying two different pilot programs. One tracks food purchased to prevent overbuying. The other packages leftover food into frozen meals.

Blomberg and his team are also working to develop a campus notification system that alerts students when and where free food is available.

“One of the things that we did was put out a survey and asked the campus community, ‘Is not having a food scrap collection program a problem?,’” Bloomberg said. “I think it was around 94% of respondents said it was unacceptable.”

Bloomberg said there is still a long way to go, especially when it comes to inedible food waste like apple cores or banana peels. For this, the office of sustainability is looking into expanding the university’s composting efforts. That would require investing in a processing facility or working with Dane County’s composting program.

Treacy said this work is critically important and solves two problems at once.

“We get to recover food that’s going to go to waste and we get to serve students who are experiencing food insecurity,” she said. “We probably offer the most unique services on campus.”