Food Recovery Volunteer - Sign up by Friday, Jan. 25
My name is Mason and I’m an M3 here at Brody. Recently, a group of us and Dr. Brewer founded a new organization called the Food Recovery Network (FRN) here at ECU. In short, we are a volunteer group that takes surplus foods from grocery stores and donates them to shelters who give them out to people in need.
Recently, we have partnered with JOY community center and Trader Joes to run food recoveries. JOY serves over 60k meals a year and provides many other free services to the community. Currently, we’ve got a contract with Trader Joe’s to pick up their excess inventory and deliver it to JOY 3 days a week. All we do is show up to TJs, load up the food (around a truck load and more of meat, bread, and produce), and unload to the crowds of people who need it. The total length of a pickup lasts around 45 minutes.
If you’re looking for a unique volunteer experience to add to the CV with a low hourly commitment, sign up with the link below. We are asking for volunteers to sign up for pickups once or twice a month when they are available. The Trader Joe’s food is really high quality, and you are welcome to take some home after the pick-ups if you want to.
Additionally, we will have lots of leadership opportunities as the founder of JOY is interested in finding new ways for us to help out. For instance, Trader Joe’s also gives out hundreds of leftover flowers and bouquets to us and they were really excited about starting and promoting a program where we give them out to patients in the hospital. Ultimately, we are just starting out and hoping to build this into a sustainable and high impact operation.
I’ve attached a PowerPoint I made above if you want more info on the FRN. Link to sign up is below (just your name, email, phone, and class year). The deadline to sign up is by next Friday, and we will get back to people by the end of January to coordinate an online meeting. Feel free to contact me by text below or email if you have any questions.
Mason Martin
M.D. Candidate | Class of 2026
ECU Brody School of Medicine