Jaclyn Kincade

Carter Brown
Cassie Keene
Medi Kikoni
World Wildlife Fund at Virginia Tech
How much food waste do you think is produced annually by college campuses?
College campuses throw out a total of 22 million pounds of uneaten food each year, while
the average college student generates 142 pounds of food waste. Virginia Tech has
recently partnered with the World Wildlife Fund in an effort to cut down on food waste
and we need your help.
My name is Carter Brown and I am the World Wildlife Fund liaison here at
Virginia Tech. I am also a professor in the Food Science and Technology Department. At
Virginia Tech, we live by the motto invent the future. This is a motto that my
department takes very seriously, and one that we hope you all here tonight do as well.
Our own Food Science and Technology department motto is engaging minds to meet
global food and health challenges. In order to embody this persona, this year were
proposing that Virginia Tech partner with the World Wildlife Fund in order to implement
programs to reduce food waste on campus.
The World Wildlife Fund is the worlds leading conservation organization,
working globally in 100 countries. For 50 years, WWF has been working to protect the
future of nature. WWF is an international non-governmental organization that works to
reduce humanitys footprint on the environment. They are dedicated to identifying
problems and developing solutions in regards to climate, food, forests, fresh water,
oceans, and wildlife. WWFs mission is to stop the degradation of our planets natural
environment, and build a future in which people live in harmony with nature.

While WWFs work in all areas matter, food waste is something that directly
affects this campus and is an initiative the Food Science and Technology program is
proud to support. The World Wildlife Fund is working to understand how to accelerate
the adoptions of strategies to measure and reduce food waste. We are also promoting data
transparency, which will allow companies to benchmark food waste prevention
performance with their peers and across industries.
Tonight, we are asking my fellow academic minds to contribute to the funding of
the implementation of similar programs at Virginia Tech. Together with WWF the
department will track and compare the food waste produced by each of the dining halls
on campus. At the end of the spring 2017 semester, the Food Science and Technology
department will present their findings to the University and brainstorm solutions. We are
also planning basic seminars and campus wide marketing efforts to educate students
about food waste, such as the posting of informative flyers and demonstrations on the
Drillfield. Our students are also developing a program in partnership with the dining halls
to collect unavoidable food waste that can be preserved to distribute to homeless shelters
once a week across the New River Valley.
Outside of my professional obligations, I am a father to two beautiful children. As
much as I love being a professor, I also value spending time with my kids out in nature.
Nature is something we specialize in here in the New River Valley. Whether its hiking
the Cascades or tubing down the New River, I want to make sure my children can take
their own children there one day. Protecting these resources and the beauty of our
community is why I am proud to support the World Wildlife Funds mission.

All we need from you is a small donation in order to achieve our goals and make our
university part of the World Wildlife Funds goal to save the world. If every person in
attendance tonight donated at least $10, we could easily reach our goal of $5,000 to
launch these new programs.
If you are interested in getting further involved with the VT WWF mission, please
contact me at worldwildlifeliaison@wwf.org. If you want to learn more about the World
Wildlife Fund, please visit their website at http://www.worldwildlife.org. Please do not
hesitate to contact WWF is you have any further questions. WWF can be reached at
contactworldwildlifefund@wwf.org. Thank you for your time this afternoon. I hope I had
the ability to inspire a restorative action from our audience today.