Economic Analysis
The economic context of a food rescue project is a vital component to the enduring success of this program. The problem with relying solely on an economic analysis in planning is that economic models do not always consider the other contexts which we have explained in our previous sections. This section will discuss the direct and indirect costs associated with the implementation of a food rescue program at Lafayette College.
An estimate of associated costs are included in the table below, followed by a discussion of where these costs are derived.
Assumptions:
- 3 trips per week to donation agencies
- $3/ gallon and avg 20 mpg for the trucks or vans used
- Pre-existing insurance costs are not included as these vans and trucks are already in use
- Lafayette College would donate 300 pounds of food per week. Based on peer university comparison.
- The following estimates are derived from conversations with Bon Appétit and members of the Denison University community.
| Input | Cost (or Benefit) |
| Labor from Student Manager | @~10 hours a week*@ $10/hour = $100/week |
| Labor from volunteers | 0 explicit cost; 3 hours a week of opportunity cost at less than $150/ week |
| Labor from Bon Appétit | No extra labor cost |
| Transportation to donation agency | 2 miles to Greater Shiloh Soup Kitchen:(12 miles /20mpg)* $3 = $1.80/ week |
| Reduced waste hauling cost | ~ 300 lbs/week* $0.035/lb * = $10.65/ week |
| Disposable trays | $.1 /tray * 60 trays/week @ 5lbs/tray= $6.00/week |
| Reusable trays | 120 steel trays @ $33.33 = $4000 |
The direct costs associated with starting a food rescue program at Lafayette College are labor costs and transportation costs. The labor costs come from the extra man hours it would take to package the food after each night. The transportation costs are the man hours associated with transporting the food from the Lafayette College Dining Hall to the local donation agency. Also the cost of fuel and the operating and maintenance costs of the vehicles are other things to be considered when thinking of the economics of a food rescue program.
The indirect costs include the greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation vehicles and the opportunity cost of the man hours associated with packaging and transportation.
The economic benefit of a food rescue program is directly linked to the savings in the hauling of food waste. Environmental benefits are derived by limiting food waste in the landfill. This includes the benefits of more space in the landfill and less methane emitted by food waste decomposition. The social benefit of implementing a food rescue program is related to social justice and food justice. This program will prove valuable for both Lafayette College and Easton.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, every child whose physical and mental development is stunted by hunger and malnutrition stands to lose more than 10% in lifetime earnings. The cost of under-nutrition to national economic development is estimated between US$1.4 to $2.1 trillion”
Source: Foodbanking.org
While the general data we have is disparate for Easton and Lafayette College, based on the findings of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and data from other sources, it is clear that there is much broader economic benefit to the local economy when everyone can be more productive as a result of being appropriately nourished.
The conundrum in this project is how do you qualify the value of the massive amount of food that could be donated each day, such that the economic costs, short and long term, are worth the expense.
In this section we have discussed several economic aspects of a Food Rescue project. The question that we aim to answer is: what environment makes a food rescue project economically feasible? As previously mentioned, an effective food rescue plan will have to account for economic cost and benefit. This includes explicit economic costs and benefits, but it should also include the more obtuse, but equally important, benefit to society.
While our research and interviews with stakeholders at Lafayette College have not warranted explicit costs of a Food Rescue system. The following is a case study from Denison University which has a very similar student body size of 2,400 students. The means by which a similar institution have launched a food recovery network may prove to be a meaningful resource. As this systems has helped for the basis of many of the numbers seen in the beginning table.
Denison Food Recovery Network:
Adapted by Matt Schultheiss ’15 at Lafayette College in summary of communications from Rachel Auerbach ’16 at Denison University
Denison University and a few student leaders there took deliberate steps to achieve a successful Food Recovery Network.
The first step is to confirm that Dining Services is willing to work with the students to establish a food rescue system. Secondly, the institution needs to have space. This means space to store pans as well a sample refrigeration space. One of Denison University’s biggest issues was refrigerator space, as the pans take up a lot of space. Third was to set up partner organizations and figure out the best way to get the food to them. Denison University works with places like the Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, YES Clubhouse (an after school program for kids), who get food from the university every week. Some organizations are willing to pick up the food from campus; others don’t have the manpower so Denison will take the food to them. It is important to keep the food moving, otherwise it will need to be thrown away, which defeats the purpose. Students at Denison plan to match up quantities of food acquired from the dining hall(s) and quantity of food that can be taken by agencies. The final challenge for Denison was to get students on board to pick up the food. Targeting areas of campus such as environmental advocacy student groups and Environmental Studies departments are good resources for volunteers to lead this effort.
The second step is to figure out the logistics involved in this system. When Denison started its food rescue program they used disposable aluminum pans which, while convenient, are not a sustainable solution. The aluminum pans proved not strong enough to carry some food items, and this resulted in food being soiled by spilling instead of being served to people in need. The most notable set back with aluminum pans is that long term costs are high, as there is a need to continually purchase new disposable pans. Denison University switched to reusable stainless steel pans with lids which successfully addressed all of these challenges. For both of Denison’s dining halls, students established a schedule with the dining halls so that students pick up foods at convenient times. Denison currently recovers food from two dining halls.
Curtis Dining Hall and Huffman Dining Halls at Denison University both have the capacity to be donating food, but only one has the space to actually store the food. As a result of this challenge, students have used peripheral space to establish a separate refrigeration location for food from this specific dining hall. At the two storage facilities, all food is logged (weight and types of food) and allocated appropriately to each of the partners that Denison University is working with. Each organization returns pans clean to the students for reuse.
The economic implications of the food recovery system to Denison University are limited. All students who pick up food are volunteers, however the student leader is compensated for the organizational work that needs to be done to arrange for these student-volunteers. Based on preliminary findings, the extra steps that were taken by dining services employees to set aside food were minimal to none. Denison University spent $4000 for 120 stainless steel pans, this cost was assessed based on the aforementioned burdensome long term costs of disposable pans. Student volunteers drive University vehicles to the locations, as a result travel expenses are ambiguous but limited to overall maintenance and operation costs of these vehicles.
The food that is donated is significant. Denison University estimates that total amount of donated food per week equals 300 pounds. This food would have otherwise been sent to the trash and wasted. Through the use of Rock and Wrap it Up’s (an anit-poverty think tank) Whole Earth Calculator, we were able to estimate that 300 pounds of food per week is equivalent to 231 meals for those in need and 228 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent not emitted from landfills. Any food items that have not been brought out are eligible to be donated. Some of the items donated at Denison include Cooked vegetables, pasta, pizza, meat (chicken, beef, pork), vegetarian dishes, rice and others.
The success of Denison University’s food rescue system has depended on many factors. The most important of these aspects is ensuring that the people involved are reliably inputing the labor necessary to deliver this food to the organizations in need. Students agree that being a part of this project is a semester-long commitment and this has proven to be an effective means of retaining volunteers. Denison University hopes to continue this food recovery network far into the future.
The intricacies of the Denison program prove that these systems require the collaboration of many stakeholders. The donation of 300 pounds of food each week by Denison University is an important resource for local organizations’ to properly provide for those in need. By parallel, an equivalent amount of food donated by Lafayette College could significantly increase the ability of the Easton community to feed citizens who unable to get proper nutrition.
The Easton Hunger Coalition aims to provide all residents with access to healthy food. The analysis outlined in this section should be carefully considered as not only an explicit economic measurement, but instead a measurement of more broadly what kind of economic system will need to be in place. Like at Denison Univeristy, it may be necessary to compensate a student leader for the large amount of time spent to organize this kind of effort. Understanding long term costs, and what is acceptable costs will also be necessary. For instance, can Lafayette afford to use some of its own vehicles to transport food? These questions and those posed in other sections of this site will need to be addressed.