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SCHENECTADY
College’s dining hall leftovers recycled into meals for the needy
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Jill Falchi was always bothered by the food she saw wasted at restaurants.
    In her years working at banquet halls and eateries, the 21-year-old Union College senior always bristled at the sight of a garbage can filled with perfectly edible food. She always wondered why the unused food couldn’t be given to someone in need instead of wasting away in a landfill.
    “I’ve worked in restaurants all my life and they throw so much food away,” she said Saturday.
    Likewise, she wondered why Union’s six dining halls couldn’t put their leftovers to better use. And that’s when she learned about the Campus Kitchen Project, a national volunteer program that teaches students how to recycle food from their cafeteria into nourishing meals for the needy.
    Each week, Falchi and a group of about 30 volunteers gather unused food items from the dining halls and create a menu that is cooked at the kitchen in Union’s College Park Hall on Saturday morning. In total, the students prepare about 150 meals, which are delivered to the Schenectady City Mission hot and ready to serve during the late afternoon.
    Mike Saccocio, City Mission executive director, said the Campus Kitchen program under Falchi’s direction has been a windfall, especially considering the general scarcity of volunteer resources during the weekends. He said the meals, now in their fourth week, help supplement the mission’s normal food service.
    “It is a huge help to us because they take care of the whole meal,” he said. “For a place like the mission where we are putting out four meals a day seven days a week, this is a real gift.” ................>>>>...............>>>>..............................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01103&AppName=1