2025 Food Recovery, Wrapped To-Go

Stanford has a long history of donating excess food— including formal efforts to donate food from dining halls, student-led initiatives to rescue food from events, and informal efforts from cafes and event planners to give away excess to staff and students at the end of a shift or event. 

In 2025, Stanford expanded its formal food recovery efforts by piloting a mobile app to make it easier for cafes and events on campus to donate food that is still good to eat. 

Eight entities participated in the pilot, delivering over 2,000 meals to the local community— within an average 6-mile radius from campus. This prevented 7.5k lbs of CO2 emissions, equivalent to the energy needed to charge 257.1k smartphones, and saved over 554.8k gallons of water, translating to 32,000 showers. 

The pilot helped automate and streamline donations of excess food and supported 15 local nonprofits, building out a system to ensure high-quality food is getting to people who need it.

 “The donation from Stanford was amazing! The variety of items was truly beautiful and a blessing…we used it to serve lunch to our shelter residents.”

– Food donation recipient, Project WeHOPE, a nonprofit mobile homelessness service in East Palo Alto

After the success of the pilot, the initiative continues with all cafes and event planners across campus now having access to the mobile app to schedule free pick-ups of excess food— from beverages to burgers.  

In total, across dining halls, cafes, and events, over 21,000 pounds of food were donated in 2025— delivering climate and community wins.

In addition to the donation efforts, Stanford’s dining halls, cafes, and event planners employ various waste reduction strategies to stop food waste from the start. These strategies include managing ingredients for longer shelf life, reutilizing excess food in new dishes, and giving away surplus food to staff and students. Preventing waste before it happens saves on operational costs and supports the university’s zero waste targets.