A close-up of The Friendly Fridge BX located on Manhattan College Pkwy.
LAILI SHAHRESTANI / THE QUADRANGLE
Laili Shahrestani Editor-in-Chief
While food insecurity remains a pressing issue around the Riverdale community, efforts for Gourmet Dining to donate leftover food from Manhattan University’s dining hall, Locke’s Loft, to the Friendly Fridge BX — a take what you need, leave what you can community refrigerator just outside of campus gates — have remained unsuccessful.
The Friendly Fridge BX is a nonprofit organization located on Manhattan College Pkwy, aiming to reduce food insecurity and waste in the local community. The organization has expressed their interest in establishing an official partnership with Gourmet Dining, yet no further action has taken place.
Gourmet Dining has been hesitant to follow through with donating leftover food in the past, due to potential legal concerns, as well as a claim made by an anonymous employee that there was an alleged past lawsuit — which is still under investigation.
Sara Allen and Selma Raven, co-organizers of the Friendly Fridge BX, say they have been waiting several years to have a formal meeting with Gourmet Dining, in hopes to develop a successful partnership with Locke’s Loft.
“We would love to sit and work out something if possible,” Allen and Raven wrote. “We are all in this together and looking forward to a meeting if that can happen. We have patiently waited since 2021. Our last detailed conversation was with someone from Aramark [the former food servicer of MU], but once the provider switched, we got nowhere.”
The Friendly Fridge BX is affiliated with several corporate partners, and protects all their donors from civil liability under the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act. According to Dawn E. Johnsen, former attorney general in the Office of Legal Council for the U.S. Department of Justice, this legislation protects donors against criminal and civil liability, as long as the food was donated in good faith and without intentional misconduct.
Allen and Raven made it clear that institutions of higher education are included in the definition of “qualified direct donors” located in the Emergency Food Assistance Act of 1983.
Rev. Edward Beck, C.P. co-director of Campus Ministry at MU, has played a pivotal role in developing the current partnership between Zaro’s Bakery and the Friendly Fridge BX. Beck is still hopeful to have future conversations with Gourmet Dining about donating leftover food from Locke’s Loft to the Fridge. He reiterated the fact that donating these leftovers hold no legal consequences.
“THERE IS LEGALLY NO LIABILITY,” Beck wrote in an email.
According to the legal criteria given by Johnsen, Beck’s statement is proven true.
Keith Marciniak, district manager for Gourmet Dining, has also claimed there to be little to no leftover food to donate at the end of each night.
“We pride ourselves on not wasting a lot of food, so there’s usually not a lot of leftovers in Locke’s,” Marciniak said.
However, many MU students have witnessed the opposite.
Isabela Sofis, a junior at Manhattan University, said she has witnessed excess food being thrown straight into the garbage can at the end of each night.
“At the end of each night, we just watch the workers throw away all the food into the garbage,” Sofis said. “All the food in the salad bar I’ve seen gets thrown away, sometimes even before Locke’s closes.”
In addition, Marciniak insists that employees at Locke’s Loft know to donate food to the cause.
“All the managers and the culinary team are aware that anything and everything that could be donated would be donated,” Marciniak said.
But Beck, Selma and Raven say Zaro’s Bakery is the only food institution on Manhattan University’s campus to frequently donate to the fridge.
Kevin Henriquez, general and on-site manager of Gourmet Dining at MU, responded to the claim made by students regarding there being excess food thrown out each night.
“There could be multiple factors such as items falling out of the proper temperatures, or food that has been exposed to potential cross-contamination from the self-serve station… we run our own food waste program here on campus,” Henriquez said.
However, Raven went on to express how several other institutions around the community have already been donating without any issues.
“Horace Mann and the Riverdale Country Schools already donate here,” Raven said. “We even have big companies giving us food. Madison Square Garden and Global Citizen. We are licensed to do this.”
As for MU’s food waste-reduction program, Locke’s Loft has installed a “Waste Not 2.0” tool into the wall. This is a tablet-based tool that functions as a way to digitally track how much food is being wasted, by allowing staff to input data into its system. The machine serves as a tracking tool, and identifies strategies on how to reduce food waste using the data given. However, the tool differs from a repurposing tool, such as a compost machine or food recycler.
Allen went on to express how she would still like to revisit the conversation about creating a partnership with Locke’s Loft, despite pushback.
“What we’re aiming for is a partnership in which we can pick up any extra food, even if it’s one tray,” Allen said. “We will even go so far to sign an additional waiver. We did it with five of our corporate partners… we also have an attorney we can use.”
Raven expanded on this. While the partnership between Locke’s Loft, Gourmet Dining and the Friendly Fridge BX remains stalled, Beck, Raven and Allen all hope to revisit the conversation.
“We are even willing to go pick up the food ourselves,” Raven said. “There is so much need. And they are just up the street.”