In a world in which college students are always on the lookout for a good (and free) meal, Free Food Alert has become the ultimate campus hack. Imagine you’re walking across campus, trying to decide what to eat for lunch, when suddenly your phone buzzes with an alert: Free pizza at the student center! Discover how these notifications are transforming student life, one delicious bite at a time.
What is Free Food Alert?
Free Food Alert is an innovative notification system that alerts voluntary subscribers when free food is available on campus. The system is intended to address food insecurity, enrich community building, help your personal finance goals, and reduce food waste.
Sign up for Free Food Alert Notifications
Hosts will send email and/or push notifications to subscribers whenever there is a free food giveaway on campus. This notification will include the location and the type of food available. To sign up for push notifications, you can download the Free Food Alert app on the Apple App Store or Google Play. Simply make an account with your wisc.edu email and you are automatically signed up for notifications! Whenever there is a giveaway on campus, you’ll know!
Who can host?
Select individuals can send out free food giveaway notifications by becoming a Host. To become a Host, you must
- Be a UW-Madison employee, faculty member or student leader of a Registered Student Organization (RSO) (Note: the RSO must provide food recovery or food donation services as part of its mission)
- Host a minimum of two events per semester
- Intend to use the Free Food Alert platform regularly
How to become a host
To become a host, sign up for Free Food Alert notifications by making an account on the Free Food Alert website or app with your wisc.edu email address. Then complete the Giveaway Host Training.
Training is valid for two years. After two years, hosts must reapply to continue to be approved hosts. After training is complete, you will be approved by the university’s Free Food Alert administrator. Then you’re ready to start sending notifications and reducing food waste!
Types of Events that Qualify for Free Food Alert
There are three types of events that qualify for Free Food Alert.
- Extended Event: The host sends out a Free Food alert when there is extra food at an event. There is a 15 minute – 1-hour window for subscribers to pick up. This is what the Free Food Alert program was originally designed for, with the goal of extending events to reduce food waste and feed hungry people on campus.
- Planned Event: An event that offers recovered food and/or an event that promotes free food giveaways. Hosts send out an alert at the beginning of the event to encourage subscribers to stop by and grab some free food.
- New Delivery/Pick-Up: Programs that recover food and place it in a central distribution area. Central distribution areas could be refrigerators and/or freezers that individuals could pick up food from. Hosts would send out an alert when a new delivery is placed in these areas and ready for pick up.
Take action in combatting food waste and reducing food insecurity by participating in the Free Food Alert system! Download the app, sign up for notifications and spread the word!
