A brand new enterprise is gaining momentum on campus, after intensive collaboration between Macalester’s Sustainability Workplace and ITS Internet Companies. Supporting Macalester’s zero-waste targets, the Additional Eats meals restoration initiative goals to scale back meals waste.
Constructed into the present MacNav pupil app, the brand new interface permits college students, college, and employees to alert the campus when leftover meals is offered—so it may be shared and loved, fairly than wasted.
The inventive, community-centered thought—dropped at life by Director of Sustainability Megan Butler and Director of Digital Engagement Bryan Barnes—additionally goals to scale back meals insecurity on campus.
“College students have approached me to inform me how a lot they love Additional Eats and that they use it on a regular basis,” mentioned Butler.
All palms on deck for meals security
Additional Eats features like a social media community, permitting campus members to speak in actual time and share updates about obtainable leftover meals.
Dozens of employees members collaborated on the venture, speaking by way of considerations and deliberately designing an app to deal with them.
“My staff constructed a number of iterations of Additional Eats in response to suggestions collected from campus stakeholders,” mentioned Barnes. “We tried to strike a steadiness between the assorted necessities and requests. We’re persevering with to gather campus suggestions and might be bettering Additional Eats to maintain up with altering wants.”
Pupil staff additionally helped check the app, and the staff consulted with the Macalester School Pupil Authorities to make sure they had been assembly the neighborhood’s wants.
“I’m proud to go to a school so dedicated to sustainability and good expertise,” mentioned Nurain Jiwani ’26, a Sustainability Workplace pupil worker who helped create the venture’s imaginative and prescient and gave suggestions on early prototypes. “As a pc science main, I do know producing good working software program is a large problem.”
The thought—formidable because it was—naturally raised considerations about meals security in its early phases.
In response, stakeholders developed a meals security coverage to guard the neighborhood.
All posts on Additional Eats are required to incorporate a photograph of the meals, describe its location and amount, and word any allergens or dietary restrictions. Customers are additionally answerable for preserving their posts updated and eradicating them as soon as the meals is not suitable for eating.
Promising outcomes and rising attain
At launch, ITS reported over 700 energetic customers on the Additional Eats platform—a notable improve from the roughly 500 customers usually energetic on MacNav.
From that group, leaders estimate that Macalester can double the quantity of meals it diverts from the waste stream— from about 5,000 kilos final educational yr to 10,000 kilos this yr.
