How Farmlink is Turning Food Waste into Food Security | Aidan Reilly

The pandemic has put the issue of food insecurity into full view. So many families struggled to get the food they needed this last year, and the number in need is only rising. While people are going hungry, farms are being forced to throw away billions of pounds of wasted produce, dairy and eggs. How can we turn food waste into food security? WELCOME TO THE DARIN OLIEN SHOW 20 Billion pounds of farm produce are thrown away each year, while 40% of Americans are experiencing food insecurity. These two facts instantly became connected in 23-year old Aidan Reilly’s mind when he first learned of them at the pandemic’s start. After being sent home halfway through his junior year of Brown University due to Covid-19, Aidan saw something that sparked his interest and pulled him out of his funk. After reading a news article and doing further research, he was surprised to learn that farms were throwing away mountains of produce while the national food insecurity crisis spiked. Instead of sitting on that information, he gathered a group of friends and began cold calling farms around the Los Angeles area looking for surpluses. He then rented U-hauls to transport the extra food to local food banks. His efforts eventually turned into The Farmlink Project. The project has moved over 40 million meals in almost every state and won Aidan and his co-founder James Kanoff the 2021 Congressional Medal of Honor Citizen’s award for Service. This conversation with Aidan made me so happy because it represents a story of young people recognizing a problem, finding a solution and then taking action. We need so much more of that, especially now. This episode is all about the hidden truths of food insecurity and how it may look different than you expect. Anyone can be vulnerable to going hungry - anyone. The pandemic has made that abundantly clear. But what it has also made clear is that regular everyday people can get involved, and make a big difference. ALSO IN THIS EPISODE: [00:07:06] How Farmlink came to be [00:12:38] The conversation with the very first farmer [00:15:14] Myths about food insecurity [00:22:43] What to do about food waste [00:28:00] The role food banks play in helping communities [00:35:00] Making healthy choices available [00:43:12] How to get involved LINKS: The Farmlink Project Get Involved and Donate to Farmlink The Farmlink Project on all social media - @farmlinkproject Try Vivo, the best shoes on the planet and the next best thing to going barefoot. Get 20% off with code DARIN20. Purchase Barukas Nuts for 20% off with code DARIN Episode Transcript [00:00:00] Podcast Intro Darin: You are listening to the Darin Olien Show. I’m Darin. I spent the last 20 years devoted to improving health, protecting the environment, and finding ways to live a more sustainable life. In this podcast, I have honest conversations with people that inspire me. I hope that through their knowledge and unique perspectives they’ll inspire you too. We talk about all kinds of topics, from amping up your diets to improving your well-being to the mind-blowing stories behind the human experience and the people that are striving to save us and our incredible planet. We even investigate some of life’s fatal conveniences, those things that we are told might be good for us but totally aren’t. So here’s to making better choices in the small tweaks in your life that amount to big changes for you and the people around you and the planet. Let’s do this. This is my show, the Darin Olien Show. [00:01:12] Guest Intro Darin: Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. This is Darin Olien. This is The Darin Olien Show. Man, the world is throwing a lot of stuff at us. We have the power, we have the possibility of being better, being greater humans, being better of ourselves, and that’s why we’re here to be better versions of ourselves. And let’s hear from this incredible entrepreneur, Aidan Reilly.