iowa waste reduction center’s fight against food waste
TRANSCRIPT
Iowa Waste Reduction Center’s Fight Against
Food WasteHow the IWRC utilized local, regional and national media to bring
attention to food waste
How It All Began In 2012, the Iowa Waste Reduction Center at the University of
Northern Iowa received its first grant focused on food waste reduction and landfill diversion. It began in October of that year and the IWRC has continually placed an emphasis on this topic through multiple grants and contracts.
Grants and contracts have focused on numerous topics across industries – from research to education, and resources to implementation strategies.
Initial media efforts laid the foundation for what would become over 75 mentions (as of December 2015) of the IWRC’s food waste efforts spanning local media, association newsletters, regional media, and national news.
Press Releases In the beginning, it began through press releases distributed through
the University of Northern Iowa.
Local Media News spread to many local media outlets throughout
the Cedar Valley as well as the Corridor.
Organizations and Associations To directly target the intended audience, specifically for the workshops as well
as news, existing relationships with statewide organizations were utilized, and new relationships were formed. IWRC food waste news has been included numerous times throughout the following organization’s newsletters.
Iowa Association of Business and Industry Iowa Farm Bureau Iowa Recycling Association Iowa Society of Solid Waste Operators National Federation of Independent Business (Iowa) Practical Farmers of Iowa Prairie Rivers of Iowa University of Iowa Health Care University of Northern Iowa Alumni Association University of Northern Iowa Panther Caucus
Food Waste Goes Mainstream As the issues surrounding food waste have become more mainstream
in recent years, more media opportunities became available throughout the state like this article from Iowa Public Radio. IPR reached out to the IWRC for input on efforts taking place at the University of Iowa.
IWRC Goes National On an even larger scale, the IWRC was included in an NPR feature in
November 2014, part of which was also included on Fox News.
Bloggers and Industry Leaders As a result of the foundation built through media and online, various
other sites and bloggers have reached out to the IWRC for comment or insight regarding food waste. Wasted Food (leading food waste blog)
Iowa Project Fights Food Waste Institute of Food Technology, ePerspective
Solutions to Food Waste for Manufacturers, Consumers Earth911
Iowa Plans New Initiatives to Address Rising Food Waste Totals
