Evan Ehlers, founder and director of Sharing Excess, will speak to students about "Using Surplus as a Solution to Scarcity" on Wednesday, March 16, at 4:00 p.m. in the Student Multipurpose Hall.

Launched at Drexel University in 2018, Sharing Excess "addresses the crucial need for food by delivering regular surplus from grocery stores, restaurants, wholesalers, and farmers to communities in need," according to the organization's website.

Ehlers created Sharing Excess after realizing he had fifty meals left in his college dining account with only two days left to use them. Rather than letting the meals go to waste, he decided to swipe them all out, pack them in his car, and drive around Center City Philadelphia, giving them out to anyone who needed food.

Today, Sharing Excess delivers an average of 100,000 pounds of food each week and is using its in-house technology to help other food rescue organizations do the same.

"By embracing the imagination of students, change-makers, innovators, and entrepreneurs, we're changing a broken food system," says Ehlers. "Together with our partners, clever logistics, and custom software, our movement will eliminate the barriers between excess and scarcity."

The event is co-sponsored by the Knights' Pantry and the Sustainability Committee. It will include a giveaway of "rescued food."

"The mission of the Knights' Pantry is to provide resources to alleviate food insecurity, improve health and wellbeing, ensure a reduction in food waste, and promote sustainability on campus," says Rina Keller, professor of Social Work and co-founder of the pantry.

"We are excited to partner with the Sustainability Council to host an event that engages students by providing dynamic opportunities for them to learn about food insecurity, food waste, and ways they can rescue and redistribute food and positively impact the university community."

The Catholic Climate Covenant approved a small grant to cover costs associated with the event to support Pope Francis's Laudato Si action plan, which includes the promotion of ecological education, defined as "re-thinking and re-designing curricular and institutional reform in the spirit of integral ecology in order to foster ecological awareness and transformative action."