Every night, pounds of chef-prepared, untouched food was thrown away outside UNC’s two dining halls, deemed unsafe by government regulators to serve the next day but still perfectly edible by most anyone’s standards.

Just a few minutes away, local charities were breaking the bank to fill the growing number of empty bellies at their doors, often running out before everyone got a hot meal. Especially this time of year, around the holidays.

Thanks to the UNC Waste Not program, this doesn’t happen anymore. The volunteer program organizes students and faculty to collect unused cafeteria food and distribute it to the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities’ Guadalupe Center seven nights a week, year-round.

“If the dining halls are open, we’re there,” said Waste Not volunteer coordinator Lynette Kerrigan. “It only takes 30 minutes, and really provides something beneficial to other people.”

The program was started in 2010 by UNC School of Teacher Education professor Susan Thompson, who could no longer stand seeing so many of the elementary students she worked with go hungry.

“As educators we really felt the need,” she said.