As a freshman, Elijah Carswell, a student in the McWhorter School of Pharmacy, noticed that leftover food in the Samford cafeteria was being thrown away each night. After much devotion and coordination, Carswell has made it possible for all leftover cafeteria food to be donated to Grace Klein Communities, a local food rescue organization.
During his freshman year communication arts class, Carswell was instructed to identify an issue on campus and create a plan to resolve the issue for his final assignment. The issue on which he decided to focus was that of the cafeteria food being thrown away.
“I always noticed that at night, after dinner ended, the food was just being thrown away,” Carswell said.
Carswell decided, however, that he didn’t want to simply complete a class assignment; he hoped to create change on campus and help feed families around Birmingham. He filed a constituent report through the Student Government Association, but after not receiving a resolution from the Senate, he decided to take the matter into his own hands.
Carswell had already been serving as a volunteer for Grace Klein Communities, a local non-profit organization with many different initiatives, one being food insecurity.
“Different organizations can donate their food to them, and then they distribute it to families in need,” Carswell said. “Any food that they receive is going to go out to people who need it.”
A member of Grace Klein’s board, Carswell knew the operations of the organization. After talking to them about accepting food donations from Samford, he met with the manager of Samford’s cafeteria, who was receptive to the idea of donating food to Grace Klein. Samford then registered through the FDC, or Food Donation Center, as a food donor, a process that proceeded almost flawlessly.
“Everything kind of just fell into place, and I thank God for that,” Carswell said.
Now that his petition has been approved, Carswell said that the next step is to train cafeteria staff to properly handle leftover food, which includes putting the food in the correct containers to be transported and not leaving food sitting out for long periods of time. Once this happens, Carswell and a few other student volunteers will start transporting the cafeteria food after hours to Grace Klein’s facility a few times each week.
Growing up, Carswell volunteered at food pantries through his local church, and food insecurity has always been an issue about which he is passionate. Carswell said he is excited that his work and vision is coming to fruition.
“I just want to make an impact. I want to help others, but also, it bothered me to see all that food just thrown away when it could have gone to a belly instead of a trash can,” Carswell said.
Carswell shared that his humble upbringing influenced his heart for serving those who are less fortunate.
“My mom, she didn’t have that much money, so we had to be frugal with everything, and so we couldn’t waste food in the house. So, to see something like that go to waste, I wanted to do something about it,” Carswell said.
Carswell also invites student organizations at Samford to donate leftover food from their events to Grace Klein Communities. To get involved, email ecarswe1@samford.edu.
Staff Writer
