A new venture is gaining momentum on campus, after extensive collaboration between Macalester’s Sustainability Office and ITS Web Services. Supporting Macalester’s zero-waste goals, the Extra Eats food recovery initiative aims to reduce food waste.
Built into the existing MacNav student app, the new interface allows students, faculty, and staff to alert the campus when leftover food is available—so it can be shared and enjoyed, rather than wasted.
The creative, community-centered idea—brought to life by Director of Sustainability Megan Butler and Director of Digital Engagement Bryan Barnes—also aims to reduce food insecurity on campus.
“Students have approached me to tell me how much they love Extra Eats and that they use it all the time,” said Butler.
All hands on deck for food safety
Extra Eats functions like a social media network, allowing campus members to communicate in real time and share updates about available leftover food.
Dozens of staff members collaborated on the project, talking through concerns and intentionally designing an app to address them.
“My team built several iterations of Extra Eats in response to feedback collected from campus stakeholders,” said Barnes. “We tried to strike a balance between the various requirements and requests. We are continuing to collect campus feedback and will be improving Extra Eats to keep up with changing needs.”
Student workers also helped test the app, and the team consulted with the Macalester College Student Government to ensure they were meeting the community’s needs.
“I’m proud to go to a college so committed to sustainability and good technology,” said Nurain Jiwani ’26, a Sustainability Office student employee who helped create the project’s vision and gave feedback on early prototypes. “As a computer science major, I know producing good working software is a huge challenge.”
The idea—ambitious as it was—naturally raised concerns about food safety in its early stages.
In response, stakeholders developed a food safety policy to protect the community.
All posts on Extra Eats are required to include a photo of the food, describe its location and quantity, and note any allergens or dietary restrictions. Users are also responsible for keeping their posts up to date and removing them once the food is no longer safe to eat.
Promising results and growing reach
At launch, ITS reported over 700 active users on the Extra Eats platform—a notable increase from the roughly 500 users typically active on MacNav.
From that group, leaders estimate that Macalester can double the amount of food it diverts from the waste stream— from about 5,000 pounds last academic year to 10,000 pounds this year.
Download the app and join the effort to reduce food waste