August 2017 — Maria Vollmer recently graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Environmental Policy and Planning. She is interested in the intersection of food and sustainability, and especially in food waste reduction. She was excited to be placed with FreshPoint this summer because of her interest in corporate sustainability. Maria is passionate about the difference that can be made by large companies, and says “it’s incredible to me how much impact a big company like this can have all the way through having real relationships with small farmers, to being more responsible in their operations.”
During her apprenticeship, Maria has been working on reducing the amount of food waste in FreshPoint’s warehouse. Maria was able to complete a baseline assessment of food waste at FreshPoint, which will be a useful comparison point for future waste reduction strategies. She has also made contact with buyers who are interested in purchasing slightly imperfect produce at a discounted rate, and enabled the first sale of overripe strawberries and pineapples to a local ice cream shop.
A major takeaway for Maria is that one person can make a difference, even in a company as large as FreshPoint. “It’s important to have in every company that one person who is willing to go that step further and realize that even though doing the right thing is more time consuming and challenging, that it needs to be done,” she says.
This article originally appeared in the August 2017 NC Growing Together Newsletter.