General Information
Learn more about how Free Food Alert helps remediate food waste and curb hunger on campus!
Students, faculty, staff and other community members can create a Free Food Alert account to receive email alerts and push notification alerts from the mobile app when there is free food available on campus. Any user can then apply directly in the platform to become a free food giveaway host who sends alerts at the end of their campus events.
Together, we can remediate food waste and help curb hunger on campus -- Let's do it!
Anybody with an academic email ending in ".edu" can sign up for a Free Food Alert account. The account is 100% free for students, faculty, staff and other community members (forever & always)!
In order to receive notifications about free food, your university must be an active member of the Free Food Alert alliance. Your University pays a membership fee in order to maintain and improve the Free Food Alert platform as part of your university benefits and sustainability initiatives.
If your University is not yet an active member, then you will not be able to receive any free food alert notifications. Once your University purchases a Free Food Alert membership, your account will be automatically activated and you will begin to receive alerts. To see a list of the active member universities, go to the Membership page.
If you are a University administrator, you can sign up for the membership waitlist in order to be notified when new Free Food Alert memberships are available for purchase.
If you are a University Administrator, you can sign up for the Free Food Alert membership waitlist in order to be notified when there is more information available regarding our membership and pricing options.
The frequency of alerts you will receive depends on the number of giveaways hosted within your campus community. Once you sign up for a Free Food Alert account you will have the ability to complete in-platform training to become a free food giveaway host and begin sending out your own free food alerts, after your application is approved by your university administrator.
Contact Us to share suggested improvements to Free Food Alert. We appreciate your feedback!
In an effort to be open and welcoming to all, Free Food Alert provides information about special dietary options and potential allergens included in the giveaway food within the alerts. Specifically:
- Special Dietary Options: Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten Free, Kosher, Halal
- Allergens: Milk, Eggs, Fish, Crustacean Shellfish, Tree Nuts, Peanuts, Wheat, Soybeans, Sesame, and Other Allergen(s)
If you have feedback on this feature, please Contact Us.
Free Food Alert cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information included in free food alerts. The accuracy of the dietary restrictions and allergens presented remains the sole responsibility of the giveaway host and the participant.
You can change the language of the website in the footer section. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page and select your preferred language.
To change the language of email alerts and receive notifications in your preferred language, go to your Subscriber Preferences and select the desired language.
This feature is coming soon!
Free Food Alert was founded in 2017 at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. The founder, Noémie (Nemo) Keller, was shocked by the amount of leftover food that was not consumed and therefore wasted at the end of campus events. So, in her final year as a student at Johns Hopkins, she decided to use technology to tackle the systematic problem of food waste on campus. After successfully piloting the program with simple email alerts in spring 2017, she launched the first version of Free Food Alert in summer 2017. Initially, the platform was only available to the Johns Hopkins community. The new version of the platform available to all universities worldwide was launched in April 2023.
Students, Faculty, and Staff
All student, faculty, staff, or other university community members can sign up for a Free Food Alert account in order to receive notifications about free food on campus.
Simply click the Sign Up button below and fill in the basic information, including:
- Email (must be a university email ending in ".edu" or "@uottawa.ca")
- Name
Then, you will need to verify your email address and define a password in order to finish setting up your account.
First, please double check your spam and junk folders. Verification emails may take up to 24 hours to appear in your inbox due to your university's email settings. Adding food@freefoodalert.com to your contacts can help ensure you receive all emails promptly and in the correct inbox.
In case of persistent issues, please Contact Us for assistance.
If your University is not yet an active member of the Free Food Alert alliance, then you will not be able to receive any Free Food Alert notifications. Once your University purchases a Free Food Alert membership, your account will automatically be activated and you will begin to receive alerts.
To see the list of universities with an active membership, check out the Membership page.
If you are a University administrator, you can sign up for the membership waitlist in order to be notified when new Free Food Alert memberships are available for purchase.
You can define the campuses or locations for which you want to receive Free Food Alert notifications in your Subscriber Preferences. You can select one or more campuses or locations. Campuses and locations are managed by your university administrators. Please reach out to them directly with any feedback on campuses or locations you would like to add to the list.
In order to receive Free Food Alert mobile smartphone push notifications, you must download and log into the app.
In order to turn off all notifications simply:
- Uncheck the "Email Alerts" option in your Subscriber Preferences
- Delete the Free Food Alert mobile app from your phone (if applicable)
You can delete your account at any time via your Account Settings.
Subscribers are encouraged to carry a reusable container when near campus in order to ensure you're ready to take advantage of the next Free Food Alert! There is no guarantee that plates, napkins, or cutlery will be available during the Free Food Giveaway.
Event Caterers & Hosts
Anybody with a Free Food Alert account who hosts events with food on campus can sign up to send out alerts for free food giveaways!
First, sign up for a Free Food Alert account. Once your email is verified, complete the Giveaway Host Training. Then, an administrator from your university will review your application. Once approved, you can send out alerts at the end of your campus events to notify all subscribers at your university about free food.
Your university Free Food Alert administrator will review and approve your giveaway host application. In case of any questions about your giveaway host status, please reach out directly to your university administrator.
In order to turn off all notifications simply:
- Uncheck the "Email Alerts" option in your Subscriber Preferences
- Delete the Free Food Alert mobile app from your phone (if applicable)
As an administrator, you can purchase a Free Food Alert alliance membership in order to unlock the power of Free Food Alert for your entire university community.
Join the waitlist to be notified when there are more Free Food Alert alliance memberships available for purchase.
The cost of a Free Food Alert membership depends on the size of your university. Please join the waitlist to receive more information about membership and pricing options.
Yes. Contact Us to learn more about the Free Food Alert Enterprise Edition.