It might be cliché to think of a college student returning from a late-night study session or a class after dining halls have closed and scrounging for food at the end of a long day.

Add in a full-time or part-time job and steep costs of many basic items these days, and that’s the reality of many students at Northern Illinois University.

But one DeKalb campus professor and her small but dedicated team have been working since 2023 to help.

Enter Huskie Harvest. Launched in 2023, the program uses leftover food from campus dining services and other local food service providers to package, freeze and distribute free meals to whoever needs it on campus. The initiative aims to reduce food waste and address food insecurity.

“Honestly, I have yet to meet a college kid that couldn’t use a meal. We want to decrease the self-identifying barriers and increase the access,” said professor Nancy Prange, graduate student director and director of the dietetic internship program in NIU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.

Prange, an NIU graduate herself, runs Huskie Harvest. She said the program is about offering a basic resource – food – to as many as possible without strings attached.

How does it work? Food that otherwise may go to waste in NIU’s catering services and residence hall dining – maybe an unused leftover tray of food here or there – gets packaged up, deep frozen and then delivered to freezers across campus for students to enjoy for free, no requirements or questions asked. It’s kind of like a convenience store, Prange said.

The packaged food has labels for allergens or to note vegetarian options.

Alyssa Coscino, in her first year studying for her master’s in dietetic nutrition, has been on the Harvest team to help package food for the past three months.

“I get to see on a regular basis how much food is rescued through this program that would otherwise be needlessly thrown away, as well as the giant volume of meals that go out to all the students at NIU,” Coscino said. “I myself have even utilized the meals on days when I didn’t have enough to fill my hunger, which can be an issue for those who commute from far away such as myself.

I also enjoy creating different meal combinations as well as vegetarian options, and pay close attention to labeling potential allergens so that these meals can be an option for everybody.”

Other providers have stepped up to help, too, Prange said. Huskie Harvest also recovers food from the Oak Crest retirement community in DeKalb and Heritage Prairie Farm in Elburn, which does family-style meals for weddings.

Freezers full of meals and side dishes are available in Wirtz Hall, at the Huskie Food Pantry and at NIU’s Recreation Center. Students can use microwaves set up next to the freezers to reheat their food.

Prange said she hopes the program is especially beneficial for students who may face food insecurity off campus, too, or who are providers in their home where money might already be tight.

“School can be overwhelming, [and] even more so when you’re balancing a job or other commitments,” student Lexie Mahoney said. “I was always so grateful that Huskie Harvest helped alleviate one of the big stressors that almost every student will experience – accessing food that is healthy and balanced.”

A reality trending at food pantries and other organizations that address hunger needs also has been noted by Huskie Harvest, Prange said. More people need food.

“We deliver between 700 and 800 meals a week, and we can’t keep up,” Prange said.

To date, the program has recovered more than 20,000 pounds of food and provided more than 30,000 meals to students.

“I know our food pantry numbers have gone up, and faculty are concerned that they have students that are expressing that they’re hungry,” Prange said. “So, there has absolutely been an increase in need.”

Huskie Harvest also has helped students like Sam DiRienzo, whose days often are longer because of travel.

“As a commuting student who lives an hour away from DeKalb, Huskie Harvest has helped me out countless times when I am out of the house for those long, 12-plus-hour days,” DiRienzo said. “Being on a budget, it has provided me with free, healthy, home-cooked meals that I always appreciate, as it keeps me away from many drives-thru visits on my school days.”

With the increased need, the program is welcoming additional community support, Prange said. Huskie Harvest’s website offers ways to volunteer or sign up to help package and prep. The program also is welcoming food donations, although they would need to be from a food service operation, Prange said.

Two years in, did Prange think Huskie Harvest would turn in to what it looks like now?

“No,” she said. “I thought we would just recover the food and send it to the pantry. We actually did some surveying of the students and how they prefer to get food, and overwhelmingly they wanted it in more convenient locations – hallway distribution, etc. So that’s why we expanded it, and now it’s taken on a life of its own, which is a wonderful thing.”

As a registered dietician, Prange studied for her Ph.D. and master’s degree in public health at NIU and learned about food insecurity. As the director of NIU’s dietetic internship, she worked closely with NIU’s campus dining services and knew that there were leftovers being thrown away.

Food insecurity touches many, but especially minority communities or those coming from families who’ve never gone to college, Prange said. She wanted a solution that met the needs of NIU’s students today.

“We can’t really change any of the circumstances that students come to us with,” Prange said, “but we can ensure that when they are on campus, no one goes hungry.”