The Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park educator Robert Perillo received the 2024 Green Award recognizing his commitment to increasing the school’s waste management efforts and recovering and repurposing the food to feed food insecure people statewide. The national award is sponsored by the United Soybean Board and the Center for the Advancement of Foodservice Education.

Perillo understands the immense benefits of reducing food waste. His focus on sustainability led him to create a program that not only reduces food waste but addresses food insecurity in his community. Through Perillo’s Food Recovery Program, over 23,000 pounds of food were recovered from the school’s campus. This food waste was turned into over 19,000 meals which were donated to a local food bank. 

The program encourages people to drop off any extra food to the culinary program, where they organize and package the waste. The local food bank picks up the food and distributes the meals to more than 350,000 people through various partners across the state. 

Click here to go back to the 2024 CAFÉ award recipients list.