The Eat at State pop-up tent works with the MSU Culinary Services to serve people at the MSU Union courtyard in East Lansing, Mich., on Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026.
Michigan State University Culinary Services is launching a new initiative called Free Food Alert, a program designed to reduce food waste and provide free meals to fight food insecurity.
The idea began taking shape last year when Rebecca Selesky, the assistant vice president of Culinary Services, attended a food insecurity conference at the University of Michigan and learned more about the food recovery programs they have in place.
“We hear the feedback from the students a lot,” Selesky said. “We do get a lot of questions of what do you do with your leftover food and how can we get it to students that are hungry. We got really excited when we realized that we had an opportunity to make this happen for our students.”
Unlike campus dining halls, where unused food can be properly stored away and used for future meals, catered events present a more challenging task. When larger groups fail to show up to an event — such as when only 150 guests attend a conference prepared for 300 — freshly prepared food sits untouched with a limited shelf life for safe consumption.
That’s when Free Food Alert comes in.
When an event ends, staff can notify subscribed students immediately. The notification alerts all users that extra food is available nearby, with a specific location and time window to claim it.
“If there's leftover food that has been sitting out on the line, so on a buffet line, we have a very short window to alert the students," Selesky said. “We would send out a text message to everybody that was set up that would say, you have a certain amount of time to get here to get the food. It’s first-come, first-served.”
Food items will vary depending on what was catered for the event. To ensure student safety, Culinary Services staff will be on-site at pickup locations to assist with food safety protocols and dietary labeling.
A pilot program first launched at the Kellogg Center already has over 100 students registered for the month of October, Selesky said. The program will later open up to Registered Student Organizations and other campus departments.
To host a distribution, student leaders can visit FreeFoodAlert.com, register their organization and complete a quick online training on food safety rules. After gaining MSU Culinary Services' approval, student organizations can send alerts whenever they have extra food left over after meetings, workshops or campus events.
For general student users, MSU students can download the “Free Food Alert” app, register with their official student email address and enable push notifications. Official QR code registration links are also being distributed across campus, including through partnerships with the MSU Student Food Bank.
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