The ReFridge Project
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Food waste and food scarcity are two conflicting challenges faced by our society. It is a stark reality that in Ireland 30% of food goes into the bin while 9% of people are in food poverty. University students are especially susceptible to food insecurity due to unaffordable accommodation, high cost of living, and limited capacity to earn fulltime wages.
The ReFridge Project
Student members of TU Dublin’s St Vincent de Paul Society and Enactus Society Bohdan Yeriemienko (School of Computer Science) and Alan O’ Regan (School of Informatics and Cybersecurity) came together with a shared passion for addressing food waste and food insecurity.
Their collaboration led to the creation of Re-Fridge, an initiative aimed at supporting students who are facing financial challenges so that they can access surplus food donated by campus canteens, nearby stores, or from fellow students. With support from Student Volunteering and Green-Campus Open-Call, the team secured funding to advance their initiative.
Reaching out to FoodCloud, Ireland’s pioneering food waste and food insecurity charity, FoodCloud agreed to designate the ReFridge project as a recipient of their surplus food. The team sought volunteers to help provide and manage food donations. Using funding from the N-TUTORR project, this allowed for training volunteers to start a pilot food pantry on the Grangegorman campus. The food pantry operates one afternoon per week during term time at the Grangegorman campus and has recently expanded its service to include the Blanchardstown campus.
Between three and sixteen volunteers show up each week to unload food deliveries, serve students, clean up, and to promote the service. Volunteers also help to ensure food safety standards are met and communicate guidelines to food recipients.
Project Impact
In the first semester the project distributed just over 500 kg of food to students on campus, increasing that number to over 2600 kg in the second semester. This provided an impressive 7300 meals to over 650 students.
The team are eager to track the project's impact and has been using data analytics to measure its effectiveness in reducing food waste, enhancing student access to meals, and improving overall student satisfaction with the service. Based on findings, the team are refining their approach to ReFridge with the hope of scaling it across all other TU Dublin campuses.
Speaking about The ReFridge Project, co-founder Bohdan Yeriemienko said:
As a student who understands what it’s like to struggle with food insecurity, leading ReFridge has shown me how small actions can create big change. We’re not just reducing food waste - we’re giving students dignity, support, and a sense of community.
A key tool in evaluation has been development of an app that will help with the organisation of the pantry and make it easier for students to use.
The ReFridge project has been in the spotlight for student initiatives locally and nationally and has won numerous awards:
• Best Environmental Volunteering Group Award from Student Volunteering
• Best Green Initiative at the BICs Awards 2025
• Enactus: Sodexo Stop Hunger Award runners up
• STAND: Ideas Collective First Prize
Shared Impact
At TU Dublin we are committed to progressing the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through collaboration and action. This project addresses targets SDG 2: Zero Hunger. This goal aims to end hunger, achieve food security, improve nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. It is also closely aligned with SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production. SDG 12 addresses sustainable and efficient use of natural resources, reduce waste and embed sustainable practice.
This project aligns with the Green-Campus theme of Litter & Waste. Under this theme we explore the practical means for preventing, reducing and minimising the amount of waste produced by the campus. As part of TU Dublin’s Climate Action Roadmap, the University must reduce food waste across all areas of operation and to target this through monitoring and measurement.
Green-Campus Open Call
The Green-Campus Open Call can help bring ideas like these to life by making micro-grants available to selected project ideas submitted in response to the open call. The Green-Campus programme encourages a partnership approach to environmental education and management. To optimise the potential for impact, the Green-Campus Open Call programme encourages project proposals that can be implemented using the Living Lab approach and that include exploration, co-creation, experimentation and evaluation phases. You can read more about the TU Dublin Living Lab and access living lab planning templates here.