How a Small Group of College Students Launched a National Movement

This is repost of a previously published episode. In this episode, Dr. Rob Harter sits down with Aidan Reilly, co-founder of The Farmlink Project, a nonprofit that began as a college passion project and grew into a national food recovery movement. What started in 2020 as two friends trying to make a difference during the COVID-19 pandemic quickly evolved into a logistics powerhouse that has since delivered over 350 million pounds of food—soon to be half a billion.

Aidan shares the compelling origin story of Farmlink and how a group of students bridged the gap between farms with surplus food and food banks in desperate need. With impressive agility, grassroots organizing, and a deep sense of purpose, Farmlink has scaled nationwide and is now exploring international efforts. Aidan also discusses how Farmlink is addressing food waste, hunger, and climate change simultaneously—and how their innovative model may one day make their own work unnecessary.

Key Topics Include:

The founding of Farmlink during the pandemic by college students looking to make an impact

How Farmlink grew from a local food rescue effort to a national nonprofit operating in 27+ states

The logistics of moving nearly half a billion pounds of food and partnering with over 1,200 food banks and 400 farms

The systemic causes of food waste in the U.S. and how Farmlink is creating long-term infrastructure solutions

How Farmlink measures and communicates its climate and hunger relief impact to donors

The role of AI, predictive analytics, and capacity mapping in scaling nonprofit operations

Why public-private partnerships and policy advocacy are essential to solving food insecurity at scale

Mentioned in This Episode:

The Farmlink Project