Food Waste Funder Circle NYC Event Recap

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Food Waste Funder Circle NYC Event Recap

by: Alejandro Enamorado, Senior Manager, Capital Initiatives, ReFED

December 5, 2024

In mid-November, ReFED hosted an in-person field trip for members of our Food Waste Funder Circle, a network designed for private, public, and philanthropic funders who are interested in mobilizing capital toward solving food waste challenges. Twelve funders attended the event in New York City to hear from four solution providers at the cutting edge of addressing food waste.

The group first visited mushroom-growing facilities operated by Afterlife Ag—a company that helps restaurants and businesses manage their organic waste by collecting and using their food scraps as a component of the substrate for growing mushrooms. Those mushrooms are then sold back to the restaurant—with Afterlife providing the added benefit of being a source of quality local produce. In true circular system fashion, field trip attendees were able to eat the very mushrooms they saw at the growing facility from one of Afterlife’s restaurant clients.

We also heard from other solution providers doing great work, including Phood, Rescuing Leftover Cuisine (RLC), and TomTex. These companies serve other parts of the New York (and national) supply chain, with Phood providing waste measurement through artificial intelligence, RLC collecting and redistributing food from restaurants and other businesses, and TomTex valorizing seafood shell waste into clothing material.

Some insights we took away from the discussions were:

  • Funders feel strongly that viable, scalable solutions need a value proposition beyond just solving food waste. For example, companies like FreshFry solve a pain point for restaurants (reducing costs and employee time by extending the life of frying oil) and as a bonus, the product that solves this pain point was designed utilizing agricultural waste.

  • In addition to differentiated end products, funder interest has shifted to funding food waste solutions that make higher-value inputs instead of just basic raw materials. TomTex does this well by creating a leather alternative for fashion usage.

  • Food waste solutions can be difficult to evaluate (particularly waste valorization), as those companies that offer them are serving two types of customers (waste generators and users of end products). As such, it’s important to engage with founders/leaders of these solution providers and try to determine the overall value proposition (i.e. Afterlife is providing waste management services with the added benefit of a value-added product that waste generators can purchase and serve to customers).

  • In the experience of one food rescue organization, markdown alert solutions like Too Good To Go don’t appear to materially cannibalize food donations and therefore, funders were given some hope that both prevention and rescue solutions could continue to work in concert or potentially partner to more holistically fight food waste and solve business pain points together.

We were excited to see that this event—with the opportunity to experience a range of food waste solutions in a hands-on way—seemed to generate a good deal of thought and conviction among the participants. ReFED is eager to continue engaging with the community of funders and solution providers because food waste is an issue that will take coordinated action among a range of stakeholders to solve.

We'll be hosting more meet-ups like this in the future—let us know if you're interested in participating by emailing [email protected].

ReFED is a national nonprofit working to end food loss and waste across the food system by advancing data-driven solutions to the problem. ReFED leverages data and insights to highlight supply chain inefficiencies and economic opportunities; mobilizes and connects people to take targeted action; and catalyzes capital to spur innovation and scale high-impact initiatives. ReFED’s goal is a sustainable, resilient, and inclusive food system that optimizes environmental resources, minimizes climate impacts, and makes the best use of the food we grow.

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