Since then, UFA worked with ReFED and other partners to develop an industry-wide definition of what determines whether a food product can be considered “upcycled,” which led to the first certification program for upcycled products and industry education efforts to spread information about their value – more than 200 products have now been Upcycled Certified™  and many more are in the pipeline. UFA also partnered with ReFED in 2021 to create the Food Waste Funder Circle, a network designed for private, public, and philanthropic funders interested in using their capital to solve food waste challenges. “In the last six months, we’ve seen membership grow to over 100 investors, and we’ve seen lots of deals come through,” says Wyatt. “It has been super successful.”

At the ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit in May 2022, things came full circle for UFA as they reached another significant milestone with the announcement that they were one of the first three grantees receiving funding from the ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund, a new five-year initiative designed to provide up to a targeted $20 million in funding from philanthropic sources to de-risk and scale high-impact solutions to food waste. Of course the investment was crucial, but for a young organization trying to scale their impact, the validation is also important. “It was a huge deal to us that this organization we looked up to takes us seriously enough to prioritize us at the onset of this fund. The money itself was super supportive, but so was the fact that it was this big public announcement that was made in front of all the Summit attendees. It will help us garner future support from other donors,” said Wyatt.