ReFED Newsroom

The Past Ten Years Saw a Steady Acceleration in the Quantity and Size of Food Waste Deals, As More Funders Recognize the Environmental, Economic, and Social Benefits the Space Offers.

The effort supports the growing number of brands that are making public commitments to reduce food waste but aren't always able to advance their reduction strategy efficiently without additional resources to drive progress.

An art installation curated for the Food Waste Solutions Summit that illustrates the concept of ‘time’ as valued through the disparate relationships that various communities in Minnesota and beyond have with food.

Plastic is cheap and lightweight but also protective – keeping food products clean, safe, convenient, and often helping them last longer. That last point is arguably the most important in a growing debate over society’s use of plastic and a recognition that reducing food waste is one of the most...

ReFED’s Roadmap to 2030 highlights that “Maximum Product Utilization” is critical to developing a closed loop food system. Guest author Riyana Razalee, Head of Business Development at Re-Nuble discusses how current geopolitical events increase the urgency to adopt solutions that upcycle previously unused waste streams.

New report details how Congress can tackle pervasive food waste – and the substantial benefits it would bring.

First of its kind data reporting from the Pacific Coast Food Waste Commitment shows unsold food rates, waste destinations, and impacts.

The future depends not only on how we cut down emissions, but just as importantly how we respond to the challenge of living with the changes already underway.

Can reducing food waste be more difficult than rocket science? Maybe not, but when an organization is serving tens of millions of meals per year at locations across the world, it can certainly be a complex issue. Recently ReFED Executive Director Dana Gunders sat down with Emily Ma, Head of...

Fruits and vegetables are the most wasted product and have the highest climate impact. We can minimize environmental impact by putting all these fruits and vegetables to use by utilizing the whole food with their vitamins and nutrients.

While it's still in its infancy, blended finance has achieved recognition and attention as an emerging solution to the private capital funding gap for meeting Sustainable Development Goals – including food waste.

Considering the domino effects of one problem leading to another, solutions are not easy, which is one reason experts expect the current status quo to continue for some time.

Without input from community members on their needs, an entire half of the equation is missing, which doesn’t address the food waste problem holistically and causes harm to communities receiving food.

Their participation extends their efforts to fight food waste and serves as an inspiration for other businesses to do their part.

Today, ReFED announced that Google is providing $1 million in anchor funding for the upcoming ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund, a new five-year initiative designed to provide non-dilutive and patient capital that de-risks and scales food waste solutions with the potential for high impact.

ReFED is celebrating and amplifying inspiring female leaders working across the food system to ensure we make the best use of the food we grow.

Policy is a critical lever for accelerating the adoption of food waste reduction solutions at a large scale – and 2021 was a watershed year for food waste policy at all levels of government.

Food waste has established itself as an emerging business category driven by a growing focus on climate change, concerns about supply chain disruptions (which are leading to higher costs), and validation from food waste success stories- we remain excited about the opportunities that 2022 will bring.

In this environment of uncertainty, scarcity, and higher prices, reducing food waste becomes even more critical, because it reduces costs and controls supply chain risks.

Farming using sustainable, regenerative agricultural practices can help mitigate climate change and grow healthier food.

Recycling and composting offer the opportunity to divert almost 21 million tons of food waste annually, but government grants and regulations are needed to help spur change.

New network supports private, public, and philanthropic funders to drive capital needed to reach 50% food waste reduction goal by 2030.

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a new report on the environmental footprint of food loss and waste in the U.S.

ReFED partnered with The Wonderful Company on the global contest to design solutions for 50,000 tons of pomegranate husks to reduce food waste and create a more sustainable supply chain.

Tips from ReFED on how you can minimize food waste this Thanksgiving.

An ambitious new baseline for measuring progress toward 2030 now classifies any food leaving the human supply chain as waste.

From Local Government Policy to Multinational Business Initiatives, ReFED Outlines What Trends to Expect in the Global Effort to End Food Waste

Capturing nutrients, energy, or other residual value for any food or food scraps that remain offers one of the largest opportunities for decreasing the amount of food going to waste in our food system.

ReFED serves as Advisory Partner for the new Composting Consortium, which aims to pilot industry-wide solutions and build a roadmap for investment in technologies and infrastructure to address the growth in production of compostable food packaging

Targeting methane sources like food waste now can reduce atmospheric GHG concentrations in just a decade or two.

By partnering with food rescue professionals, businesses can overcome the “what ifs” that are sometimes associated with food donations.

A stronger food rescue system requires expanded storage, transportation, and staffing capacity within food rescue organizations – as well as a consistent flow of goods from food business donations.

Learn how you, as a solution provider, can partner with ReFED to reduce food waste.

Consumers are the biggest contributors to food waste, and while each of us can make our own small dent in the problem, we also need foodservice operators, restaurants, and retailers to push us in the right direction.

Climate Corps® Food Waste Fellows are dedicated, third-party experts providing data-driven knowledge that can help advance strategic food waste initiatives.

The Posner Foundation of Pittsburgh is one of the leading families that have identified food waste in their philanthropic portfolio due to the environmental impact.

Most food waste is generated at the household level, but it’s frequently due to decisions made by actors throughout the supply chain. Here’s how they can help consumers manage food better.

Finding value in foods or leftovers usually deemed worthless is an exciting and essential strategy for tackling food waste across the supply chain.

Rethinking the concept of “waste” can open new doors for innovation and investment.

There is still time to prevent global warming from rising even more – and reducing food waste can have a major impact on the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Rethinking the concept of “waste” can open new doors for innovation and investment – thus finding greater value in items or parts usually deemed worthless.

The COVID-related restrictions implemented this year in Tokyo provide a fascinating experiment that could guide future food waste reduction strategies.

New technology provides data and insights that allow retailers to better forecast what customers will buy and find new ways to sell perishable foods before they end up in the trash.

The Zero Food Waste Act would support state, local, and tribal communities making the policy changes and infrastructure investments needed to cut food waste in half by 2030.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning can cut waste during product handling – and so can some basic best practices.

Ineffective or unsophisticated product management processes and procedures lead to wasted food across the supply chain – implementing solutions to improve management of products can result in an annual net financial benefit of $15.8 billion.

LGBTQIA + Americans are at greater risk of experiencing food insecurity. But a network of organizations are finding ways to help them.

Food’s journey through packing houses, on trucks, and into storage and distribution centers has an enormous impact on its quality, flavor, and whether it ultimately gets eaten or thrown in the trash.

Enhancing product distribution means creating smart systems that efficiently move products to maximize freshness – and ultimately selling time.

Join the new ReFED Food Waste Action Network to connect and collaborate with food businesses, funders, subject matter experts, researchers, government agencies, food waste solution providers, and more - ultimately driving action toward our collective goal of reducing U.S. food waste by 50% by 2030.

A key byproduct of the perfect produce aisle? A vast amount of waste, which taxes environmental resources and drives prices up.

A proposal by Dana Gunders, ReFED’s Executive Director, was recently voted as The CLEEN Project’s “top 3” ideas to decarbonize the food system and improve public health.

Optimizing the harvest means aligning what's grown with what's ultimately harvested – and can result in $8 billion of net financial benefit.

A new report by the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, Natural Resources Defense Council, and ReFED shares 14 recommendations for Congress.

The “Food Waste Five” are five easy-to-use strategies that can help you implement a food waste reduction program right in your own home.

The theme for this year’s Earth Day is “Restore Our Earth,” and it has particular resonance for those connected to the food system – after being battered by the pandemic, the food system needs restoring now more than ever.

Food waste reduction solutions already exist – and businesses and organizations are figuring out new ways to address the problem every day.

ReFED joins The Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, Natural Resources Defense Council, and World Wildlife Fund in developing policy recommendations for the Biden administration and Congress.

An investment of $14 billion a year over the next decade can eliminate 45 million tons of food waste each year. That translates into a reduction of 75 million tons of greenhouse gases – the equivalent of taking 16 million cars off the road each year.

ReFED’s resources are helping the effort in two primary ways – understanding market trends and measuring impact potential.

Food Northwest’s commitment can help significantly advance progress toward PCC's goal of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030.

ReFED is a resource partner for the public-private partnership working to create a less wasteful food system – with the goal of making significant reductions in carbon emissions and contributing to the health and economic success of the West Coast region.

What will the future food system look like? How can we ensure that it's sustainable, resilient, and inclusive? ReFED team members join the discussion during a special event series at the annual festival.

Why is catalytic capital so important? Here's how it can smooth the way for additional investment from other capital types.

Climate change has already impacted the way we live, how we do business, and more. Fighting it is an existential imperative – and investing in food waste reduction solutions is a core approach for doing so.

These are the seven areas where the food system must focus its efforts to make a meaningful reduction in the amount of food going to waste across the supply chain.

Capital providers of all types play an integral role in funding the development and adoption of food waste reduction solutions.

While this shows that food waste reduction efforts are starting to make an impact, more needs to be done to achieve the nation's 2030 reduction goal.

The Insights Engine is an online data center built from 50 public and proprietary datasets to show a granular analysis of food waste across the U.S. Here's what our analysis found.

Initial estimates suggest that the early days of the pandemic saw large increases in food waste – but the long-term result might actually be a decrease.

New campaign highlights the impact of food waste on the climate, food security, and the economy.

ReFED serves as strategic advisor and managing partner for the global contest to discover environmentally-friendly solutions for pomegranate husks.

An interview with Emily Ma, who leads two early-stage moonshots at X, a stealth group within Alphabet, and who is bringing her passion for food systems and human-centered design to ReFED's Board.

The collaboration – with ReFED as a resource partner – calls on businesses to join a Voluntary Agreement to implement measurable action to cut food waste in half by 2030.

Get the new handout created by ReFED, the James Beard Foundation, LeanPath, Sodexo, and WWF.

The report includes best practices, case studies, and expert advice for the entire food system on how to support innovative food recovery organizations as they scale their work to reduce food waste and fight hunger.

"As I finish my tenure as Founding Board Chair, I wanted to express my deepest gratitude for all that you have done and continue to do to accelerate solutions to food waste."

As the Coronavirus Pandemic Continues to Disrupt the Food System, Much More Funding is Needed for These and Other Front-Line Organizations.

Donate and learn how to apply for funding to advance solutions that prevent or recover food being wasted at the farm level due to COVID-19 disrputions.

Here's a list of resources and organizations helping to reduce the surge of food waste on the farm level due to COVID-19 supply chain disruptions.

Get details on organizations that need support right now to enact new safety measures, hire more drivers, establish “rapid response” services, conduct direct distribution to those in need, build new partnerships to facilitate their ongoing outreach, and more.

ReFED's new weekly discussion series focuses on how to overcome the challenges facing food waste solution providers and food businesses in the age of COVID-19.

Learn more about the changes occurring throughout the U.S. food system as a result of COVID-19.

Here's how you can help ensure that excess food due to COVID-19 reaches the people who need it most.

ReFED is excited to announce that Dana Gunders has become our new Executive Director

Check out this interview with Jessica Grace Torres, Director of Business Intelligence at City Harvest, to learn more about City Harvest’s technology solutions geared towards alleviating hunger amongst food insecure New Yorkers.

The three-month program concluded with an in-person Showcase co-hosted by ReFED and Feeding America and a commitment from DoorDash to support food recovery.

Check out this interview with Jasmine Crowe, Founder of Goodr, to learn more about how their blockchain-enabled platform and mobile app redirects surplus food from landfills to those in need.

Check out this interview with Hannah Koski, Director of Procurement and Sustainability at Blue Apron, to learn how their innovative model reduces household waste and improves access to delicious, fresh and healthy ingredients.

A Message from the Board of Directors, A Letter from our Inaugural Executive Director, Chris Cochran, Dana Gunders: ReFED’s Interim Executive Director, and Highlights from the 2019 Food Waste Summit, hosted by ReFED

The 2019 Food Waste Summit hosted by ReFED championed awareness to action to reduce food waste in half by 2030. Check out the top 10 highlights from the event.

Check out this interview with Leah Lizarondo, Founder of 412 Food Rescue to learn how to develop a portfolio of initiatives to combat hunger and change behavior around food waste.

In this week's interview, we hear from Rebeckah Piotrowski, Director of Institutional Partnerships at City Harvest to learn more about their mission-aligned partnerships that scale their impact to end hunger in New York.

A huge thank you to Morton Salt for their support and participation in the 2019 Food Waste Summit hosted by ReFED and their commitment to Erase Food Waste.

Check out this interview with Nicole Flewell, Director of Sustainability at Taylor Farms, where she delves into the opportunities she sees for nonprofit organizations to bring fresh prepared food to low-income individuals.

Check out this interview with Robert Egger, founder of LA Kitchen, DC Central Kitchen and Campus Kitchens Project, who shared lessons learned from years of working on issues of food waste, food insecurity, and workforce development.

ReFED is pleased to announce that we are launching the ReFED Insights Engine, a digital-first, continuously updated platform to house the next generation of data, insights and guidance on food waste and solutions. Thank you to our seed funders for investing in and partnering on the initial stages of this...

Today, ReFED, the only U.S. nonprofit wholly dedicated to reducing food waste, announced the annual ReFED Food Waste Summit taking place October 28-30, 2019 at METREON in San Francisco.

Check out this interview with Thomas McQuillan, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Culture and Sustainability at Baldor Specialty Foods, to learn about his work implementing major sustainability initiatives throughout their foodservice operations.

Check out this interview with Kari Armbruster, Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Project Manager at Kroger, to learn about their strategies for ending hunger in Kroger communities and eliminating waste across their company by 2025.

Check out this interview with Eric Davis and Justin Block of Feeding America, where they discuss how they leverage technology and innovation to support their nationwide network of 200 member food banks.

ReFED hosts the first in-person Learning Lab for the Nonprofit Food Recovery Accelerator 2019 cohort in San Francisco, CA.

Check out this interview with Nell Fry, Senior Manager of Sustainability Field Support at Sodexo, where she shares her strategy for reducing waste, carbon and water usage at 13,000 food service sites across North America.

Check out this interview with Doug Rauch of Daily Table, who applied lessons from his extensive retail career at Trader Joe’s to build an enjoyable shopping experience that promotes dignity and helps low-income customers access nutritious, affordable food.

Check out this interview with Bill Reighard of Food Donation Connection, who leveraged his industry knowledge overseeing operations at PepsiCo to launch a for-profit food recovery company that has coordinated more than 550m pounds of food over the past 25 years.

The diverse group of ten food recovery nonprofits come from eight states across the U.S. and range from established food banks to young startups that leverage concepts from the sharing economy for recovering wasted food in a dignified, scalable way.

Over 125 diverse applicants responded to the Open Call for Applications. See some facts about them below.

This blog was co-authored by JoAnne Berkenkamp at NRDC, Katie Sandson and Emily Broad Leib at the Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic, and Jackie Suggitt at ReFED.

Open Call for Applications starts today for the three-month Accelerator that will offer $350,000 in prizes and extensive access to ReFED’s expert network.

In 2018, 81% of Feeding America’s donations were recovered meals, yet this represents only ~5% of the 36 million tons of unsold food inventory generated within the food value chain each year.

ReFED's quarterly update on the entrepreneurs and investors fighting food waste.

ReFED's 2018 U.S. Food Waste Investment Report details key trends in the capital and innovation landscape and highlights specific examples of philanthropic, public, and private food waste investment, including a Special Report on Foundation Funding.

ReFED Hosts First Food Waste Innovation Demo Day at SOCAP, Announces Release of Food Waste Investment Report

ReFED interviews Southern California food recovery organization Food Forward to learn how they plan to grow their operations and scale their impact.

In these webinars, ReFED hosts grocery, restaurant, and foodservice leaders to discuss insights from the Food Waste Action Guides and the successes they've had implementing food waste solutions.

Join ReFED and partners for this Global Climate Change Action Summit event exploring the connection between food waste and climate change.

ReFED's quarterly update on the entrepreneurs and investors fighting food waste.

Our takeaways from the U.S. Food Waste Summit Innovator Workshop, which convened food waste innovators, food businesses, funders, and policymakers to shape the future of food waste solutions provision.

Taking place June 26-27 at Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA, the Summit will convene more than 300 leaders from across the public, private and nonprofit sectors to accelerate solutions to food waste and achieve the national goal to cut food waste in half by 2030.

Last month 16 food waste thought leaders met in an industrial corner of San Francisco to discuss the future of food waste capital and innovation. The event held at the headquarters and warehouse operations of food waste innovator, Imperfect Produce, was organized by Alexandria Coari, Capital & Innovation Director for...

ReFED is currently accepting proposals to develop a multistakeholder project plan to address food waste prevention packaging. All proposals in response to this RFP are due no later than 11:59pm PST May 16, 2018.

ReFED is cohosting a free one-day workshop for food waste innovators as part of the U.S. Food Waste Summit. Learn more about the event and apply to attend!

ReFED collaborated with the four largest foodservice providers, major restaurants, industry trade associations, and more than 60 expert contributors to create the Restaurant and Foodservice Food Waste Action Guides to support businesses in developing and implementing food waste solutions.

ReFED collaborated with major grocery retailers, industry trade associations, and more than 30 expert contributors to create the Retail Food Waste Action Guide to support retailers in developing and implementing food waste solutions.

This summer has been an exciting time of growth and progress, both for ReFED and in the effort to reduce wasted food at scale. We have developed new programs around food business engagement, capital and innovation, and are growing our team.

Every so often, we unintentionally discover something truly valuable; either as a complete accident (think Penicillin) or as a byproduct of intended actions. It is no coincidence that entrepreneurs addressing inefficiencies at various nodes throughout the food system often end up addressing wasted food. Such is the case with Konstantin...

Last month, ReFED launched groundbreaking tools around two of the four Roadmap levers of action: innovation and policy. The Food Waste Innovator Database highlights over 400 innovators who are building new industries to reduce wasted food. The Food Waste Policy Finder identifies leading and lagging state policies that enable or block food waste reduction....

This webinar offers an introduction to ReFED's newly launched Innovator Database, along with an overview of current innovation trends.

This webinar provides an overview of ReFED's Food Waste Policy Finder, along with key policy insights.

This New York Times article describes the bourgeoning digital food recovery solution sector, highlighting ReFED's insights, and several of the innovators included in our Food Waste Innovator Database.

ReFED recently connected with Dan Kurzrock, Co-Founder and Executive Grain Officer at ReGrained, to learn about what it takes to make tasty food from beer waste.

This post was written by Janet Reynolds of FoodFutureCo. Janet Reynolds is FoodFutureCo’s fellow and a co-founder of Waste for Good, a social enterprise building hyper-local networks to connect sustainably-minded food providers to a hub in the community, where food waste is converted into clean energy.

Today, the United States wastes 63 million tons of food annually at a cost of $218 billion. ReFED is working to move the food system from acting on instinct to using insights and collaboration to solve our national food waste problem.

Today, ReFED unveiled two new tools: a database of innovative food waste solutions, and an interactive map that centralizes federal- and state-level food waste policy to assist advocates and policymakers.

ReFED recently caught up with Caue Suplicy, Founder and CEO of Barnana, to learn what its like being a pioneer in the 'edible upcycling' industry.

ReFED is pleased to announce its inaugural executive director, Chris Cochran!

Winter may be in full swing, but work at ReFED is really heating up! Over the next few months, expect some big announcements, including the launch of two new online tools (additional details below) and the kick-off of our Funder Collaborative. We are beyond excited to lift the curtain on...

A collaboration between AgFunder and ReFed, this article aims to highlight some of the technologies working towards reducing food waste globally that are not always associated with the problem.

The ReFED team has been hard at work over the last couple months creating new content on the steady increase in entrepreneurs tackling the food waste problem and top trends we're seeing, and releasing recommendations for how foundations can maximize the impact of philanthropic investment in food waste solutions. In...

Most of our food-related stories are about what we eat – but, a year ago tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decided to focus on the food we don’t eat. Together they announced a remarkably ambitious goal of reducing U.S. food waste...

Eva Fowler, Associate Director of Programs & Communications at ReFED, is working hard at making #NoFoodWaste a reality on a national level. ReFED has set the Roadmap for decreasing food waste, and it’s time for all of us to jump on board.

The Roadmap outlines systems for accomplishing a food waste reduction goal of 20 percent in the near term and 50 percent in the next 15 years. The strategy requires further investment — of time, brainpower and dollars.