Fundable Initiatives Directory: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the food supply chain, resulting in a surge of on-farm food loss, business closures, and a growing number of food insecure individuals. Food waste solution providers have stepped up to the challenge and are doing tremendous work to fight food waste and aid those impacted by COVID-19, especially those facing food insecurity. The organizations included in this Directory have a collective 90-day funding need of more than $70 million, which if met, would support their efforts to rescue over 150 million lbs of otherwise wasted food across the U.S.*
Last updated: June 8, 2020 | For questions about these organizations or to share additional opportunities, please email Angel.Veza@refed.com
*Due to the ever evolving nature of the pandemic, this Directory is not exhaustive of all food waste solution providers.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Table of Contents National Organizations A Greener World AmpleHarvest.org BlueCart Catholic Charities USA Copia DoorDash (Support for Community Organizations & Government Agencies) Food Connect Food Cowboy Food Fleet Food Rescue US Forager Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic Hazel Technologies MEANS Database Move For Hunger Partnerships for a Healthier America Replate SeaShare Society of St. Andrew Three Little Figs, Inc. Northeast Region 412 Food Rescue American Human Rights Boston Area Gleaners Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Compassion Coalition Council on the Environment (GrowNYC) Daily Table Earth Matter NY, Inc. Eden, CNY FarmDrop Food for All Technologies Food Link Lovin’ Spoonfuls Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Mei Mei Restaurant - Common Grocer Collective Natural Upcycling Strella Biotechnology Table to Table
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Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 Philabundance Plentiful Rescuing Leftover Cuisine Rethink Food NYC Salvation Farms Vermont Foodbank Wholesome Wave Southern Region 4MYCITY Bounty & Soul Brighter Bites Danny’s Dumpster DC Central Kitchen Dreaming Out Loud Equal Heart Farm Share Fayetteville Housing Authority Feeding America Tampa Bay Freshspire Freshsurety Goodr Jessie Trice Community Health System L&M Companies Second Harvest Food Bank Second Helpings Atlanta Second Servings of Houston So What Else Starling Systems, Inc. The Nashville Food Project The Walls Project Treasure Coast Food Bank United Against Poverty Vogel Alcove Wasteless Western Region AgShift Aloha Harvest Alameda County Community Food Bank Alum Rock Union Elementary School District Avatar Foods International Berkeley Food Network Birch Community Services Bracken’s Kitchen
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Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 California Association of Food Banks Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona Community Development Corporation of Oregon Daily Bowl FarmLink FED Feeding Opportunities On Demand Feeding San Diego Food Forward Food Rescue Alliance Food Runners Fresh Approach Galley Solutions Grey Bears Harvest Against Hunger Heaven’s Windows High Desert Second Chance Manna (The Durango Soup Kitchen) Manna (The Durango Soup Kitchen) Martha’s Kitchen Midnight Mission Mi Terro Global Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance Numi Foundation Oceanside Unified School District O’Side Kitchen Collaborative ProduceGood Redwood Empire Food Bank Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission Treasure8 Ugly Juice UpRoot Colorado Urban Gleaners University of California Merced (Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program) Waste Not We Don’t Waste WEgenerative, LLC White Pony Express World Harvest Charities and Family Services Midwest Region Adelante Center for Entrepreneurship After the Harvest Be Kind 2 People
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Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 Feeding Kentucky Foodbank, Inc. Kanbe’s Markets La Soupe Noors Heaven of West Michigan Northern Illinois Food Bank Second Harvest Heartland SwineTech Total Organics Recycling
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Organizations with this symbol denote those who, to date, have been selected as a grant awardee of The ReFED COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
National Organizations Organizations with a National Reach
A Greener World Website | Contact: https://agreenerworld.org/ | Emily Moose, emily@agreenerworld.org Headquarters: Terrebonne, OR A Greener World (AGW) identifies, audits, certifies and promotes practical, sustainable farming systems by supporting farmers and ranchers and informing consumers. In response to COVID-19, A Greener World is connecting farms with extra food to local food banks, homeless shelters, meals on wheels, and other nonprofits where food will not be wasted.
AmpleHarvest.org Website | Contact: http://www.ampleharvest.org/ | Gary Oppenheimer, gary@ampleharvest.org Headquarters: Newfoundland, NJ AmpleHarvest.org diminishes hunger by educating and enabling millions of backyard gardeners to share their excess garden produce with neighborhood food pantries. In response to COVID-19, they have broadened their outreach to food pantries, expanded their Master Gardener Program nationwide, and distributed vital COVID-19 health guidelines to all participating growers and pantries.
BlueCart Website | Contact: https://www.bluecart.com/ | Konstantin Zvereff, konstantin@bluecart.com Headquarters: Sunnyvale, CA BlueCart is a B2B marketplace in the foodservice industry. In response to COVID-19, they are expanding services to also be a B2Food Bank and B2C marketplace, which is estimated to save about $100,000,000 worth of food that would otherwise be wasted.
Catholic Charities USA Website | Contact: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org | Frances Broderick, fbroderick@catholiccharitiesusa.org Headquarters: Alexandria, VA Catholic Charities USA seeks to provide service to people in need, advocate for justice in social structures, and call the entire Catholic church to do the same. During this unprecedented time, their agencies are converting food distribution programs to drive-thru service, replacing congregate feeding programs with boxed meal distribution, and delivering hot meals and frozen packs to vulnerable populations.
Copia Website | Contact: https://www.gocopia.com/ | Kolin Smialek, kolin@gocopia.com Headquarters: San Francisco, CA Copia is a software solution that drives efficiency and impact by bringing people together to reduce waste through intelligent redistribution. In response to COVID-19, Copia is using their existing integrations with The Cheesecake Factory kitchens in Los Angeles to produce pre-packaged, nutritious meals to be delivered to food pantries for safe grab-and-go distribution to food insecure populations. They will also leverage their integration with DoorDash to automatically dispatch drivers that will be routed through Copia’s existing food donation matching algorithm to the best-fit food pantry.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
DoorDash (Support for Community Organizations & Government Agencies) Website | Contact: https://www.doordash.com/ | Sueli Shaw, sueli@doordash.com Headquarters: San Francisco, CA DoorDash is a technology company that connects customers with local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the U.S. and Canada. In response to COVID-19, DoorDash is partnering with United Way to meet the need for last-mile deliveries of food supplies to most vulnerable community members, particularly seniors, the immunocompromised, and low-income families.
Food Connect Website | Contact: https://www.foodconnectgroup.com/ | Megha Kulshreshtha, megha@foodconnectgroup.com Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA Food Cowboy uses mobile technology to fight hunger and food waste. Their mobile app helps truckers, wholesalers, and retailers route surplus fresh produce to charities instead of landfills when deliveries are refused for not meeting specification requirements. As one of DoorDash’s 2020 Social Impact Partners and along with its partnership with a network of hospitals, the organization will deliver at least 500,000 lbs of food in the next 90 days to patients, senior centers, and other individuals in need.
Food Cowboy Website | Contact: http://foodcowboy.com/ | Barbara Cohen, barbara@foodcowboy.com Headquarters: Dallas, TX Food Cowboy uses mobile technology to fight hunger and food waste. Their mobile app helps truckers, wholesalers, and retailers route surplus fresh produce to charities instead of landfills when deliveries are refused for not meeting specification requirements.
Food Fleet Website | Contact: https://www.foodfleet.com/ | Jeffrey Mora, jeff@foodfleet.com Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA Food Fleet was founded on the principle of helping small mom and pops make a living wage in the mobile food service world. In response to COVID-19, Food Fleet - in partnership with Catch Together and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust has ensured that more than 200,000 lbs of sustainably caught ling cod from Sitka Alaska will be recovered and delivered to vulnerable communities in Seattle. Additionally, this initiative supports hundreds of fisherman families to maintain economic viability.
Food Rescue US Website | Contact: http://foodrescue.us/ | Melissa Spiesman, melissa@foodrescue.us Headquarters: Norwalk, CT Food Rescue US is committed to ending food insecurity in the U.S. by directly transferring fresh, usable food that would have otherwise been thrown away from grocery retailers, restaurants, and other food businesses to food insecure families across the nation. In response to COVID-19, Food Rescue US launched two new initiatives. One initiative engages community groups and works with them to purchase meals from local restaurants and deliver those meals to agencies for immediate distribution, in an effort to support local restaurants and simultaneously feed food insecure individuals. They also launched Community Kitchens in partnership with the World Central Kitchen and Marcus Samuelsson Group. These kitchens are staffed by foodservice personnel who prepare meals that are delivered by Food Rescue US.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Forager Website | Contact: http://www.goforager.com | Joe Blunda, joe@goforager.com Headquarters: Portland, ME Forager’s technology platform digitizes the food recovery supply chain to help farmers continue to grow and sell what they produce. Forager also helps gleaning organizations with the aggregation, documentation, and marketing of both surplus and donated crops. In the next 90 days, Forager aims to enable farmers in ten states to sell 5 million lb of fresh produce that might otherwise have been wasted.
Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic Website | Contact: https://hls.harvard.edu/ | Emily Broad Leib, ebroad@law.harvard.edu Headquarters: Cambridge, MA The Harvard Food Law & Policy Clinic (HFLPC) has written issue briefs about the impacts of COVID-19 on the food system, developed food policy recommendations, and drafted federal legislation since the onset of the pandemic. When policies, such as the ones HFLPC recommends to expand enhanced tax deductions for food donors or to enable wider use of SNAP benefits, are enacted, tens of millions more pounds of food waste will be rescued.
Hazel Technologies Website | Contact: http://www.hazeltechnologies.com | Aidan Mouat, aidan@hazeltechnologies.com Headquarters: Chicago, IL Hazel Tech provides sustainable biochemistry products to growers and packers that extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables up to 3X without adding any new chemicals or residues to the food supply. Their products are packaging materials and inserts that release active vapors into the storage atmosphere of produce to control produce metabolism and respiration. As the food industry begins to move towards more heavily packaged food in response to the safety issues surrounding COVID-19, they plan to leverage their technology to treat 3.2 billion lbs of produce this year preventing it from going to waste.
MEANS Database Website | Contact: https://www.meansdatabase.com/ | Maria Rose Belding, mariarose@meansdatabase.org Headquarters: Washington, D.C. MEANS (Matching Excess and Needs for Stability) Database is a nonprofit dedicated to improving communication and coordination between food agencies and food donors. To achieve this, they have partnered with nonprofits, companies, and a variety of other organizations to meet the needs within the food recovery space. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, MEANS Database initially faced a significant increase in food donations.
Move For Hunger Website | Contact: https://www.moveforhunger.org | Adam Lowy, adam@moveforhunger.org Headquarters: Red Bank, NJ Move for Hunger is a nonprofit organization that mobilizes the relocation industry to fight hunger and reduce food waste by partnering with professional moving companies, corporate housing providers, relocation management companies, and multi-family apartment communities across the U.S. & Canada. In response to COVID-19, Move for Hunger is leveraging its unique and national logistics network of trucking capacity and movers to rescue and transport food to those that need it most. Over the course of the first seven weeks of the pandemic, they were able to transport 384,000 lbs of food and expect to rescue more than 570,000 lbs in the next 90 days and continue to scale thereafter.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Partnerships for a Healthier America Website | Contact: https://www.ahealthieramerica.org | Paula Reichel, preichel@ahealthieramerica.org Headquarters: Washington, D.C. Partnership for a Healthier America, in collaboration with the Produce Marketing Association, recently launched the Fresh Food Fund, which will provide boxes of high-quality fruits and vegetables to individuals in economically disadvantaged communities. This initiative is expected to distribute over 250,000 lbs of rescued food in Denver, its pilot city, and then quickly expand to 25 cities nationwide.
Replate Website | Contact: http://www.replate.org | Maen Mahfoud, maen@replate.org Headquarters: Berkeley, CA Replate is a nonprofit food recovery organization that provides coordination and transportation services to get surplus food from food businesses to food insecure individuals. In response to COVID-19, they are conducting contactless deliveries directly to end recipients, expanding food donation services beyond offices and caterers to restaurants and cafes for surplus food in partnership with DoorDash, and broadening their services to food banks and other food relief organizations like central kitchens to strengthen their logistics.
SeaShare Website | Contact: http://www.seashare.org | Kate Tomkins, katet@seashare.org Headquarters: Bainbridge Island, WA SeaShare works closely with the US seafood industry to source high quality, nutritious seafood and has provided over 750,000 lb of seafood to Feeding America affiliated food banks across the country since the onset of COVID-19. Over the next 90 days, SeaShare expects to source, process, and deliver an additional 750,000 lb to those in need.
Society of St. Andrew Website | Contact: www.endhunger.org | Sarah Davis, partnership@endhunger.org Headquarters: Big Island, VA The Society of St. Andrew brings people together to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste, and build caring communities by offering nourishment to hungry neighbors. They anticipate rescuing 6.3 million pounds of produce over the next 90 days.
Three Little Figs, Inc. Website | Contact: www.threelittlefigsjam.com | Liz Cowan, liz@threelittlefigsjam.com Headquarters: Portland, OR At Three Little Figs, their goal is to revive the age-old art of preserving by giving our products new and exciting flavor profiles while honoring traditional cooking methods. In response to COVID-19, they aim to expand their product line to include soups and other shelf stable products, utilizing the growing amount of surplus cros from local farmers and produce suppliers.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Northeast Region CT, ME, NH, MA, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT
412 Food Rescue Website | Contact: https://412foodrescue.org/ | Sara Swaney, sara@412foodrescue.org Headquarters: Pittsburgh, PA Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, OH, PA, VA) 412 Food Rescue’s mission is to prevent perfectly good food from entering the waste stream because it is their belief that good food belongs to people, not landfills. They are expanding food access services through its Food Rescue Hero mobile app by developing a home delivery feature to serve the growing number of isolated food insecure individuals. A national platform will also be released, allowing food rescue organizations across the country to use the technology. Nearly 3,000,000 meals (3,600,000 lbs of food) will be delivered to those who need it over the next 90 days.
American Human Rights Website | Contact: https://www.americanhumanrights.org/ | Khaled Salem, \Contact@AmericanHumanRights.org Headquarters: Brooklyn, NY Geographic Reach: Local The American Human Rights Organization provides free education in NYC streets to explain the value of and necessary to stop the food waste. During COVID-19, they are providing meals to those in need.
Boston Area Gleaners Website | Contact: https://www.bostonareagleaners.org/ | Usha Thakrar, usha@bosgtonareagleaners.org Headquarters: Waltham, MA Geographic Reach: Local Boston Area Gleaners (BAG) has specialized in gleaning farm produce and delivering products into the Massachusetts hunger relief community for more than 15 years. In response to the pandemic, BAG has immediately mobilized to support the local emergency response efforts by providing the use of their refrigerated trucks, re-hiring seasonal staff and utilizing our cold storage capacity. They are aggregating and distributing surplus, fresh food with the joint goals of reducing food waste and getting food to the growing number of families in need. BAG expects to rescue and distribute more than 600,000 lb of fresh food over the next 90 days and is supporting efforts to replicate its model nationally.
Central Pennsylvania Food Bank Website | Contact: www.centralpafoodbank.org/ | Kat Zimmerman, developmentgrants@centralpafoodbank.org Headquarters: Harrisburg, PA Geographic Reach: Local Central Pennsylvania Food Bank has rescued more than 9,600,000 lbs of food since the onset of the pandemic. Through creative partnerships with companies like FedEx, Pennsylvania Farm Show, and the Pennsylvania Agricultural Surplus System, they have increased their capacity and are able to compensate farmers, at least in part, for the costs associated with recovering produce. Over the next 90 days, they anticipate rescuing 12,900,000 lbs of food
Compassion Coalition Website | Contact: www.distributehope.org | Charles Sweet, charlie@compassionutica.com Headquarters: Utica, NY Geographic Reach: Local At Compassion Coalition, Inc. their mission is to serve the underprivileged, the needy, the poor, the afflicted, and those lacking opportunity and basic life necessities of affordable food, clothing, housing, transportation, employment and
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 financial needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Compassion coalition has served over 500,000 meals, and distributed 1,520,000 pounds of perishable and non-perishable foods(including 8, 53 foot trailers of canned goods).
Council on the Environment (GrowNYC) Website | Contact: www.grownyc.org | Michael Hurwitz, mhurwitz@grownyc.org Headquarters: New York, NY Geographic Reach: Regional (CT, MA, NJ, NY, PA, VT) Council on the Environment’s mission is to improve New York City's quality of life through environmental programs that transform communities block by block and empower all New Yorkers to secure a clean and healthy environment for future generations. One of their pillars of work, GrowNYC's Food Access and Agriculture programs, are premised upon regional farm viability and the equitable access to the products grown on their farms. In response to COVID-19, they distributed 14,500 meals through their Emergency Food Box Program and their bulk deliveries - two new initiatives. Over the next 90 days, they anticipate distributing 686,400 lbs of food.
Daily Table Website | Contact: http://dailytable.org/ | Doug Rauch, drauch@dailytable.org Headquarters: Boston, MA Geographic Reach: Local Daily Table is a nonprofit grocery store that seeks to transform how groceries are supplied in America’s inner cities and alleviate obstacles to inner-city health and nutrition by providing fresh produce and other high-quality foods to the urban marketplace at a fraction of the typical prices. In light of the pandemic, they are seeking funding to provide and move more food to families in need, deliver healthy meals to seniors that are homebound, and better compensate and retain the Daily Table employees, who live in the communities they serve.
Earth Matter NY, Inc. Website | Contact: https://earthmatter.org/ | Marisa Dedominicis, marisa@earthmatter.org Headquarters: New York, NY Geographic Reach: Local Earth Matter seeks to reduce the organic waste going to landfill by encouraging neighbor participation and leadership in composting. With shelter-in-place during the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers are cooking more at home resulting in more food trim.. Earth Matter aims to collect and process the food scraps not fit for food donation to be processed into compost.
Eden, CNY Website | Contact: www.edencny.com | Rich Strub, rich@edencny.com Headquarters: Syracuse, NY Geographic Reach: Local Eden, CNY is a restaurant that strives to make a culinary impact on this region by actively engaging our guests in the story behind their food. In response to the Covid-19 crisis, we have developed a new project to house and refine these efforts. The Eden Fresh Mission is to provide families and individuals across Central New York accessibility to locally grown and produced food through promoting and sourcing from local producers as well as educating the public on ways to make healthy, delicious meals at home. Within one month of launching, the program has served an average of 250 food boxes with NY state produce, meats, dairy, and other perishable value-added products. Over the next 90 days, they plan to provide over 500,000 lbs of food.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
FarmDrop Website | Contact: https://www.farmdrop.us/ | Hannah Semler, hannah@farmdrop.us Headquarters: Portland, ME Geographic Reach: Local FarmDrop is a pop-up online farmers market that serves hyper-local food systems in Maine. Their online marketing, sales, and distribution platform is being used by 50 farmers in ME, based in four different localities. Customers order once a week or every two weeks, and farmers will deliver to a central location, where site managers aggregate and distribute the product with either curbside pick-up or direct home delivery. Given the public health crisis, their service is in high demand, and FarmDrop is moving quickly to open additional marketplaces. They plan to expand rapidly to additional states, keeping an estimated 500,000 lbs of food from being wasted over the next 90 days.
Food for All Technologies Website | Contact: www.foodforall.com | David Rodriguez, david@foodforall.com Headquarters: Brooklyn, NY Geographic Reach: Multi-State (MA, NY) Food for All is a marketplace for surplus food, seeking to match excess food with new demand. Their app is allowing restaurants to sell their surplus food to customers that buy and pick it up for at least 50% off. In response to COVID-19, they are leveraging their platform to donate meals to those facing food insecurity.
Food Link Website | Contact: http://www.foodlinkma.org | Elise Springuel, espringuel@foodlinkma.org Headquarters: Arlington, MA Geographic Reach: Local Food Link is an Arlington-based food rescue organization that works with a volunteer base to collect fresh food from grocery retailers and distribute it to local food agencies that serve food insecure individuals. They do this by partnering with local grocery retailers and prepared food stores and bring a variety of fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, bread, and prepared foods to over 25 food agencies like afterschool programs, low-income housing facilities, and senior centers. Due to COVID19, they have made changes to their food recovery model and are now packaging pre-made grocery bags.
Lovin’ Spoonfuls Website | Contact: http://www.lovinspoonfulsinc.org/ | Lauren Palumbo, lauren@lovinspoonfulsinc.org Headquarters: Boston, MA Geographic Reach: Local Lovin’ Spoonfuls facilitates the recovery and distribution of healthy, perishable food that would otherwise be discarded and has expanded its operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since March, Lovin’ Spoonfuls has rescued and distributed over 610,000 lbs of food to food insecure individuals in Massachusetts and expects to double that in the next 90 days.
Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Website | Contact: www.mofga.org | Ryan Dennett, rdennett@mofga.org Headquarters: Unity, ME Geographic Reach: Local The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA), formed in 1971, is a broad-based community that educates about and advocates for organic agriculture, illuminating its interdependence with a healthy environment, local food production, and thriving communities. In response to COVID-19, MOFGA is helping farms replace lost markets through the development of online sales platforms and partnership with hunger relief efforts.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Mei Mei Restaurant - Common Grocer Collective Website | Contact: https://www.gofundme.com/manage/la-comunidad | Irene Li, irene@meimeiboston.com Headquarters: Boston, MA Geographic Reach: Local Mei Mei Restaurant has started the Common Grocer Collective (CGC) in response to COVID-19, which matches small, independently owned restaurant businesses with community organizations and provides much-needed revenue to restaurants and their vendors while delivering nutritious, culturally appropriate, and most importantly, free food right to immigrant families' doors. Within 10 days, they provided over 120,000 lbs of food and anticipate delivering 385 tons of food in the next 90 days.
Natural Upcycling Website | Contact: http://naturalupcycling.com/ | Christopher Noble, chris@naturalupcycling.com Headquarters: Linwood, NY Geographic Reach: Local Natural Upcycling, in response to COVID-19, is expanding beyond its regular anaerobic digestion operations to address the vast quantities of perfectly healthy milk being dumped on farms. By leveraging its logistics and distribution expertise and partnering with the Dairy Farmers of America, Natural Upcycling launched its initial recovery project to rescue 25,000 gallons of surplus milk in upstate New York and deliver it to food banks.
Strella Biotechnology Website | Contact: www.strellabiotech.com | Katherine Sizov, katya@strellabiotech.com Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA Geographic Reach: Multi-State (OR, PA, WA) Strella predicts the ripeness of produce, allowing players within the supply chain to reduce waste and increase produce quality. Since the onset of COVID-19, they have prevented 5,700 tons of apples from spoiling. They aim to continue using their technology to address the need for increased transparency and visibility into produce waste.
Table to Table Website | Contact: https://tabletotable.org/ | Ilene Isaacs, iisaacs@tabletotable.org Headquarters: Hasbrouck Heights, NJ Geographic Reach: Local Table to Table is a New Jersey community-based food rescue program that collects perishable food that would otherwise be wasted and delivers it to organizations that serve the hungry in Bergen, Hudson, Essex, and Passaic counties. As a result of COVID-19, they have changed their routing and schedules to focus more heavily on large food distributors, including those outside of their typical geographic range. They also developed a new partnership with Matriark Foods to upcycle surplus food into soups and collectively expect to prevent 500,000 lb of food from going to waste in the next 90 days.
Philabundance Website | Contact: https://www.philabundance.org/ | Kait Bowdler, kbowdler@philabundance.org Headquarters: Philadelphia, PA Geographic Reach: Local Philabundance is a Philadelphia-based nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger in the communities they serve. As the main food bank in their region, Philabundance has been a backbone organization during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are experiencing extreme fluctuation in donation availability, as well as closures of food agencies while the number of food insecure individuals is increasing. To address this, they are working with the city and other large hunger relief organizations to build a coordinated group of distribution sites across the city. They are also collaborating with three food rescue logistics groups to handle smaller donations and coordinate delivery of product to the appropriate outlets.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Plentiful Website | Contact: https://www.plentifulapp.com/ | Rebeckah Piotrowski, rpiotrowski@cityharvest.org Headquarters: New York, NY Geographic Reach: Local Plentiful, developed by City Harvest in partnership with the United Way of NYC, is a digital communication system that allows food insecure individuals to connect directly with their local food agencies. Incorporating the Plentiful app into City Harvest’s work (expected to rescue and deliver over 18,000,000 lbs of food in the next 90 days) will both increase the quantity of food rescued and create a more dignified experience for food insecure individuals.
Rescuing Leftover Cuisine Website | Contact: http://www.rescuingleftovercuisine.org/ | Robert Lee, robert@rescuingleftovercuisine.org Headquarters: New York, NY Geographic Reach: Local Rescuing Leftover Cuisine is a food rescue organization that picks up excess, wholesome cuisine and delivers it directly to food agencies. Because of restaurant closures due to the coronavirus outbreak, they have been experiencing a higher amount of donated food and have increased their capacity as well as tapped into their reserves to meet this demand.
Rethink Food NYC Website | Contact: https://www.rethinkfood.nyc/ | Matt Jozwiak, mattj@rethinkfood.nyc Headquarters: New York, NY Geographic Reach: Local Rethink Food NYC is a nonprofit that utilices excess food from restaurants, grocery stores, and corporate kitchens to create new and nutritious meals for those in need. In response to COVID-19, Rethink set up a Restaurant Response Program, which aims to address the impacts on the restaurant industry as well as the growing number of food insecure individuals. They do this by hiring staff at struggling restaurants and repurpose their operations to prepare and provide nutritious meals for the food insecure as well as frontline workers utilizing the donated products from their various food donors. They anticipate serving about 1,305,600 lbs of food over the next 90 days.
Salvation Farms Website | Contact: http://salvationfarms.org | Theresa Snow, theresa@salvationfarms.org Headquarters: Morrisville, VT Geographic Reach: Local Salvation Farms aims to increase resilience in Vermont’s food system through agricultural surplus management. One way they achieve this is through their Vermont Commodity Program, which is designed to serve community-based gleaning programs, large-scale farms, and farm aggregation businesses by managing large volumes of farm-fresh surplus foods that too great for efficient integration into local distribution streams and delivering them to charitable food access points or other institutions serving food insecure individuals in Vermont.
Vermont Foodbank Website | Contact: www.vtfoodbank.org | Jonathan Williams, jwilliams@vtfoodbank.org Headquarters: Barre, VT Geographic Reach: Multi-State (AZ, CA, CT, FL, NY, OH, OR, TX, VA, WA, AL) The Vermont Foodbank’s mission is to gather and share quality food and nurture partnerships so that no one in Vermont. will go hungry. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vermont Foodbank has seen a 30-100% increase in the number of persons accepting food aid in the last two months. At some network partner food agencies, the number of visitors has doubled. As a result, VF has dramatically increased the amount of food it is sourcing and distributing to those in need. This includes purchasing an additional $275,000 in produce from Vermont growers this year, above and beyond
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 what was originally budgeted for in Fiscal Year 2020. With an influx of volunteers, VF also seeks to scale up its gleaning work.
Wholesome Wave Website | Contact: https://www.wholesomewave.org/ | Eboni Banks, eboni@kazanasstrategies.com Headquarters: Bridgeport, CT Geographic Reach: Multi-State (AZ, CA, CT, FL, NY, OH, OR, TX, VA, WA, AL) Wholesome Wave addresses the complex issues of food insecurity with innovative food as medicine programs. These have included doubling SNAP for fruits and vegetables, the development of payment technologies, and designing and deploying Rx produce prescription programs nationally. Over the next 90 days, Wholesome Wave anticipates distributing 500,000+ lbs of rescued food to 10,000+ Los Angelinos.
Southern Region AL, AR, DC, DE, FL, GA, KY, LA, MD, MS, OK, NC, SC, TN, TX, VA, WV
4MYCITY Website | Contact: https://4mycity.us/ | Christopher, Dipnarine, wecare@4mycity.us Headquarters: Randallstown, MD Geographic Reach: Local At 4MyCiTy®, their focus is on the importance of environmental sustainability, primarily the sustainable management of food in relation to food waste. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they have distributed over 300,000 lbs of food. Over the next 90 days, they anticipate to rescue and distribute over 1 million lbs of food.
Bounty & Soul Website | Contact: http://bountyandsoul.org | Ali Casparian, ali@bountyandsou.org Headquarters: Black Mountain, NC Geographic Reach: Local Bounty & Soul delivers healthy food and wellness resources to its local communities as well as nutrition education at no cost. They achieve this through programs such as their Produce to the People Program, which delivers healthy food and wellness resources to local communities through weekly markets, and their Rooted in Health Program, which offers a variety of classes that cover topics including diabetes prevention and Mitigation, goal setting, and stress management.
Brighter Bites Website | Contact: https://www.brighterbites.org/ | Jennifer Boone, jennifer.boone@brighterbites.org Headquarters: Houston, TX Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, DC, FL, MD, NY, TX) Brighter Bites is a Houston-based nonprofit that delivers fresh fruits and vegetables directly into families’ hands, while teaching them how to use and choose nutrient-dense products through their three-step program of Food Access, Food Literacy, and Food Engagement. In response to COVID-19, Brighter Bites plans to deliver more than 11,500,000 lbs of produce to food insecure individuals over the next 90 days. The organization also piloted a new program that pays farmers the marginal cost of their crops to prevent them from being tilled under. One early success of this initiative was the rescue of 30,000 lbs of romaine lettuce from the Salinas Valley which was delivered to the Los Angeles Food Bank.
Danny’s Dumpster Website | Contact: www.dannysdumpster.com | Natalie Keaton, dannysdumpster@gmail.com Headquarters: Leicester, NC
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 Geographic Reach: Local Danny’s Dumpster processes food waste with Black Soldier Fly larvae, resulting in high-value animal feed and soil amendment. Currently, they divert more than 4,160,000 pounds of food waste from landfills annually and turn it into soil amendment. During COVID-19, they plan to scale up production at their new facility to address the growing amount of wasted food and expect to divert an additional 516 tons of food waste in the next 90 days.
DC Central Kitchen Website | Contact: https://dccentralkitchen.org/l | Alex Moore, amoore@dccentralkitchen.org Headquarters: Washington, D.C. Geographic Reach: Local DC Central Kitchen is leveraging its community kitchen model to procure vegetables and pay local farmers at least their marginal costs so that produce is not left in the fields. Over the next 90 days, they expect to recover at least 500,000 lbs of produce for their emergency food and meal distribution program for food insecure individuals in the D.C. area.
Dreaming Out Loud Website | Contact: www.dreamingoutloud.org | Christopher Bradshaw, chris@dreamingoutloud.org Headquarters: Washington, D.C. Geographic Reach: Regional (DC, MD) Dreaming Out Loud's mission is to create economic opportunities for the DC metro region’s marginalized communities by building a healthy, equitable food system. In the wake of the COVID-19 Crisis, Dreaming Out Loud began coordinating to support the immediate emergency food needs of local families in the neediest neighborhoods of DC and Maryland. They created 10 additional community-level distribution hubs where residents are provided with culturally competent food and mutual aid. To date, these sites have distributed 80,000 prepared meals and are poised to be able to distribute 900 produce bags/week once our market season starts. Over the next 90 days, they will distribute over 500,000 lbs of food.
Equal Heart Website | Contact: http://www.equalheart.org/services.html | Keven Vicknair, keven@equalheart.org Headquarters: Dallas, TX Geographic Reach: Local Equal Heart is dedicated to alleviating hunger by expanding access to food for hungry individuals regardless of their circumstances. To reach the most vulnerable communities, they have a mobile food pantry to conduct last-mile deliveries. In response to COVID-19, they doubled their staff and supply budget in order to meet demand for emergency food supplies.
Farm Share Website | Contact: www.farmshare.org | Wendy Freedman, wendy@farmshare.org Headquarters: Homestead, FL Geographic Reach: Local Farm Share is committed to fighting food waste and hunger. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began,, Farm Share has delivered 25 million pounds of food to communities and persons who need it.
Fayetteville Housing Authority Website | Contact: https://fayettevillehousingauthority.org/ | Melissa Terry, mat023@uark.edu Headquarters: Fayetteville, AR Geographic Reach: Local The Fayetteville Housing Authority provides safe, quality, affordable housing as a basic human right to build community resilience, improve intergenerational public health outcomes, and increase equitable opportunities. Through the Full Circle: Increasing Community Food Security Together initiative, the Fayetteville Housing Authority is expanding its direct food
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 services to include supplemental nutrition assistance in the form of additional prepared meals, weekly food boxes containing healthy shelf-stable, fresh food items sourced from local farms, as well as recipes for preparing healthy meals to food insecure individuals impacted by COVID-19.
Feeding America Tampa Bay Website | Contact: www.FeedingTampaBay.org | Patrick Doyle, pdoyle@feedingtampabay.org Headquarters: Tampa, FL Geographic Reach: Local Feeding Tampa Bay is committed to fighting hunger in the communities they serve. In response to COVID-19, they are preparing 8,500 meals daily that are distributed directly to seniors and other homebound individuals with a high risk of infection. In the next 90 days, they project rescuing 540,000 lbs of food.
Freshspire Website | Contact: www.getfreshspired.com | Shraddha Rathod, shraddha@getfreshspired.com Headquarters: Raleigh, NC Geographic Reach: Local Freshspire's digital platform brings the food supply chain online - allowing buyers and suppliers to efficiently interface and exchange goods with the necessary information at their fingertips. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Freshspire is providing free-access to the platform for buyers and suppliers and aims to work with food banks, suppliers, and other organizations to quickly connect supply and demand of food.
Freshsurety Website | Contact: https://freshsurety.com/ | John Hodges, john.hodges@freshsurety.com Headquarters: Alamonte Springs, FL Geographic Reach: Local Freshsurety aims to reduce food waste of perishable products along the supply chain to increase food security. They have developed a low-cost system that converts any box, container, or bag into a “Smart Container”, an individual miniature chemistry laboratory, where the gases emitted by the perishable food are analyzed in our cloud-based solution which determines 1) is the product fresh? 2) how long will the product be fresh? and 3) do we detect any unusual microbial activity? Their Smart Containers have gained traction with Tupperware Brands, USA and Mitsui Chemicals of Japan.
Goodr Website | Contact: https://goodr.com/ | Lynnnette McKissic, lynnette@goodr.co Headquarters: Atlanta, GA Geographic reach: Multi-State (CA, DC, FL, GA, LA, PA) Goodr is a sustainable food waste management technology and logistics company whose mission is to reduce food waste and end hunger. The Goodr model aims to provide a triple-win solution by improving an organization’s bottom line through charitable tax donations, reducing its greenhouse emissions from landfills and getting its edible surplus food to local communities in need. Since the onset of the pandemic, Goodr has diverted over 200,000 lb of surplus food from landfills and delivered it to food insecure families.
Jessie Trice Community Health System Website | Contact: www.jtchs.org | Roy Thompson, rbthompson@jtchs.org Headquarters: Miami, FL Geographic reach: Local Jessie Trice Community Health System, Inc. (JTCHS) is a nonprofit serving Miami-Dade County’s low income, working poor and medically underserved residents since 1967. JTCHS provides comprehensive primary healthcare, dentistry, and
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 behavioral health services to the community’s most vulnerable residents in the Cities of Miami, Hialeah and Miami Gardens. In response to COVID-19, JTCHS aims to expand their services to receive and distribute surplus food to the Miami Dade community residents.
L&M Companies Website | Contact: http://www.lmcompanies.com/ | Keven Vicknair, keven@equalheart.org Headquarters: Raleigh, NC Geographic Reach: Multi-State (AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, KS, MI, NY, NC, VA, WA) L&M Companies is a year-round grower and supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the company has sourced, packed, and distributed over 900,000 lbs of produce to hunger relief organizations in Florida. In the next 90 days, L&M expects to rescue 16,000,000 lbs of food as they expand their Farmers to Families Food Box Program to North Carolina; delivering food to rural families in need.
Second Harvest Food Bank Website | Contact: www.secondharvestmetrolina.org | Delilah Roseborough, droseborough@secondharvest.org Headquarters: Charlotte, NC Geographic Reach: Regional (NC, SC) The mission of Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina (SHFBM) is twofold: the first is to feed hungry people by soliciting and distributing food and other household products through partner agencies; and the second is to educate people in the community about the nature of and solutions to the problems of hunger. Since the start of the COVID-19, they have received 6,092,506 pounds of produce, meat and dairy and distributed it to those in need. In the next 90 day, they anticipate distributing 9 million lbs of food.
Second Helpings Atlanta Website | Contact: https://www.secondhelpingsatlanta.org/ | Andrea Jaron, andreajaron@secondhelpings.info Headquarters: Atlanta, GA Geographic Reach: Local Second Helpings of Atlanta aims to reduce hunger and food waste in the metropolitan Atlanta area by rescuing surplus food and delivering it to those in need. They are responding quickly to address changes in food donor capacity and partner food agencies' schedule changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Second Servings of Houston Website | Contact: https://secondservingshouston.org | Barbara Bronstein, bbronstein@secondservingshouston.org Headquarters: Houston, TX Geographic Reach: Local Second Servings is Houston's only prepared and perishable food rescue organization. They seek to alleviate hunger and reduce waste by rescuing surplus food from businesses and conducting free, same-day delivery to over 90 approved charitable meal sites. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they have been able to manage the sudden increase of food donors that need surplus food picked-up on an urgent basis due to sudden closures and event cancellations. They have been successful in partnering with an idled party tent rental company and municipal agencies to make large food pick-ups and deliveries. Additionally, they started a new Mass-Meal Production Program to feed furloughed and unemployed restaurant workers through a partnership with a local Houston Chef. The program is operating out of a large church kitchen and conducting refrigerated deliveries of chilled meals to two drive-through distribution sites.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
So What Else Website | Contact: www.sowhatelse.org | David Silbert, kdaniels@sowhatelse.org Headquarters: Rockville, MD Geographic Reach: Regional (DC, MD) So What Else is committed to serving our children, community and planet through enriching, service-based out of school time programming and promoting volunteerism in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. Feed the Mind (FTM) is a partnership between So What Else (SWE) and Nourish Now. Through this partnership, FTM recovers up to 20,000 meals per week from restaurants, grocery stores and food distributors. FTM then sets up on-location, weekly food distribution tables and home deliveries of meals and groceries, serving over 4,000 low-income individuals since the onset of COVID-19.
Starling Systems, Inc. Website | Contact: www.starlingrealtime.com | Craig Weise, craig@starlingrealtime.com Headquarters: Charlottesville, VA Geographic Reach: Multi-State (AZ, CA, ME, TX ) Starling Systems, Inc. (SSI) seeks to remove the challenges and barriers in moving highly perishable products along the food supply chain. In response to COVID-19, SSI is developing a Produce Relief Outlet (PRO) to bridge the information, logistics, and payment mechanism gaps, and thereby establish critical new connections between produce donors/sellers and recipients/buyers. PRO will combine the existing Starling Realtime “marketplace” functionality with new payment and logistics integrations to create a complete technology solution for the present crisis. They aim to move 10 million lbs of produce in the next 90 days.
The Nashville Food Project Website | Contact: www.thenashvillefoodproject.org | Johnisha Levi, johnisha@thenashvillefoodproject.org Headquarters: Nashville, TN Geographic Reach: Local The Nashville Food Project brings people together to grow, cook and share nourishing food, with the goals of cultivating community and alleviating hunger in Nashville. During COVID-19, they have recovered and donated food resulting in 83,283 meals and 31,784 lbs of groceries for thousands of Nashville residents facing food insecurity. In the next 90 days, they anticipate that they will be able to recover 75,000 pounds of food.
The Walls Project Website | Contact: https://www.thewallsproject.org/batonroots | Casey Phillips, casey@thewallsproject.org Headquarters: Baton Rouge, LA Geographic Reach: Local The Walls Project leads programs, events, and alliances that work to break through and tear down the societal walls that discourage or prevent people from living safe, healthy, and prosperous lives. In response to COVID-19, they have expanded their fresh food production at the Baton Roots Community Farm. This expansion helps ensure low-income communities in Baton Rouge have access to food despite COVID-19’s strain on local food banks, unprecedented unemployment, and disruptions to the food supply chain.
Treasure Coast Food Bank Website | Contact: www.stophunger.org | Judith Cruz, jcruz@tcfoodbank.org Headquarters: Fort Pierce, FL Geographic Reach: Local Treasure Coast Food Bank (TCFB) seeks to provide food and other essentials to people who are food insecure. Due to COVID-19 local growers were unable to distribute crops as businesses were forced to close. As such,TCFB expanded their Meal Connect Program to source produce left in fields. Since the start of COVID-19, they rescued nearly 1 million lbs of produce and anticipate recovering another 480,000 lbs of food over the next 90 days.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
United Against Poverty Website | Contact: https://unitedagainstpoverty.org/ | Jacqueline Kazimer, jacqueline@unitedagainstpoverty.org Headquarters: Vero Beach, FL Geographic Reach: Local The mission of United Against Poverty, Inc. is to serve those in poverty by providing crisis care, case management, transformative education, food and household subsidy, employment training and placement, personal empowerment training and active referrals to other collaborative social service providers. In response to COVID-19, they created a Mobile Market to divert excess product to underserved populations. Sincemid-March, they have served over 2400 families through the new program and anticipate moving 360 tons of food in the next 90 days.
Vogel Alcove Website | Contact: www.vogelalcove.org | Jerry Robinson, urbangreenu@gmail.com Headquarters: Dallas, TX Geographic Reach: Local Vogel Alcove is a nonprofit childcare facility that serves homeless children between ages six weeks to 12 years old. In response to COVID-19, they aim to build upon their cafeteria food recycling program and expand the program to their networks to supply and support a composting facility that will provide additional workforce development, training and jobs for the children's parents we serve. Additionally, since the start of COVID-19, they distributed some 219,000 meals and recovered almost 20,000 lbs of food waste for composting.
Wasteless Website | Contact: www.wasteless.com | Ilya Movshovich, ilya@wasteless.com Headquarters: Wilmington, DE Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, NY) Wasteless provides a food waste solution aimed to increase perishable food profit by dynamically pricing items with a shorter expiration date at their optimal price point. With the new realities of COVID-19 like contactless deliveries and social distancing, Wasteless's AI-driven, dynamic pricing optimization, will allow customers/shoppers to purchase groceries still fresh, at a lower price (as they get closer to the expiration date), via their patented, automated, and touchless process.
Western Region AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, NM, OR, UT, WA, WY
AgShift Website | Contact: WWW.AGSHIFT.COM | Miku Jha, miku@agshift.com Headquarters: Oakland, CA Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, FL, NJ) AgShift is an AI based industrial automation platform for food quality assessment - enabling better, faster and objective quality assessment at scale compared to current manual processes. - significantly reducing food waste resulting from inconsistencies in quality assessment across the food supply chain. In the current COVID-19 crisis, organizations are operating at 25% of their inspection workforce capacity – not having enough manual labor to do quality inspections. AgShift’s AI-enabled autonomous platform augments manual inspections enabling better, faster and objective quality assessment at scale.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Aloha Harvest Website | Contact: www.alohaharvest.org | Phil Acosta, phil@alohaharvest.org Headquarters: Honolulu, HI Geographic Reach: Local Aloha Harvest is the largest food rescue organization in Hawaii. In response to COVID-19, they scaled their efforts by working with local farmers, ranchers, fishermen, wholesalers & distributors to get more of the nutritious quality foods into the hands of our families in need. In the early stages of the pandemic, they tripled the volume of food rescued, quadrupled the number of collaborating food agencies, and recovered more than 500,000 lbs of food in the first six weeks. In the next 90 days, they expect to rescue over 1 million lbs of food.
Alameda County Community Food Bank Website | Contact: https://www.accfb.org/ | Suzan Bateson, sbateson@accfb.org Headquarters: Oakland, CA Geographic Reach: Local Alameda County Community Food Bank is at the forefront of hunger-relief in the Bay Area and serves about 116,000 people each month, primarily children and seniors, and distributes enough food for approximately 28 million meals through their network of 267 food agencies. In response to the coronavirus outbreak, they are making 2,000 Emergency Food Bags daily, working with a growing number of school districts to provide food to families, and collaborating with senior-focused agencies to ensure vulnerable seniors receive groceries.
Alum Rock Union Elementary School District Website | Contact: www.arusd.org | Albaelena Tamayo, albaelena.diazdiaz@arusd.org Headquarters: San Jose, CA Geographic Reach: Local The mission of the Child Nutrition Services Department is to enhance the health status and nutrition education of all students within the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. In response to COVID-19, they crafted a Grab and Go Meal Distribution system that provides safe and streamlined work-flow systems to minimize the waste of meals to our communities.
Avatar Foods International Website | Contact: www.ggcatering.com | Laura Lyons, laura@ggcatering.com Headquarters: San Francisco, CA Geographic Reach: Local Avatar Foods International seeks to create incomparable experiences for Bay Area businesses through customized food, beverage and event services, using sustainable practices and a customer service driven team to exceed client expectations. During COVID-19, they aim to procure unused/leftover food to create meals that will then be distributed to those in need through such programs as local food banks, Meals on Wheels, and/or the program to provide daily mealservice for homebound seniors.
Berkeley Food Network Website | Contact: www.berkeleyfoodnetwork.org | Sara Webber, sara@berkeleyfoodnetwork.org Headquarters: Berkeley, CA Geographic Reach: Local Berkeley Food Network aims to create a community where no one goes hungry by providing easy and convenient access to healthy, high-quality free food for people who need it. In response to COVID-19, they are expanding their Food Recovery Program to ensure that excess food generated by food businesses does not go to waste. In the next 90 days they anticipate recovering a minimum of 250 tons of food.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Birch Community Services Website | Contact: www.bcsi.org | Valerie Rippey, valerie@bcsi.org Headquarters: Portland, OR Geographic Reach: Local Birch Community Services' mission is to provide a community where people can be responsible and accountable for meeting their basic needs, and to equip them with tools to overcome financial difficulty. Since the onset of the pandemic, they have redistributed 2,347,401 lbs of food and have the ability to rescue 1.9 million lbs of food in the next 90 days.
Bracken’s Kitchen Website | Contact: https://www.brackenskitchen.com/| Caterina Richards, cat@brackenskitchen.com Headquarters: Garden Grove, CA Geographic Reach: Local Bracken’s Kitchen is a nonprofit based in Orange County California and founded in 2013. Through food recovery, culinary training, and their community feeding program, they are committed to recovering, re-purposing and restoring both food and lives. During the crisis, Bracken’s Kitchen expects to produce 245,000 meals (294,000 lbs), distribute 15 tons (30,000 pounds) of edible food, and recover 140 tons (280,000 lbs) in the next seven weeks.
California Association of Food Banks Website | Contact: http://cafoodbanks.org | Terry Garner, terry@cafoodbanks.org Headquarters: Oakland, CA Geographic Reach: Local The California Association of Food Banks is working to create a hunger-free California. Harnessing the voice of their 40+ memberfood banks of California, they influence public policy, collaborate with local farmers to get fresh food into their food banks, and provide nourishment to millions of food insecure families and individuals. In response to COVID-19, CAFB put together the California Food Bank Rapid Response Fund, which will provide crucial funding for food banks to increase their capacity to purchase food supplies and supplement their staffing needs through this public health crisis.
Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona Website | Contact: https://www.communityfoodbank.org/ | Hannah Semler, hannahmsemler@gmail.com Headquarters: Tucson, AZ Geographic Reach: Local The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona addresses the root causes of hunger and seeks to restore dignity, health, and opportunity to people living in poverty. Their mission is to change lives in the communities they serve by feeding the hungry. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona has partnered with Starling Realtime to pilot a supply chain software solution for produce rescue. The technology helps prevent wasted food and improves operational efficiency by digitizing food bank produce rescue efforts, solving complex produce supply chain logistics, and providing donation transparency and traceability. These features have been indispensable during this public health crisis as it allows for remote communication and coordination.
Community Development Corporation of Oregon Website | Contact: www.rockwoodcdc.org | Brad Ketch, bketch@rockwoodcdc.org Headquarters: Gresham, OR Geographic Reach: Local The Community Development Corporation of Oregon seeks to collaborate with their neighbors and partners to make Rockwood, OR a place for everyone to learn, earn, and belong. Their aim is to expand their Farmers Market so that local farms that have new sales channels, since COVID-19 has disrupted their normal operations.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Daily Bowl Website | Contact: http://www.dailybowl.org | Paddy Iyer, paddy@dailybowl.org Headquarters: Union City, CA Geographic Reach: Local Daily Bowl recovers excess food that would otherwise go to waste and delivers it to food agencies in the Bay Area. In response to COVID-19, they have collaborated with their partnering food agencies and empowered them to be a hub for further downstream distribution to food insecure individuals allowing them to focus on building relationships with new food donors to conduct rapid distribution.
FarmLink Website | Contact: https://thefarmlinkproject.org/ | Aidan Reilly, Aidan_reilly@brown.edu Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, CT) FarmLink has created a new supply chain by providing logistics and distribution support to move surplus food from farms to food banks while providing economic relief to farm workers and truckers. Since March, FarmLink has rescued over 250,000 lbs of fresh food and expects to collect and deliver another 500,000 lbs in the next 90 days.
FED Website | Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-merten-1a21108a/ | Donna Merten, donna.merten@colorado.edu Headquarters: Boulder, CO Geographic Reach: Local Farm Eats Direct (FED) is a food hub committed to reducing food waste and providing people with healthy, local, and seasonal food. Their mobile food hub converts from a commercial kitchen processing unit on farms to a mobile market in the community to sell surplus food. In the next 90 days, they expect to recover 250 tons of food from farms that would otherwise be wasted, create 10 new jobs, and generate an additional $750,000 in revenue for farmers.
Feeding Opportunities On Demand Website | Contact: www.feedingopps.org | Cindy Carter-Hodges, feedingpeoplef.o.o.d@gmail.com Headquarters: Oakland, CA Geographic Reach: Local Feeding Opportunities On Demand is a non-profit community program that is committed to helping the unhoused/unsheltered and anyone experiencing food insecurity in the East Bay. Since the onset of COVID-19, they have provided 13,500 hot, nutritious meals.
Feeding San Diego Website | Contact: www.feedingsandiego.org | Ali Colbran, acolbran@feedingsandiego.org Headquarters: San Diego, CA Geographic Reach: Local Feeding San Diego focuses on preventing the food that already exists in their service area from going to waste and getting it to people in need. Since the onset of COVID-19, Feeding San Diego rescued nearly 1,300,000 lbs of food from retailers, grocers, and restaurants. Through their Retail Rescue Program, they expect to recover an additional 2.5 million lbs of food in the next 90 days.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Food Forward Website | Contact: https://foodforward.org/ | Rick Nahmias, rick@foodforward.org Headquarters: North Hollywood, CA Geographic Reach: Local Food Forward fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce from backyards, farms, orchards, farmers markets, and wholesale produce vendors and giving the food to people in-need. During this public health crisis, Food Forward is seeing a 3-4x increase in attendance at our partner agencies’ produce distributions, with normal produce allotments being run through in minutes versus hours. Simultaneously, and due to lack of capacity, in the last month Food Forward has turned away millions of pounds of high-quality wholesale produce donations from its vast network of growers and wholesalers across the region. To address these challenges, Food Forward is implementing a capacity building plan that leverages the Produce Pit Stop Warehouse in Bell, CA and temporarily expands its physical footprint by 50-75%, allowing Food Forward to increase their ability to hold produce and accommodate more trucks dropping off and picking up produce. The increased capacity will result in an additional 2.4 million lb of rescued food over the next 90 days.
Food Rescue Alliance Website | Contact: https://foodrescuealliance.org/ | Hayden Dansky, hayden@boulderfoodrescue.org Headquarters: Boulder, CO Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, CO, IA, MA, MN, NV, OH, OR, PA, TX, WA, WY) Food Rescue Alliance (FRA), managed by Boulder Food Rescue, is a national effort that supports the development and growth of 24 member food rescue organizations across the U.S. Since the onset of the pandemic, FRA members have rescued nearly 740,000 lbs of food monthly. Collectively, they expect to rescue and distribute over 2,000,000 lbs of food in the next 90 days.
Food Runners Website | Contact: www.foodrunners.org | Linda Murley, linda@foodrunners.org Headquarters: San Francisco, CA Geographic Reach: Local The mission of Food Runners is to help alleviate hunger in San Francisco, to help prevent waste and to help create community. Since the onset of COVID-19, they delivered 18,000 meals made from food that would otherwise be discarded or composted.
Fresh Approach Website | Contact: www.freshapproach.org | Laura deTar, freshapproach@freshapproach.org Headquarters: Concord, CA Geographic Reach: Local Fresh Approach's mission is to create long-term change in local food systems, by connecting California communities with healthy food from California farmers and expanding knowledge about food and nutrition. Their Farm Fresh Food Relief (FFFR) delivers ready-made emergency CSA boxes with a mixed variety of fruits and vegetables to food-insecure families in the San Francisco Bay Area. The produce is sourced from local farms, whose businesses have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Galley Solutions Website | Contact: https://www.galleysolutions.com/ | Kirsten Van Fossen, kirsten@galleysolutions.co Headquarters: San Diego, CA Geographic Reach: Local Galley Solutions’ mission is to have a positive impact on people, planet, and profit as relates to the global food system. They offer a Galley Zero-Waste Academy is a 12-week series of online classes that educates foodservice organizations and households on managing, purchasing, and preparing food to prevent food waste going to landfill.
Grey Bears Website | Contact: https://www.greybears.org/ | Tim Brattan, tim@greybears.org Headquarters: Santa Cruz, CA Geographic Reach: Local Grey Bears improves the health and well-being of seniors and their community through food distribution, volunteerism, resource conservation and recycling. Through their Grey Bears Healthy Food recovery programs, they distribute 2.2 million pounds of food that would otherwise go to waste annually. In the next 90 days, they anticipate recovering and distributing 339 tons of food that would otherwise be wasted.
Harvest Against Hunger Website | Contact: http://www.harvestagainsthunger.org/ | David Bobanick, david@harvestagainsthunger.org Headquarters: Seattle, WA Geographic Reach: Multi-state (WA, GA, UT, AZ, MA) Harvest Against Hunger connects farmers, truckers, volunteers, and food banks to reduce food waste and hunger. They do this by soliciting large-scale donations of produce from growers and partnering with truckers to utilize their "deadhead" space on return trips in order to move the produce to their partner warehouse for sorting and distribution. Local food agencies in Seattle are reporting a dramatic increase in the number of first-time clients requesting food assistance, while Harvest Against Hunger is experiencing significantly less produce availability from their usual sources due to consumers panic-buying. In response to this, they are focused on gathering excess produce and engaging donated trucking to help reposition food and materials to accommodate changes in service delivery as a way to support hunger relief partners. They have also fast-tracked their Farm to Pantry program by using funds from their reserves in order to give funding to participating small-scale farmers that have been impacted by restaurant and farmers market closures. Through these initiatives, they expect to rescue and deliver over 850,000 lb of fresh food over the next 90 days.
Heaven’s Windows Website | Contact: www.heavenswindows.org | Angela Kretschmar, akret@heavenswindows.org Headquarters: Spring Valley, CA Geographic Reach: Local Heaven’s Windows’ mission is to elevate the current living conditions of poverty-stricken residents of San Diego County and assist in establishing a stable and productive status of living, while providing support for building strong families as an investment in the future of California and our nation. In the next 90 days, they expect to recover 262 tons of food.
High Desert Second Chance Website | Contact:http://highdesertsecondchance.pagecloud.com | Christina Keneti, ckisis@hotmail.com Headquarters: Hesperia, CA Geographic Reach: Local High Desert Second Chance aims to meet the needs of the food insecure families and homeless in their community and work to replenish low-income populations with necessary food to sustain them. Currently, they are distributing an average of 80,000-100,000 lbs of rescued produce and shelf-stable items weekly.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Manna (The Durango Soup Kitchen) Website | Contact: www.MannaSoupKitchen.org | Ann Morse, director@mannasoupkitchen.com Headquarters: Durango, CO Geographic Reach: Local The mission of Manna is to provide, in the spirit of faith and love, nourishing meals and supportive services in an atmosphere of acceptance and caring for those in need. In response to COVID-19, they are distributing local produce and nourishing meals to those in need by collaborating with local nonprofits and farmers. They expect to serve 24,000 meals to food insecure individuals in the next 90 days.
Manna (The Durango Soup Kitchen) Website | Contact: www.MannaSoupKitchen.org | Ann Morse, director@mannasoupkitchen.com Headquarters: Durango, CO Geographic Reach: Local The mission of Manna is to provide, in the spirit of faith and love, nourishing meals and supportive services in an atmosphere of acceptance and caring for those in need. In response to COVID-19, they are distributing local produce and nourishing meals to those in need by collaborating with local nonprofits and farmers. They expect to serve 24,000 meals to food insecure individuals in the next 90 days.
Martha’s Kitchen Website | Contact: www.marthas-kitchen.org | Bill Lee, bill@marthas-kitchen.org Headquarters: San Jose, CA Geographic Reach: Local Martha’s Kitchen seeks to rescue food and use it to feed hungry people, such as homeless, and victims of domestic violence. Over the next 90 days, they will recover and distribute more than 417,000 meals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Midnight Mission Website | Contact: www.midnightmission.org | Nancy Neilson, nneilson@midnightmission.org Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA Geographic Reach: Local Midnight Mission aims to be the premier provider of life changing services to people experiencing homelessness in Southern California. In response to COVID-19, they aim to increase the number of meals they serve to meet the needs of the growing number of food insecure individuals in Los Angeles. They serve nearly 3,000 meals daily and expect to rescue over 550,000 lbs of food that would otherwise be wasted.
Mi Terro Global Website | Contact: www.miterro.com | Robert Luo, robert.luo@miterro.com Headquarters: City of Industry, CA Geographic Reach: Local Mi Terro is the world's only biotechnology company that turns excess milk into soft, sustainable, and affordable fibers. Their fibers can apply to apparel, medical appliances, bed linen, and packaging film by replacing petroleum-based materials with protein-based materials made from food waste. During the COVID-19 crisis, they aim to help struggling dairy farmers and provide a new stream of income for them.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance Website | Contact: https://seattlefarmersmarkets.org/ | Samantha, Kielty, sam@seattlefarmersmarkets.org Headquarters: Seattle, WA Geographic Reach: Local Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance aims to support and strengthen Washington’s small, sustainable family farms by creating and operating vibrant, neighborhood-scale markets where farmers and food producers can sell their goods, develop relationships with customers, and grow their capacity to produce local ingredients and artisan products. The Farmers Market Food Bank Resiliency Program is a response to uncertainty caused by COVID-19 for both food banks and farmers. The program matches local farmers that have a surplus of produce with food banks in search of specific items. Farmers are paired and contracted with food banks as well as paid up front for future deliveries of produce.
Numi Foundation Website | Contact: https://numifoundation.org/ | Darian Rodriguez Heyman, darian@numifoundation.org Headquarters: Oakland, CA Geographic Reach: Multi-state (CA, NY) Numi Foundation’s mission is to nurture and empower communities to thrive. They envision a world where all basic human needs are met and people have the resources to fulfill their greatest potential. In response to COVID-19, they launched a free weekly CSA program, in which they are paying market rates to struggling family farms - with an emphasis on those owned by women and people of color - for the fresh, organic produce that would have otherwise been wasted. They then deliver the produce to high-need families. Within four weeks, they delivered over 10,000 lbs of food and anticipate to deliver more than 500,000 lbs in the next 90 days.
Oceanside Unified School District Website | Contact: https://www.oside.k12.ca.us/nutrserv | Naomi Shadwell, naomi.shadwell@oside.us Headquarters: Oceanside, CA Geographic Reach: Local Oceanside Unified School District (OUSD) has been providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner to students and their families since the closure of schools due to COVID-19 (1 in 2 students is considered food insecure and relies on this service). In the next 90 days, OUSD will serve 720,000 meals (864,000 lbs of food) and continue to employ over 100 Nutrition Services employees that would otherwise be without work.
O’Side Kitchen Collaborative Website | Contact: https://www.theokc.org/ | Heather Sorgine, heather@theokc.org Headquarters: Oceanside, CA Geographic Reach: Local O’Side Kitchen Collaborative is a zero food waste initiative focused on conscious catering, food rescue, and education. They operate within Green Oceanside Kitchen and are focused on leveraging culinary design and techniques to prevent wasted food and provide meals to those in need. In response to COVID-19, they are preparing packaged, ready-to-eat and frozen meals to support local seniors, immunocompromised, and otherwise food insecure individuals including all children currently enrolled in free lunch programs with K-12 schools. These meals are also available for delivery-service based meal programs for residents, who are able to pay using companies like GrubHub, DoorDash, Postmates, and UberEats. O’Side Kitchen Collaborative is also supporting the local restaurant community by purchasing restaurants’ at-risk food inventory as funding is available and distributing any income generated from delivery service sales among impacted restaurant owners as well as exploring the option of hiring employees affected by restaurant closures.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
ProduceGood Website | Contact: https://producegood.org/ | Nita Kurmins Gilson, producegood.nita@gmail.com Headquarters: San Diego, CA Geographic Reach: Local ProduceGood provides fresh, healthy food to San Diego's charitable food supply and upcycles edible organics through their farmers market produce recovery program. In response to COVID-19, ProduceGood has developed new versions of their services to account for the public health crisis and are piloting 1-2 new services to directly address the impacts of the coronavirus, and since the onset of the pandemic, they’ve rescued over 40,000 lbs of food. In the next 90 days, they anticipate harvesting 80,000 lbs of food.
Redwood Empire Food Bank Website | Contact: www.refb.org | Cerrissa MacNichols, cmacnichols@refb.org Headquarters: San Diego, CA Geographic Reach: Local The mission of the Redwood Empire Food Bank is to end hunger in their community. Since the early stages of the pandemic, The Redwood Empire Food Bank has been focused on recovering food from various venues including grocery stores, ranches, farms, food manufacturers and food service distributors for last mile delivery to food insecure communities. In April 2020, they served 56,000 people, nearly twice as many people as they usually do in a month, and within the first couple months of COVID-19, they recovered 660,063 lbs of food.
Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission Website | Contact: www.rsgm.org | Marie Krueger, marie@rsgm.org Headquarters: Reno, NV Geographic Reach: Local The Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission seeks to reduce food insecurity and increase food knowledge by providing high quality, nutritious food to low- income, at risk adults, children and seniors. Their mission is to eliminate hunger while reducing food waste with a program that provides food, promotes the value of nutrition and increases self-sufficiency and instills hope. They process approximately 6,000 lb of food daily and anticipate preventing at least 540,00 lbs of food from going to waste in the next 90 days.
Treasure8 Website | Contact: https://www.treasure8.com/ | Inessa O-Childs, inessa@treasure8.com Headquarters: San Francisco, CA Geographic Reach: Multi-State (CA, WI) Treasure8 is a Food Tech Company with a mission to help solve food insecurity & waste by creating a global Resource Revolution™. They have patented dehydration systems (SAUNA hot air, freezing and freeze drying) for converting food waste stream sources into slices, pieces and powders. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they seek to process farmers’ food waste into nutritional powder, with the goal of building a disease fighting wellness food platform for the four temporal stages of human wellness--which is being first applied to COVID-19, and then to other diseases.
Ugly Juice Website | Contact: www.gooduse.com | Grant Carlson, grant@gooduse.com Headquarters: Emeryvill, CA Geographic Reach: Local Good Use is a cold-pressed juice company on a mission to fight food waste through using ugly/surplus produce to make healthy, delicious drinks. In the central valley of CA, where they source most of their ingredients for their juices, many of the farmers’ crops that were going to food service vendors are now being forced to throw much of their harvests away as a result of COVID-19. Their goal is to work with those farmers to source their produce, juice it, and freeze those juices so they
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 can be used in the months to come for donations to local food banks and for delivering healthy juices directly to people's homes.
UpRoot Colorado Website | Contact: https://www.uprootcolorado.org/ | Dave Laskarzewski, dave@uprootcolorado.org Headquarters: Carbondale, CO Geographic Reach: Local UpRoot Colorado seeks to reduce surplus agriculture in Colorado, support the economic stability of farmers, and increase the nutritional security of our state’s residents. In response to COVID-19, they aim to provide farmers and ranchers in CO with mobile, on-demand, efficient labor. With increased capacity, they anticipate that over 500,000 lbs of surplus agriculture will be harvested over a 90-day period.
Urban Gleaners Website | Contact: www.urbangleaners.org | Ashley Hess, ashley@urbangleaners.org Headquarters: Portland, OR Geographic Reach: Local Urban Gleaners collects fresh food before it goes to waste and delivers it to those in need. During COVID-19, they have gleaned over 260,000 lbs of fresh produce that would have otherwise been wasted and provided it to vulnerable communities. They anticipate to recover at least 500,00 lbs of food in the next 90 days.
University of California Merced (Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program) Website | Contact: https://www.facebook.com/BobcatEatsFoodWasteProgram/ | Erin Meyer, emeyer4@ucmerced.edu Headquarters: Merced, CA Geographic Reach: Local The Bobcat Eats Food Waste Awareness and Prevention Program is a collaboration between UC Merced and the Merced County Food Bank with the goal of reducing food waste and food insecurity in the county. They achieve this by gleaning food from Merced County farms, backyards, and other food outlets and by distributing the food to those in need. Due to shelter in place and working from home protocols as a result of COVID-19, they are struggling to find volunteers to support with food rescue and delivery.
Waste Not Website | Contact: www.wastenotaz.org | Jacquelyn Ahrenberg, development@wastenotaz.org Headquarters: Scottsdale, AZ Geographic Reach: Local By eliminating food waste and hunger through innovative community partnerships, Waste Not seeks to create sustainable food systems that help people and the planet flourish. During the COVID-19 crisis, Waste Not’s food pickups/deliveries have increased by 70%. They collected and distributed over 7,000 meals in both March and April.
We Don’t Waste Website | Contact: www.WeDontWaste.org | Arlan Preblud, Arlan@wedontwaste.org Headquarters: Denver, CO Geographic Reach: Local We Don’t Waste supports the community and the environment by reclaiming and redistributing quality food to those in need. During the COVID-19 crisis, We Don’t Waste is responding to the growing need for nutritious food in the community by increasing food recovery efforts, expanding their network of agency partners receiving food, and adding more Mobile Food
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19 Market locations. Additionally, all activities have been modified to ensure the safety of employees, food donors, agency partners, and community members. They expect to rescue about 295 tons of food in the next 90 days.
WEgenerative, LLC Website | Contact: www.wegenerative.com | Sophia Nielsen, admin@wegenerative.com Headquarters: Bakersfield, CA Geographic Reach: Local WEgenerative, LLC is a proudly women-owned and operated business that designs and implements sustainable systems. In response to COVID-19, they aim to bridge the gap between wasted resources and underserved communities by coordinating the distribution of food waste with a call center, website, social media campaign, and on-the-ground outreach. Their goal is to empower communities with access to local resources. Utilizing a vast network of ready-to-mobilize, eventwaste professionals in California and extensive experience coordinating waste diversion, WEgenerative will dispatch rapidresponse food recovery transportation.
White Pony Express Website | Contact: www.whiteponyexpress.org | Peter Olsen, peterolsen@whiteponyexpress.org Headquarters: Pleasant Hill, CA Geographic Reach: Local White Pony Express (WPE) aims to eliminate hunger by bridging the gap between excess food and those in need. WPE has rescued and delivered nearly 800,000 lbs of food since the onset of COVID-19 via their innovative Food Rescue and General Store "Mobile Boutique" efforts. In the next 90 days, WPE expects to distribute 1,800,000 lbs of food to its network of more than 80,000 individuals in need, including food from the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box program.
World Harvest Charities and Family Services Website | Contact: www.worldharvestla.org | Glen Curado, glen@worldharvestfoodbank.org Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA Geographic Reach: Local World Harvest Food Bank is a non-profit organization that provides food, basic staples and living essentials to people who are at risk of hunger. In response to COVID-19, World Harvest is creating CSA boxes for distribution partnerships with local community groups.
Midwest Region IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MO, MN, NE, ND, OH, SD, WI
Adelante Center for Entrepreneurship Website | Contact: www.adelantecenter.org | Kenneth Barber, ken@adelantecenter.org Headquarters: Waukegan, IL Geographic Reach: Local Adelante Center creates wealth in distressed communities through entrepreneurship, living wage job creation, and community development. They identify the most pressing needs in a community and lead programs that address those needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Adelante Center plans to pilot a web-based food pantry that will offer contactless direct delivery of prepared food and groceries to the community’s most vulnerable food insecure residents.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
After the Harvest Website | Contact: https://aftertheharvestkc.org | Zach Callaway, zach@aftertheharvestkc.org Headquarters: Kansas City, MO Geographic Reach: Local After the Harvest seeks to prevent hunger by rescuing fresh, nutritious produce that would otherwise go to waste and distributing it to food agencies that feed hungry individuals, families, children, and seniors. They achieve this by gleaning farmers’ fields of excess produce, picking-up already harvested excess produce from farms and markets, and then transporting the food to food banks and food agencies. They also secure truckloads of donated fruits and vegetables from large commercial producers and give it to food banks. In response to COVID-19, they have taken the necessary safety precautions and are following the CDC and State Department of Health guidelines, as they remain committed to their mission of nourishing hungry people.
Be Kind 2 People Website | Contact: https://bekind2people.org | Justin Galzki, justin.galzki@bekind2people.org Headquarters: Crystal, MN Geographic Reach: Local Be Kind 2 People seeks to provide sustainable resources to promote mental and physical well-being that will support individuals on the path to restoration. In response to COVID-19, they transformed their parking lot into an emergency food redistribution hub. Within 8 weeks, they distributed over 2 million lbs of food and provided over 100,000 hot meals to families in need. In the next 90 days, they expect to recover and distribute over 3 million lbs of food.
Feeding Kentucky Website | Contact: https://feedingky.org/ | Sarah Vaughn, sarah@feedingky.org Headquarters: Frankfort, KY Geographic Reach: Local Feeding Kentucky seeks to end hunger, in collaboration with Kentucky’s Feeding America Food Banks and partners, through advocacy and resource development. They seek to expand their Farms to Food Banks program, which has already recovered and distributed a little over 100 lbs of lettuce from one farmer in Louisville, KY at the beginning of the growing season.
Foodbank, Inc. Website | Contact: www.thefoodbankinc.org | Emily Gallion, egallion@thefoodbankdayton.org Headquarters: Dayton, OH Geographic Reach: Local The Foodbank relieves hunger in the community through a network of partner agencies by acquiring and distributing food.They have expanded their operations to increase their ability to recover food and anticipate that they will be able to rescue and distribute over 1 million lbs of food that would otherwise go to waste.
Kanbe’s Markets Website | Contact: https://kanbesmarkets.org/ | Max Kaniger, mkan@kanbesmarkets.org Headquarters: Kansas City, MO Geographic Reach: Local Kanbe’s Markets provides consistent access to fresh, healthy and affordable foods in the areas of “food deserts” of Kansas City. Their goal is to eliminate food insecurity by providing an innovative food delivery system that is more inclusive, enhances small businesses, and improves communities one neighborhood at a time. Since the onset of COVID-19, they have distributed 30,000 lbs of food to those in need on a daily basis.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
La Soupe Website | Contact: https://lasoupe.org/ | Suzy Deyoung, suzy@lasoupecincinnati.org Headquarters: Cincinnati, OH Geographic Reach: Local La Soupe bridges the gap between food waste and hunger using a chef-based model by rescuing perishable food, transforming it into delicious and nutritious meals and providing it to food insecure individuals. They achieve this through their Bucket Brigade Program, in which participating Chefs use their overages or produce from La Soupe and create soups and meals that are then distributed to local food agencies.
Noors Heaven of West Michigan Website | Contact: http://www.noorheaven.org | Wafa Haddad, grant@noorheaven.org Headquarters: Wyoming, MI Geographic Reach: Local Noors Heaven of West Michigan Services is a non-profit charity agency that helps Arab and Muslim individuals and families with comprehensive humanitarian, social, and educational services that help women, children, men, and families who are impacted by poverty, violence, and language barriers. During COVID-19, they expanded their services to distribute free, healthy food to eliminate hunger among vulnerable populations.
Northern Illinois Food Bank Website | Contact: www.solvehungertoday.org | Hester Bury, hbury@northernilfoodbank.org Headquarters: Geneva, IL Geographic Reach: Local The mission of Northern Illinois Food Bank is to lead the northern Illinois community in solving hunger by providing nutritious meals to those in need through innovative programs and partnerships. Since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis Northern Illinois Food Bank has been developing immediate and creative solutions to distribute an abundance of donated food quickly and efficiently to meet the needs of the growing number of neighbors, who are suddenly and unexpectedly facing food insecurity. In the next 90 days, they anticipate providing at least 1,600,000 meals to those in need.
Second Harvest Heartland Website | Contact: https://www.2harvest.org/| Dana Nelson, dnelson@2harvest.org Headquarters: Brooklyn Park, MN Geographic Reach: Regional (MN, WI) Second Harvest Heartland, one of the nation’s largest food banks and hunger relief organizations, took inspiration from Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen and launched the Minnesota Central Kitchen in response to COVID-19. In its first 8 weeks of operation, MCK has recovered 512,005 lbs of food meaning hundreds of thousands of meals are being made by more than 100 food service professionals at 5 kitchen locations, primarily from donated and rescued food. These healthy, prepared meals are distributed to people visiting more than 50 sites in the Twin Cities metro area each week. In the next 90 days, they anticipate distributing at least 426,000 meals.
SwineTech Website | Contact: https://swinetechnologies.com/ | Matthew Rooda, mrooda@swinetechnologies.com Headquarters: Solon, IA Geographic Reach: Regional (IL, IN, IA, KY, MN, OH, OK, SD, TN) SwineTech® strives to be the eyes and ears for pork producers, enabling them to offer an exceptional quality of life for the pigs in their care. They accomplish this by crafting novel technologies that minimize labor, energy use, and sow and piglet mortalities. Due to COVID-19, labor is no longer available to provide continuous oversight of piglets, they aim to leverage their technology to address this new challenge. To date, their tech has protected over 2 million piglets the equivalent of over 432,000,000 lbs of pork.
Fundable Initiatives: Food Waste Solution Providers on the Front Lines of COVID-19
Total Organics Recycling Website | Contact: www.totalorganicsrecycling.com | Rachel Greathouse, rgreathouse@stlcompost.com Headquarters: Valley Park, MO Geographic Reach: Regional (IL, MO) Total Organics Recycling provides commercial composting pickup service for a wide range of businesses and organizations, to help customers achieve further waste reduction goals and closing the circle. In the next 90 days, the expect to recycle 9,000 to 15,000 tons of food that would otherwise be landfilled.