2025 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit
June 23 - 25, 2025 | Seattle, WA
Hyatt Regency Seattle
Field Trips
Get to know your fellow Food Waste Solutions Summit attendees on a field trip! We're partnering with organizations throughout the Seattle area to introduce you to the local food system and bring food waste and sustainability to life. Transportation and all costs are covered by ReFED.
Field trips are optional and advanced sign-up is required to attend. Spaces are limited for each trip and are available on a first-come, first-served basis and will close as soon as each field trip's maximum capacity is reached. Release forms may be required for some locations and will be distributed once the final group is confirmed.
All field trips are held simultaneously on Monday, June 23 from 1-4pm ET, so you may only choose one trip.
To sign up for a field trip, you will first need to complete your Summit registration here. If you've already registered for the Summit, look for the invite email in your inbox. Instructions to sign up for field trips are included in it.
Cascadia Produce
Come see where the food recovery and distribution magic happens at the warehouse space shared by both Cascadia Produce and GoodRoots NW in Auburn, WA. Attendees will witness firsthand how Cascadia Produce solves the daily logistics puzzle of making retail rejected and surplus food available in the right quantity and the right place for sales and donation. You’ll also learn how radical cross-sector collaboration and coordination within co-located operations enables both entities to more efficiently manage sourcing and fulfillment for the GoodRoots NW food locker network, and mitigate reduced food security funding.
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Cedar Grove & Sound Sustainable Farms
Since 2005, Cedar Grove Composting has worked with hundreds of restaurants throughout the Seattle region to haul and compost their food waste. That compost is used to grow high quality organic produce at Sound Sustainable Farms, which is then sold back to the same restaurants. Come see (and taste!) the literal fruits and vegetables of this closed organics recycling loop.
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FareStart
On this field trip, attendees will tour the production kitchen where FareStart processes surplus and purchased food into value-added products for community meals and retail operations. Specifically, you’ll see how surplus artisan bread products from PCC Markets are recovered, processed, packaged, and labelled, and made ready for sale back to PCC Markets as an upcycled product, all while providing on-the-job training for their students. The group will then head to FareStart’s flagship restaurant in downtown Seattle where FareStart and its partners in this work will discuss building a holistic ecosystem of food recovery, processing, and distribution.
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Google x Compass
Attendees will start their tour with lunch in a Google cafe. They’ll then tour both back-of-house and front-of-house areas and see firsthand how Google and its food service partner, Compass, operationalize on sustainability goals, including sending zero waste to landfill, and reducing food waste by 50% per Googler by 2025.
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Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (Ballard Locks)
This private, custom tour will include in-depth information on the history and engineering of the locks, with an emphasis on the salmon lifecycle and salmon’s role within the local food system. Depending on conditions, attendees should be able to see salmon migrating through the fish ladder to their spawning beds upstream.
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Restaurant2Garden
Get up close and personal with restaurant composting on a hyperlocal scale! Attendees will visit Restaurant2Garden’s restaurant partner, Itsumono, and the Danny Woo Community Garden just one block away, where diverted food scraps are turned into compost. You’ll learn more about the primarily elderly, AAPI community that Restaurant2Garden serves and how the non-profit engages local businesses and community members in this work, and also get a glimpse of their new, expanded operation using public land for public good.
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Ryp Labs
Ryp Labs is an award-winning food preservation and waste reduction company developing and commercializing biomimicry solutions to combat global food waste, sustainably and safely. On this special tour of Ryp Labs’ headquarters, attendees will see the research, testing, and manufacturing processes behind the patent-pending technology that helps boost the shelf life of produce by 50-100%.
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Sodexo Live! at T-Mobile Park
In partnership with Sodexo Live!, T-Mobile Park and the Seattle Mariners have been leaders in sustainable ballpark operations, earning such awards as the EPA Food Recovery Challenge Sports & Entertainment Award and the MLB Green Glove Award for highest recycling rate, all while serving the community through over 100 tons of food donations to local food banks and feeding programs. This tour will give attendees an in-depth look into the operational details of running a world-class ballpark and concessions program guided by sustainability and zero-waste principles.
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Starbucks
This tour will give attendees a firsthand glimpse into the backhaul food rescue logistics process at the core of Starbucks FoodShare program, scaled and available at 100% of company-operated stores in the U.S. and Canada. Attendees will see how rescued food from local stores is consolidated at a third-party logistics (3PL) warehouse, weighed, and sorted for delivery to regional food bank partners or local food agencies. You will hear directly from the operators about the complexity and sophistication of daily reverse logistics to accomplish this impactful program at scale.
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