2023 Food Waste Solutions Summit
May 16-18, 2023 | St. Louis, MO
Summit Schedule
Here's a preliminary look at the schedule to assist in your planning.
Details on session topic areas and speakers to follow soon.
Registration Open
Field Trips
Field trips are intended to introduce Summit attendees to the local food system in St. Louis and bring food waste and sustainability to life. Transportation and all costs are covered by ReFED.
Staggered departures at 1:00pm and 1:30pm
Summit Kick-Off Programming
Welcome Reception
Registration Open
Breakfast
Mainstage Session | Food Waste: The Past, Present, and Future
Bold action to tackle food waste reduction is more urgent than ever. From rising food prices and ongoing labor shortages, to supply chain disruptions and the surging carbon footprint of discarded food — there is a unique opportunity to influence behavior around proper food management and the food system is rising up to meet this moment. We have come far in just the last three years, but a 50% reduction goal is still a long way off. Featuring a 20-minute introduction from Dana Gunders, followed by a three 15min series of keynotes, this session will showcase different perspectives on food waste — where we’ve come, where we are now, and what needs to happen to get to 2030.
Networking Break
Innovate to Elevate: The Latest and Greatest in Food Recovery
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Salvaging surplus food and redistributing it can ensure that food ultimately goes towards serving its highest purpose of feeding people. However, just 3% of surplus food ends up being donated, and most food donations are of processed, shelf-stable items that are easier to transport and store. As a result, many food relief agencies end up purchasing fruits, vegetables, and other perishables rather than rely on donations. What solutions can help further the rescue of high-quality, nutritious food and increase the capacity of food relief agencies to get it to the people who need it most, and in a dignified manner? Through a series of Pecha Kucha presentations, this session will highlight the latest and greatest happenings and resources in food recovery.
From Garbage to Gold: Uncovering the Value of Recycling, Composting, and Anaerobic Digestion
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Nearly 70% of surplus food is treated as true “waste,” meaning it is either left in the fields after harvest, incinerated, dumped, deposited in the sewer, sent to landfill, or applied to the land. But much of this could have been used for other purposes — in fact, recycling and composting offer one of the largest opportunities for decreasing the amount of waste in our food system. What can be done to ensure we’re finding the highest and best use for any food or scraps that remain? While there are many sites today in the U.S. that utilize anaerobic digesters, very few are dedicated to processing food scraps. This session will dig up the value of composting and anaerobic digestion, unveil the adoption of these solutions, and bring to the surface the infrastructure gaps that hinder these efforts.
Cultivating Food Justice, Seeding Sovereignty: A Primer to Reap an Equitable, Inclusive, and Sustainable Food System
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Bringing back last year’s Fishbowl format, this interactive session will allow attendees to examine and discuss the intersection of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) and the food waste sector — providing insights into what work is currently happening, who is involved, where there are gaps, where there are opportunities, and where there are potential inadvertent consequences. You wil get the opportunity to exchange meaningful knowledge, build deep relationships, and make powerful conversations on how to envision our food future together.
Empowering Consumers: The Latest and Greatest Resources to Reshape Attitude and Behaviors
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
A consumer behavioral approach to food waste is critical. Households generate more surplus food than any other sector, and while poor food management is a big cause, a portion of that waste occurs because of decisions made by other actors throughout the supply chain. How can shopping, cooking, and eating environments evolve to help consumers waste less — and what’s needed to shift our overall culture to place more value on food? Tune it to see the latest and greatest products and initiatives making these shifts.
Squeezing Every Last Drop: Maximizing Product Utilization through Upcycling
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Upcycling offers a second chance for food that would otherwise fall through the cracks of our fragmented food system. Waste can be driven by not using food products in their entirety. However, value-added processing rethinks the concept of “waste” by turning surplus and byproducts into food products, thus finding greater value in items or parts usually deemed worthless. Given the explosive growth of this industry in such a short timeframe, how can facilities, operations, and menus be redesigned to use as much of each product as possible? Explore the growing momentum around upcycled food and the untapped potential of this fledgling market.
Lunch & Special Programming
All the Buzz: The Value of Insect Farming in Upcycling Food Waste into Animal Feed
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
For too long they’ve been a fly on the wall, but insects offer a new frontier in the sector. Given insects’ natural role as food for a number of farmed livestock species, it is worth reconsidering their role in the food waste movement. Furthermore, turning food scraps into animal feed is an affordable and preventative measure that minimizes the environmental impacts of this waste while providing livestock with safe, nutritious, and value-added fodder. The panel discussion will address the emergence and scale of these recycling measures and to determine what is needed for growth and adoption of these solutions.
Feeding the Megaphone: How to Increase Community Voice and Participation in Food Rescue
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Conversations about addressing food waste often leave out the communities who are receiving and distributing the food. This results in a hyper-focus on addressing food waste from a logistics-only standpoint and assuming the food will automatically be eaten by people receiving it. Without input from community members on their needs, an entire half of the equation is missing, which doesn’t address the food waste problem holistically and causes harm to communities receiving food. It’s important to consider community-based solutions, cultural needs, and relationships that cannot be automated if we want to better solve the food waste crisis. Join this discussion to explore how localized, diverse, and community-driven solutions, such as Boulder Food Rescue’s No Cost Grocery Programs, return power, choice and control back to the people most impacted by hunger and food waste, allowing for solutions that better meet people’s food needs.
Investing for Impact: How Philanthropy is (and isn’t) Funding Solutions to Food Waste
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Funding food waste reduction is crucial to meeting 2030 goals — and philanthropic capital can have a big role to play. As a result, the ReFED Capital Tracker was launched in 2022, and updated to include philanthropic data — bringing transparency and insight to the ecosystem on where funding is going and where the gaps lie. Join this panel discussion to explore the Capital Tracker tool, high level trends, and the role of philanthropists in providing flexible, risk-tolerant, and patient investment to support impact-focused solution providers.
What Will it Tech? How to Avoid a Solvable Problem through Digital Innovations
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
We are living in the technological age and the opportunity in this area is vast — there are new products coming online, companies being built, and campaigns being launched that have the potential to drastically reduce wasted food while delivering a full menu of co-benefits to people and the planet. Explore a sampling of these innovations through a series of Pecha Kucha presentations followed by a Q&A discussion.
Structured Networking
Mainstage Session | Cultivating an Inclusive Food System Where Everybody Eats: Exploring the Intersection of Justice and Food Waste
(More details to come)
Happy Hour Reception
No-Host Dinners
Various locations/More details TBA
Registration Open
Breakfast
Mainstage Session | Investing in Tomorrow: Financing Food Waste Solutions to Meet the Climate Challenge
Investing in food waste reduction is at an inflection point - with several clear tailwinds indicating that deploying capital into the sector has never been more attractive. In this session, two panels will explore what the future might hold for food waste solution financing. Seasoned early stage climate investors will discuss what innovation and sector development they will be looking for in 2023 and beyond, and industry experts will discuss the potential for carbon offsets to play a role in driving capital to food waste solutions.
Networking Break
Around the Table in 90 Minutes: Getting Food Loss and Waste on the Climate Agenda
Workshop (Running Concurrently)
The links between our food systems and the climate crisis are becoming increasingly clear — the way we produce, distribute, and consume food contributes significantly to global emissions and socio-environmental damage, and also faces increasing disruption from the climate effects we’re already experiencing. The IPCC has released its most dire warning yet of the urgency required for action to mitigate and adapt, and we’re seeing governments, businesses, and individuals respond. But, where specifically is food waste showing up on the climate agenda? This workshop will consist of an introductory panel showcasing some highlights of public and private sector initiatives on climate, followed by small group discussions on how sustainability leaders can further integrate food waste reduction into their climate work, with the goal of sharing learnings, tools, and resources for those eager to speed progress on the critical issue of climate change.
Around the Table in 90 Minutes: Mapping Out Approaches to Food Waste Measurement
Workshop (Running Concurrently)
You can't manage what you don't measure. Across the food industry, food waste reduction is often buried in operational budgets, where it is accepted as the cost of doing business. Over time, more and more business leaders are recognizing that reducing surplus food is an opportunity to contribute to social and environmental goals, while also improving their bottom lines in the process. To support decision-making, how do we generate accurate and reliable data on food loss and waste measurement? This session will examine how food businesses can successfully build toolkits by providing a comprehensive overview of the various methods and tools available for measuring, estimating, and predicting food waste along the supply chain. This workshop is tailored towards individuals or groups who work at food businesses and are responsible for measurement, as well as those who want their food businesses to measure food waste but don't know how. The workshop will begin with a brief overview of ReFED’s Food Waste Monitor and Solution Database tools — as one methodological example— and then break out into small group discussions where participants will get crash courses in particular food waste measurement methodologies from leading experts. Participants will rotate to different tables every 20 minutes to learn about different methodologies with the ultimate goal of establishing a community of practice to help reduce barriers to entry.
Around the Table in 90 Minutes: Filling the Gaps in Food Waste Research
Workshop (Running Concurrently)
The road that leads to halving food waste by 2030 effectively starts by mapping out a research agenda. The Food Waste Monitor tool, within the ReFED Insights Engine, presents comprehensive estimates for system-wide absolute food surplus and its impacts. However, every methodology has its limitations — transparently acknowledging and clarifying those nuances and weaknesses paves the way to improve them. This workshop is geared towards experts in measurement as well as those who rely on metrics to set policy or implement solutions. Workshop participants will be divided into six facilitator-led tables, each representing a sector in the food supply system — farm, manufacturing, distribution, retail, food service, and residential. This will also serve as preliminary documentation for a ‘shared’ research agenda. Join this workshop to gain a deeper understanding of existing and emerging metrics, gaps, and opportunities in the food system as well as strengthening a community of practice among food waste measurement experts to share best practices, pool resources, and collaborate.
Around the Table in 90 Minutes: Building Best Practices for Employee Engagement
Workshop (Running Concurrently)
From store clerks to chefs on the kitchen line, employees are the unsung ambassadors with the potential to propel the food waste message across all corners of the supply chain to the forefront of operations. For any waste reduction campaign to be a real success you need to involve all of your team, as it is everyone’s responsibility to make the most from our food. What approaches can your organization develop to implement effective employee engagement strategies? Fortunately, you do not have to start from scratch. This workshop boils down to an introductory presentation into successful employee engagement models, small group discussions on ways to implement or build on these practices in their own organizations, and a share-out of learnings and ideas.
Around the Table in 90 Minutes: How to Leverage Catalytic Capital to Scale Impact
Workshop (Running Concurrently)
Identifying Necessary Innovation & Critical Funding Gaps
Catalytic capital — funding that is patient, flexible, and risk-tolerant — is critically important in sparking more traditional forms of capital into the food waste sector. Come learn about trends and gaps in food loss and waste investment, how the ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund has deployed this type of capital to date, and how organizations are leveraging this type of funding. This session will include table discussions pinpointing areas for much-needed food waste reduction projects, initiatives, and innovation, as well as identifying funding gaps that need addressing and conclude with a share-out.
Lunch
Insights from Food-Service: A Three-Course Meal in Wins, Challenges, and Big Bets in Hospitality
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Historically, food waste has been viewed as a necessary evil in the hospitality and events industries. Today, leading companies are finding ways to continue creating value for their guests while reducing surplus food that would have otherwise been wasted. This session will share insights and learnings from leading experts and business leaders implementing food waste reduction solutions as well as highlight sector-specific solutions designed to alleviate barriers to food waste reduction.
Insights from the Cafeteria: Food Waste in Schools and Strategies to Reduce It
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Schools provide an ideal learning environment to teach better food conservation habits to the next generation. Most importantly, increasing consumption and reducing wasted food means children receive optimal nutritional benefits from school meals. How can we instruct and instill better habits from the halls of the classroom to the cafeteria? This session will cover how a combination of strategies and interventions — like marketing healthy choices, providing nutrition education, and offering cooking and gardening programs for students — effectively work in unison to increase student consumption.
Insights from the Farm: Cultivating Ideas to Reduce Farm-Level Food Loss
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Building a sustainable food system starts on the farm. Food that is grown but not consumed uses resources all along the farm-to-fork chain. Of the nearly 17 million tons of surplus produce generated at the farm level, a staggering 82% reached maturity but were left behind after harvest. So, how can we optimize the harvest? From protecting and restoring biodiversity to ensuring that safe and nutritious food reaches our tables, growers and producers play an indispensable role in achieving a more sustainable future…but they can’t do it alone. This session will highlight the wins, challenges, viable solutions for the future, and the role that other actors across the value chain can play to minimize food loss at the farm level.
Insights from the Town Hall: Working with Local Governments to Drive Food Waste Policy
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Policy is unique in its power to provide a mandate that can move the food system to action — and throughout the last few years, a range of policies have been enacted to support efforts across the food system to cut the amount of food lost or wasted. This session will cover the key elements of successful policy at the state and local levels, ensuring that all stakeholders' need are incorporated into policy development and implementation, and mechanisms for measuring progress.
Reimagining the Table by Getting to Root Causes: Why We Must Center Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Breakout Session (Running Concurrently)
Bringing back last year’s Fishbowl format, this interactive session will allow attendees to examine and discuss the intersection of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) and the food waste sector — providing insights into what work is currently happening, who is involved, where there are gaps, where there are opportunities, and where there are potential inadvertent consequences. You wil get the opportunity to exchange meaningful knowledge, build deep relationships, and make powerful conversations on how to envision our food future together.
(More details to come)
Networking Break
Mainstage Session | The Future is Now: The Power of Indomitable Youth to Spark Action
Youth are the greatest agents of change in a society. When mobilized and empowered, youth are the generation of environmental stewards driving forward a nutritious, sustainable, resilient, and inclusive food system. Yet too often, youth are regarded as recipients and are underrepresented or excluded from decisions that impact their future. And, are the generation most impacted by our present (in)actions. Recognizing their agency means recognizing that this younger generation are heterogeneous societal actors in their own right and with their own values that we can learn from. If they are to inherit our food system, it is essential to develop systems, policies, and enabling environments now that provide spaces and mechanisms to stimulate their participation. In this session you will hear from youth who are paddling the oars of innovation, be inspired by their triumphs, and explore how we can further unleash their potential to thrive in a livable climate.
Stay tuned for speaker announcements!