2023 Food Waste Solutions Summit
May 16-18, 2023 | St.Louis, MO
Ben Collier
Co-Founder and CEO
The Farmlink Project
Bio:
Ben is the Co-founder and CEO of The Farmlink Project, a student-founded organization addressing the intersection of food insecurity, food waste, and the environment. Each year, 20-30 billion pounds of fresh produce goes to waste in the United States alone; Farmlink is building creative solutions to food waste. Since April 2020, the team has delivered over 100 million lbs of farm-fresh surplus fruits and vegetables to 400+ communities around the country, preventing millions of pounds of carbon emissions as a result.
Ben started Farmlink as a junior at Brown University, and has since graduated with a degree in Applied Mathematics. He was not the only one in school during the early days of the organization. Farmlink began and operated for over a year as a body of 100+ volunteer college students and has since evolved to a hybrid model with 20 full time employees and a base of dozens of college fellows. Ben now lives in Los Angeles, where he works on Farmlink full time with his remote team.
Ben represents Farmlink as a member of the New Profit Health Equity Cohort, exploring access to fresh and healthy food as a key social determinant of health. The Farmlink team has received the Congressional Medal of Honor Society Service Award for their work, and Ben recently accepted the Samuel S. Beard Award for Outstanding Public Service by an Individual 35 & Under.
Long term, Farmlink aspires to put itself out of business. Through surplus redistribution and policy reform, The Farmlink project is re-building a food system in which every person has access to healthy food with choice, consistency, and dignity.
Schedule
Tuesday, May 16th
4:00pm - 5:00pm
Pre-Summit Events: Farmlink Documentary Screening - Abundance
Session 1
Abundance is a documentary short following a group of college students who band together to deliver over 100 million pounds of food assistance during the largest food crisis in a century. In April 2020, as food bank lines wrapped for miles, the college students drove uHaul trucks from farms to their local food bank. After a few unexpected turns, the project grew to a national scale.
Tuesday, May 16th
5:00pm - 6:00pm
Pre-Summit Events: Farmlink Documentary Screening - Abundance
Session 2
Abundance is a documentary short following a group of college students who band together to deliver over 100 million pounds of food assistance during the largest food crisis in a century. In April 2020, as food bank lines wrapped for miles, the college students drove uHaul trucks from farms to their local food bank. After a few unexpected turns, the project grew to a national scale.
Thursday, May 18th
3:00pm - 4:00pm
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.