2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit
June 11-13, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
Dana Gunders
Executive Director
ReFED
Bio:
Dana Gunders serves as ReFED’s Executive Director. Dana is a national expert on food waste and one of the first to bring to light just how much food is lost throughout the food system. For almost a decade, she was a Senior Scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She then launched Next Course, LLC to strategically advise on the topic. Some of her career highlights include authoring the landmark Wasted report and Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, launching the Save the Food campaign with the Ad Council, testifying in Congress, consulting to Google, appearing on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and being a founding Board Member of ReFED.
Schedule
Wednesday, May 20
9:00am - 10:30am
“Progress in Action: Scaling Solutions to Food Waste”
Mainstage
Ten years ago, ReFED's Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste set an ambitious vision for transforming the way America produces, manages, and thinks about food waste. Since then, the field has grown, solutions have scaled, and momentum has built in ways both measurable and inspiring. But with urgency still high and much work remaining, this opening session is as much about what comes next as it is about how far we've come. ReFED President Dana Gunders will set the stage with a look at the field's most meaningful accomplishments from the past year and the bright spots ahead on the horizon. A panel of founders/CEOs will share candid reflections on what it took to grow their solutions from early-stage ideas into mainstream impact—offering hard-won lessons on how innovation and investment align for success. And the session will close on a high note with the announcement of the newest grantees of the ReFED Catalytic Grant Fund, celebrating the next wave of solutions poised to move the needle in the decade ahead.
Thursday, May 21
12:00pm - 1:00pm
“A Decade of Impact: Celebrating Success and Charting the Path Forward”
Mainstage
Three days of bold ideas, candid conversations, and cross-sector connections—and here’s where we bring it all together. This closing session reunites some of the original architects of ReFED's first Roadmap to reflect on the journey from vision to impact and to share what they believe the next chapter must look like if we are to meet the scale of the challenge ahead. But this isn't just a look back. Drawing on the themes, tensions, and breakthroughs surfaced throughout the Summit, our closing panel will help attendees synthesize what they've heard and turn inspiration into intention and ultimately action. Through an interactive discussion designed to spark reflection and action, every person in the room will leave with concrete next steps—and a renewed sense of the collective momentum behind this work. This session is a reminder of how far we've come—and a challenge to make the next ten years count even more.