2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit
June 11-13, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
Kim Severson
National Food Correspondent
The New York Times
Bio:
Kim Severson is a Southern-based correspondent for The New York Times who reports on the nation’s food and culture. She also contributes to NYT Cooking, a website and app based on the extensive New York Times collection of recipes and cooking videos. Previously, Kim was the Times’ Southern bureau chief, covering a mix of breaking and political news. She has covered crime, education, politics and culture as a staff writer for West Coast news organizations including the San Francisco Chronicle and The Anchorage Daily News in Alaska. Kim has won several regional and national awards for news and feature writing, including the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for her contributions to the team that investigated sexual harassment and abuse against women and four James Beard awards for food writing. She has written four books, including her memoir “Spoon Fed: How Eight Cooks Saved My Life,” (Riverhead).” She lives in Atlanta with her partner and teenager.
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 continued to grow, 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. Our emcee Chef Joel Gamoran and ReFED’s Sara Burnett will kick off our programming by welcoming you to Charlotte. ReFED President Dana Gunders will set the stage with a look at the field’s most meaningful accomplishments from the past year—including the reveal of a brand new video featuring voices from around the country highlighting their work—as well as the bright spots on the horizon in the year ahead. And the session will also feature a unique “kitchen table” discussion about the new landscape of food as a result of policy and other macro cultural influences, featuring Michiel Bakker of the Culinary Institute of America, Emily Broad Lieb from the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, and chef Michel Nischan, and moderated by Kim Severson of the New York Times.
Wednesday, May 20
4:00pm - 5:15pm
“The Big Picture: Megatrends Shaping the Future of Food Waste”
Mainstage
Food waste isn’t a single problem with a single solution—it’s a complex, interconnected challenge shaped by forces that cut across every sector, setting, and stakeholder. This session zooms out to examine the sweeping trends that are redefining what’s possible in the fight against food waste, and how leaders across the field can harness them to accelerate impact. Artificial intelligence is transforming everything from demand forecasting to inventory management and supply chain visibility—but realizing its potential while navigating its risks requires intentionality. And social media platforms like TikTok—now so embedded in daily life that many can barely imagine a world without it—are emerging as a powerful force for driving awareness, shifting norms, and inspiring action at scale. We’ll bring these threads together in a dynamic conversation about where the biggest opportunities lie—and how the food waste field can ride these megatrends rather than be left behind by them.
And we’ll close out the session by welcoming Andrew Zimmern to the stage for a special culinary demonstration!