2025 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit
June 23-25, 2025 | Seattle, WA
Hyatt Regency Seattle
Angel Veza
Director, Innovation Initiatives
ReFED
Bio:
Angel Veza serves as ReFED's Director, Innovation Initiatives, working to catalyze the adoption of top food waste solutions. She began her career in education, teaching to underserved communities. After working with students for seven years, Angel earned her Grand Diplôme from the French Culinary Institute and went on to join teams at several of New York City’s most renowned restaurants—including Morimoto and the two Michelin-starred Atera—and also worked with foodservice companies such as Compass Group. During that time, she observed the significant amount of food being wasted in the hospitality industry, and pivoted her career to work with the food waste team at World Wildlife Fund. Building on this experience, she worked in supply chain and led strategic sourcing and procurement efforts focused on food waste reduction at Manhattan Restaurant, part of Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group in New York City.
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.