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 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.
Thursday, May 21
10:45am - 11:45am
“Think You Know Waste? Think Again: New Frontiers in Food Waste Innovation”
Breakout
The frontier of food waste innovation is bolder and more promising than most people realize. But what does it take to turn innovation into real-world impact? Meet solution providers who have secured early funding, launched pilots, and proven their concepts in the market. They’ll pull back the curtain to reveal how they built early traction, the challenges they’re facing on the path to scale, and what it will take to unlock their next phase of growth.