2026 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit

Ellen Bowen is the South Florida Site Director for national nonprofit Food Rescue US. As Founder and Managing Director of popular Miami food blog MIAbites, she heard from many of her contacts and chefs about the excessive amounts of food wasted every day at hotels, restaurants, and events and partnered in 2018 with Food Rescue US to launch their technology-based food rescue platform in Miami and Broward counties. To date, using their app to connect food donors with social service agencies and volunteer rescuers, over 15 million pounds of food have been kept from landfills and directly transferred to local shelters, soup kitchens, and the food insecure—enough food for over 12 million meals and 64 million pounds of CO2e kept out of the atmosphere.

Using the Food Rescue US proprietary web-based app, volunteer “food rescuers” self-schedule pickups from local grocers like Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, restaurants, hotels, and bakeries.

But it is the large venue rescues that have made the most impact. Starting in 2020 with the Super Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium, Ellen and her team have developed a format for large-scale rescues of both prepared food and surplus items, including at the Miami Open, LIV Golf, Miami Marathon, FIFA, and for the past five years at Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix.

Ellen has been awarded the “Circle of Change” Award by the CLEO Institute, been selected as a daily Point of Light recipient, and was the Junior League of Miami’s “Women Who Make a Difference” honoree.