2026 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit
May 19-21, 2026 | Charlotte, NC
Joe Richardson
Founder
Lunch Out of Landfills
Bio:
Since 2018, Joe Richardson has been working with students and school administrators to reduce food waste in cafeterias. In the fall of 2019, Joe worked with five Rotary Clubs in Frederick County, MD, and funded a $20,000 grant to compost organic waste, recover uneaten food, decontaminate recycling, and extract liquids from the waste stream. The Frederick County Public School system contributed an additional $10,000 which funded programs in 14 schools, diverting 85% of landfill designated waste.
Joe founded Lunch Out of Landfills (LOOL) and partnered with the student-led Committee to Reimagine School Waste and the student founded Compostology, and helped establish programs in 34 additional Montgomery County Schools after the pandemic. Despite striking results with waste diversion, a lack of funding, lack of compost capacity, and reticence with school administration has limited expansion of the program.
After attending the ReFED Summit in Baltimore, MD, in June 2024, Joe has narrowed down the focus to food recovery. Schools with 500 or more students discard 50 pounds of shareable food each day, and collectively in the United States over 530,000 tons of recoverable food are thrown away each year. And there is prevalent hunger in America!!
Working closely with the Rotary International and the World Wildlife Fund, LOOL is working to provide inexpensive share table refrigerators in every cafeteria in the U.S. After presenting at the Rotary International Convention in Calgary in 2025, LOOL/WWF has installed share table refrigerators in Baltimore, Memphis, and Athens, and is working closely with Rotary Clubs in the Greater Los Angeles United School District, individual schools in Dallas, North Carolina, Florida, Illinois, Arizona, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Maine, and Massachusetts, with the expectation of initiating a nationwide movement.
The movement requires less that $500 per school, requires the school principal's endorsement, is staff-guided, and is empowered, led, and implemented by students.