Denali

Wow, what an amazing week for #foodwaste! Starting in Chicago for The Consumer Goods Forum #CGFSummit - global food retail and manufacture CEOs discussed challenges, innovative solutions, and shared business value across 9 Coalitions of Action including food waste! ✔ We launched a collaborative recipe site (www.sustainablekitchen.org) between the Food Waste Healthier Lives Coalitions aimed at inspiring healthier cooking and reducing food waste at home because food is #TooGoodToWaste. ✔ AlixPartners released a report that lays out the business case for tackling #foodloss and waste, highlighting financial benefits and its potential to combat #climatechange. https://lnkd.in/guzeSfwD Next stop was Baltimore for ReFED's #FoodWasteSummit24 - the largest national food waste event of the year! ✔ The White House Biden-Harris Administration announced the National Strategy to Reduce Food Loss and Waste and Recycle Organics, alongside release of USDA's Milestone Report highlighting 2030 Champions actions https://lnkd.in/gdH4qtMA ✔ I joined a powerhouse on the main stage moderated by Kim Severson, famed The New York Times Food writer, alongside colleagues from Google (Kathy Cacciola), Sodexo (Jessica Josephine Synkoski), and Tyson Foods (Michelle Mullins) about setting ambitious goals, measuring progress and activating partnerships. ✔ U.S. Food Waste Pact leaders like John Bernardo, Denise Osterhues, Kaity Robbins, Justin LaCroix, Eric Witiw, MPH and more convened to discuss next steps with WWF whole chain projects, share best practices and reacquaint with friends. ✔ Policy expert Yvette Cabrera (Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)) and industry leaders like Shannon McDonald (Maryland Department of the Environment), Closed Loop Partners and Denali discussed recovery and compost programs at every scale. ✔ Even managed to hold a project meeting with Claudia Fabiano, Clementine O'Connor, and Christy Cook and took the team to Walmart (which was a 1st for our Parisian friend). The dialogue was invigorating, especially consumer segmentation analysis by WRAP, Posner Foundation, End Food Waste Australia, and Wageningen University & Research. Mill and other innovation providers brought ideas to life to directly solve for the ~50% of food waste that happens at home. THANK YOU to The Consumer Goods Forum (especially Wai-Chan Chan, Sharon Bligh, and Rosemary Brotchie) and ReFED (especially Dana Gunders and Jackie Suggitt) for all of it!

Last fall, Let’s Go Compost was awarded a grant from M3F Fest for operational support that helped us scale significantly since! M3F supports not just our K-12 public school classroom composting program but also continues to make an impact within their own operations! In fact, at this year’s M3F Festival in March, they composted 0.77 tons of compostables thanks to GreenLight Solutions(collected the compostables), WM (hauled the compostables), and Denali (composted the compostables). The City of Phoenix’s 27th Avenue Compost Facility, operated by Denali, recycles millions of pounds of food waste and green waste into high-quality compost each year. This compost is then used on farms and gardens across the region, helping to grow more food and bringing circularity into the music festival. To date, M3F’s Phoenix-based music festival has donated more than $6M to charities and 100% of the proceeds from the annual event, and we are grateful to be one of the grantees. Visit www.m3ffest.com to learn more!