The COVID-19 pandemic has completely disrupted the food supply chain, resulting in a surge of on-farm food loss, food business closures, and a growing number of food-insecure
individuals. In response to these challenges ReFED launched their COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund to quickly deliver more than $3.5 million in vital funding to 37 for-profit and nonprofit, mid-sized organizations that could rapidly scale food waste reduction and hunger relief efforts. This fund is largely sponsored by Foodtank; GreenBiz Group; IDEO; VillageCapital; and WWF (World Wildlife Fund).
In May 2020 White Pony Express received word that we would be grantees of the ReFED COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund. This was a direct result of the increase in large-scale outreach efforts that our Food Rescue Team has been engaged in since early March. Over the past several months WPE has been receiving lots of national attention and gaining lot of momentum. Other organizations that were also recipients of this grant are: 412 Food Rescue, DC Central Kitchen, Farmlink, Food Forward, Food Rescue US, Move For Hunger, Partnership For A Healthier America, Replate, and Table to Table, among others. ReFED is anticipating that the collective efforts of these 37 grantees will rescue more than 50 million pounds of healthy, fresh food that would otherwise go wasted, within the next 90 days.
Here is a great video that shows the work of WPE and the other 36 organizations' work that made us eligible to receive grants from this fund.
ReFED is a multi-stakeholder nonprofit, powered by an influential network of the nation’s leading business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders committed to reducing US food waste. They have continued to help the grantee organizations grow their impact beyond financial support by facilitating coordination and collaboration among the grantees, as well as connections to potential funders and partners.
WPE had the opportunity to take place in several meetings with ReFED’s team and the other fund grantees, where we were given the chance to share our knowledge and resources with the other groups. WPE offered our expertise in food rescue, transportation and assistance with recipient capacity-building. We were fortunate to receive guidance from the other groups on capacity-building, donor sourcing and relations, and implementing the best practices to record our Food Rescue program’s data and impact reporting. We are making lots of valuable connections within the nonprofit-world and have already been making great strides because of them.