ReFED

Capital & innovation program service accomplishments:refed's capital & innovation team continued to have significant success with the catalytic grant fund, a grantmaking fund that supports innovative solutions. In 2023, Refed's team ran the first open call to fund food loss and waste solutions related to reshaping consumer environments and received 290 applications totaling more than $99 million in funding requests, with seven organizations receiving six-figure funding. In collaboration with nearly 50 expert partners, Refed helped develop a roadmap that identifies $300 million in ready-to-fund philanthropic initiatives to reduce food waste globally. The food waste funders circle, a network of private, public, and philanthropic funders interested in using their capital to support food waste solutions, grew to a membership of 165 capital providers and shared 201 funding opportunities valued at $346 million. The capital & innovation team also added philanthropic data to the capital tracker web tool, lending powerful insights to grantmakers and nonprofits.

Business initiatives program services accomplishments:in 2023, Refed's business initiatives team launched the business services program, working with food businesses to provide consultancy services including education, strategic advisory, and data analysis to support curated food waste reduction efforts with these significant drivers of food waste. Refed also announced the launch of the u.s. food waste pact, building on the success of the pacific coast food waste commitment and working alongside the world wildlife fund. The pact is a national voluntary agreement to help food businesses accelerate progress toward their waste reduction targets. Signatories measure and report food waste data, further improving the food system's understanding of the issue. They also participate in working groups to share best practices and insights and pilot projects to test, implement, and scale cost-effective food waste solutions. Refed continued to host the edf climate corps fellowship program in food waste, placing a dozen graduate students in food businesses to address their corporate food loss and waste goals. The team worked closely with over 40 food businesses through these varied initiatives.

Data & insights program service accomplishments:in 2023, Refed updated its digital tools to include surplus and wasted food data for 2020, 2021, and 2022. Drawing on more than 80 distinct data sources for the update, this suite of tools represents the most comprehensive and up-to-date publicly available estimates of food loss and waste across the united states and serves as an essential resource for those working in the space. The Refed insights engine an interactive online hub for data and solutions is the definitive source of data and analysis on food loss and waste in the united states. Since its launch in 2021, the insights engine has been used by more than 119,000 people to inform investment strategies, shape legislation, chart corporate action plans, support scientific research, and more. The data & insights team also further developed the custom roadmap tool enabling food businesses to report their data and understand recommended food waste solutions and related insights for driving food waste reduction in their unique operations.

Other program service accomplishments:refed's leadership in the food waste movement significantly accelerated in 2023, as the organization hosted the largest food waste solutions summit in history with 650+ attendees, and had a media reach of 2.2 billion impressions from 369 articles and media citations. Refed also grew all of its networks and membership organizations to an internal audience of more than 20,000, and reached another 2,000 new users on its hosted website tools every month. Refed's leadership was recognized with speaking opportunities on the national and global stage as never before, including presentations at aim 4 climate and cop28. Alongside wwf, nrdc, and the harvard law school food law and policy clinic, Refed co-founded the zero food waste coalition (zfwc), a national effort focused on informing food waste policy at all levels of government. Recognizing the exponential power of coordinated action, 104 organizations across 31 states joined in the inaugural year. In 2023, the zfwc released a state policy toolkit, shared food waste reduction priorities for the upcoming farm bill, hosted information sessions at the summit and via webinars, and more.