The Feed

There are few things more comforting than a warm, home-cooked meal, and that is exactly what our community of supporters has helped us provide for tens of thousands of families since the start of the pandemic. 

Because of your support, we have been able to grow our food recovery operations and take better care of each other during one of the most difficult times in our community’s history. 

But many families in our community are still struggling to get by ⏤ struggling to put food on the table, to pay increasingly costly rent and utility bills, to purchase necessary medications and school supplies, and the list goes on.

Since the start of the pandemic, hunger levels have risen higher than at any time in recent history. 1 in 3 Coloradans are facing food insecurity, 16% of children are not getting adequate nutrition, and more than 2 in 5 people of color are now regularly struggling to access quality food. (Source: Hunger Free Colorado COVID Food Insecurity Survey, April 2021).

Our Mobile Food Markets and network of over 100 nonprofit partners are helping to fill the gaps. Children like those pictured above are able to try new fruits and vegetables and get the nutrients they need to be healthy, happy, and successful. They don’t face the stress of hunger and instead leave our markets hand-in-hand with their parents looking forward to a full belly, and a happier, healthier future. 

Our solution to the problem of hunger is simple but effective. 40% of all food is wasted, so we recover as much good food as we can and keep it out of landfills (which is also a win for the environment).

Let’s feed people, not landfills!

Schedule your gift for Colorado Gives Day today and you can be a part of the food recovery revolution that is fighting hunger in our community!

Your Impact:

A $25 gift provides a family of four with 3 meals a day for two weeks! 

$50 recovers 1,650 servings of nutritious food and prevents it from going into the landfill!

$75 provides a family of six struggling to get back on their feet with a month’s worth of meals!

$100 provides a child with 3 nutritious meals a day for more than 230 days!

Can you imagine how incredible it would feel to know that no matter what happens, your family will have enough food?

start a fundraiser & Show Your We Don’t Waste Pride:

Here’s how you get started. 

1. Create a donor account at ColoradoGives.org if you don’t already have one. 
2. Go to the We Don’t Waste Colorado Gives Day page. 
3. Scroll down the page and click the box that says START A FUNDRAISER. 
4. Use our template to create your page! An admin will approve your page, and then there will be short waiting period (up to 48 hours) before your page goes live. 
5. Tell your friends and family you’re raising money to help feed our neighbors! 

But what do you say? Share the facts! 

We’ve put together a toolkit of example posts and pictures you can post to help share your fundraiser and maximize your impact!

If your approved Colorado Gives Day fundraiser raises over $100 during the fundraising period, we will send you a limited edition T-Shirt to show off your food waste warrior pride*! This shirt will only be available from now until the end of 2021, so get your limited edition tee today! 

So what are you waiting for? Together, we can make a HUGE difference!

#FeedPeopleNotLandfills

*Please make sure your contact information and shipping information on your Colorado Gives Day profile is current and valid. 

Give a gift that gives back:

There are so many ways you can help feed Denver’s food-insecure! A portion of the proceeds from each of the following promotions will be donated to our organization so you can stuff those stockings, and feel great about it!

Show your pride with a We Don’t Waste T-Shirt!

Donate in honor of a friend or loved one!

Enjoy some We Don’t Waste Wine from Blanchard Family Wines!

Shop zero-waste goods for guilt-free pampering!

Get cozy online with UpWest in November and they’ll donate to We Don’t Waste (10% of total online proceeds is donated on Giving Tuesday)!

As many of you may know, our Director of Programs & Operations, Aubree Pierce, is a fantastic person with an incredible amount of drive and passion for our mission. Since stepping into her role with We Don’t Waste she has become a pivotal part of the organization. 

This makes it all the more difficult to announce that Aubree will be leaving us for a move across the country. Her energy and charisma will be dearly missed, but our team wishes her the best for the move and for all of her future endeavors! 

Sam Talarczyk, previously one of our awesome Food Recovery Specialists, has stepped into Aubree’s shoes, taking on the role of Director of Programs & Operations. Since joining our team, Sam has been an enthusiastic and hard-working team player. He is passionate about continuing to grow and optimize the organization and we cannot wait to see what he accomplishes!

And without further ado, here’s what Aubree herself has to say about her time at We Don’t Waste:

Over the last two years, I have had the great pleasure of working at We Don’t Waste. In the summer of 2019, the previous nonprofit I worked with closed its doors, and I found myself looking for another opportunity. I had spent the previous several years working in the realm of hunger and food waste, so I was excited to see an opening for a Food Recovery Specialist at We Don’t Waste. I got to know the ins and outs of the organization and more about our partners during my six months as a Food Recovery Specialist.

Aside from managing the operations through the pandemic, I was lucky enough to serve at We Don’t Waste through a time of growth and adjustment. I was able to participate in strategic conversations to develop plans and programs for the organization to have a greater impact on the community and collaborate with partners on several projects to address hunger and food waste. I have learned so much from my time at We Don’t Waste and have so many unforgettable experiences that I will always keep with me. It is bittersweet that I am leaving my position at We Don’t Waste as I am moving to Michigan to be closer to family. I am so thankful that the leadership team at We Don’t Waste took a chance on me and I will be forever grateful for the experience and growth that I have achieved as a professional during my time at this organization. I have truly enjoyed my time working with We Don’t Waste and I am beyond thankful to the entire We Don’t Waste team, the Board of Directors, and the Denver nonprofit network for the continued support that I experienced through the pandemic and beyond. I am excited to see the organization grow and flourish in the coming years. The impact that we’ve had on the community and on the state of Colorado as a whole is astounding, and I am proud to have been a part of such an amazing organization.

With gratitude,

Aubree Pierce

Written by: Caroline Hissong, We Don’t Waste, Marketing and Communications Coordinator

This month we are excited to announce that we have launched the Fork and Spoon Club! We have always offered a monthly giving option, but decided to launch a formal program to thank our current monthly donors and to reward anyone that chooses to join from this point forward!

Why Donate Monthly?

Your donations go directly towards supporting the foundation of the organization. We recover food from our donors and distribute it to the 100+ hunger relief agencies that we’re proud to partner with, or to one of our mobile markets. 

Monthly commitments to our organization play a pivotal role in us operating year-round. Many donations are seasonal, as most donors consider giving during holidays or events, but the need for food support is always present in our community!

By choosing to continuously support us, it helps We Don’t Waste remain sustainable into the future. Because we can better predict our funds, we can better apply our resources to fight year-round food insecurity. It keeps gas in our trucks and the freezers running! A stable budget also means we can be more reactive when disasters like COVID make an immediate impact on the community. In 2020 we were able to mobilize a much more expansive program with our Mobile Food Markets because we knew that we had the support of the community. 

How do I decide what I can give?

If you have ever planned a budget, you have probably heard of the “latte effect”. That is, consider how often you go out to a cafe to get a coffee. $5 in one purchase might not seem like a large purchase at the time, but multiply that by the number of times in a year you go out for coffee and you would be shocked at how many hundreds of dollars it adds up to. All of this is to say, any amount you choose to give adds up quickly! If you can commit just $5 or $10 dollars a month, you probably won’t miss the change from your wallet, but after a year you’ve made a much larger impact!

It is completely up to you to decide what you can afford to give, but any amount you can give goes straight back into making our community a healthier and happier place. Your support leads to a stronger community, and we could not be more thankful for your decision to help!

What are the perks for joining? 

So you’ve decided to join the club, that’s great! You have our love and thanks for your generosity, but you also get access to some fun perks so you can get to learn more about our organization and the impact you’re making!

All monthly donors will receive a VIP invitation to We Don’t Waste Wednesdays––a monthly gathering at our distribution center to tour the facility, meet our staff, and enjoy food and beverages! If a behind the scenes peek at the operation isn’t enticing enough, we are a pretty fun crew to get to know as well!

Monthly donors can also look forward to an exclusive invitation to our fundraising events throughout the year. If fancy dinners and cocktails from local chefs are your thing, you’ll want to join us at our annual Fill A Plate for Hunger celebration. We recognize the work of our donors and sponsors, enjoy food from dozens of wonderful local chefs, and raise a truly awesome amount of funds to help us grow our impact the following year. If creativity and sculpture is more your style, you do not want to miss the Canstruction® event! Teams from local architecture and construction companies compete to build sculptures out of canned food Canstruction® has definitely become a cult-favorite among the participants!

Commit to donating in May, and the annualized amount of your commitment is matched by the PB and K Family Foundation! That means your donation is effectively doubled! If you choose to donate during the month of May and commit to $25 dollars a month or more, you will also receive a reusable We Don’t Waste Tote Bag! The tote features our logo on the front so that you can rep your pride on your next grocery trip. 

So with all of that being said, consider if monthly giving is right for you. It’s quick and easy to sign up, just a few minutes of your time can help keep good food out of landfills and feed hungry people instead!

There’s a lot to love about February at We Don’t Waste. Our biggest news is that our 1,000-sq-ft refrigeration system is up and running. We were busier than ever in January, continuing to install racking and set up our new office space, and still managed to surpass our numbers from January 2017 by more than 260,000 servings of food!

As we continue to grow our impact, we’re so thankful for our many partners that make this possible. One new partnership that we’re excited about is at Denver’s South High School, where community members, school volunteers and a local nonprofit, Food for Thought, collaborate to run a Friday food pantry for students. Serving over 100 students a week, the South High School Food Pantry is a way to ensure that hunger doesn’t have to hit home for high school-aged students. They follow a choice model, allowing students to select the items and amounts of food that they then take home to their families. Since the beginning of 2018, We Don’t Waste has provided 4,670 servings of food to the pantry, allowing students to access items like fresh fruit, vegetables, and yogurt.

South High School’s student body is made up of students from 62 countries, according to a September 2017 article in the Denver Post. Designated as a “newcomer school,” South High School accepts students who may not have formal education or might not speak English. Many of the students are immigrants and refugees, sometimes having fled oppressive governments and wars. Whether they’re rebuilding their lives in the US or were born here in Denver, students should not have to go without healthy, fresh food, and this is essential to our mission at We Don’t Waste. Thanks to all of the South High School volunteers, community members and Food for Thought for making the pantry happen, allowing us to to feed more of Denver’s youth.

Our mission at We Don’t Waste is first and foremost to feed the hungry. This is a mission we are proud to accomplish every day. Year to date, the food we recovered has provided 12.2 million servings – nearly double the 6.8 million servings we collected all of last year. This provides many children and families life-saving, nutrient-dense food that may otherwise be unavailable to them.

In a single month we received 74.6 thousand pounds of strawberries, and in one day we have been called to pick up 53.2 thousand pounds of cabbage. For many families around the Denver Metro area, strawberries would be too expensive to buy or just plain unavailable; and cabbage is a nutrient-dense super-food that has an incredible variety of uses. If it weren’t for the food reclamation that We Don’t Waste provides, all this food would be rotting in a landfill. All of the strawberries and cabbage we picked up made it into the hands of families who needed food. This is exactly why our supporters get behind our mission – we give food to those in need every single day.

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Pallets of fresh Strawberries

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Boxes of fresh Cabbage

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As we reflect on the food we have provided to those in need, we cannot ignore the fact that this food would have otherwise been wasted and never gone to a hungry person. However, something we do not consider as much is how reclaiming unused food affects our environment. One of the largest parts of our environmental footprint is in the water required to grow our food. The water footprint of our food supply is huge – 92 percent of the world’s fresh water goes toward producing food.^[1] That cabbage we distributed to the community was grown with approximately 1.5 million gallons of water.^[2]

Members of our hunger fighting network also provide us with high quality protein – beef, chicken and pork. In 2016, we have recovered over 94.1 thousand pounds of protein. This food is incredibly valuable to low-income families. Colorado families with SNAP benefits (food stamps) receive only $4.20 per day.^[3] While the impact of this low budget on the hungry is obvious, the impact on the environment is not as well known. It is very difficult to approximate the amount of water it takes to produce an item based on size alone. According to the USGS, 1/4 pound of hamburger takes an estimated 460 gallons of water to produce. This lead us to wonder – about how much water did it take to produce the protein We Don’t Waste recovered so far this year? Looking at the average water footprint per pound of the protein we have collected, we can conservatively estimate that it took 91.4 million gallons of water to produce all that protein.^[2] The amount of water will fill 92 percent of the Empire State Building!

Food waste is unacceptable at any level. Not only is the cost of food waste high, but it also wastes a precious resource – water. Since 2014, we have recovered over 5.3 million pounds of food. Food that instead of being a drain on our planet’s resources, gets to enrich the lives of the hungry around the Denver Metro Area.

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Happy Earth Day!

Every day We Don’t Waste recovers restaurant quality food and distributes it to community based organizations. This not only allows us to augment the food supply in the Denver Metro area but it also helps the planet. When we recover food we ensure our planets precious resources are not wasted, we ensure food never enters a landfill and we are feeding our community.