Updates

Day One! A Message from Kyle

July 1, 2024

Kyle stands in the brand-new completed cooler in 2019.

Dear Friends of We Don’t Waste, 

I am thrilled to share that today is my first day as the new Executive Director of We Don’t Waste, and I couldn’t be more excited. I’ve spent the past 7 years as the Director of Development, and I’ve seen firsthand the incredible passion for our mission from our growing community of staff, board members, partners, volunteers, and supporters. 

When I first accepted the position with We Don’t Waste, I shared a desk with our Director of Operations in our tiny office in RiNo. When we’d have staff meetings, someone would have to sit on the floor because there wasn’t enough room for our mighty team of six at the table. 

We’ve come a long way from those days, yet our core concept remains the same: We believe that food should go to people, not landfills, and be accessible to all. We live that out every day through our food recovery efforts, our distribution to nonprofit partners, our nutrition and environmental education, and our Mobile Food Markets.

I also wanted to take a moment to thank you for being a part of We Don’t Waste’s community, and share some of what I’m most excited about for the organization’s future:

• Programming Growth: Now that we’re (mostly) settled into our new Food Recovery Hub, we’re beginning the process of planning out additional programming that incorporates our new kitchen and the land next door to the Food Recovery Hub. These two areas open up major potential for our education program, so I’d love to close out the capital campaign and make our education opportunities even more engaging and meaningful for community groups of all kinds. 
• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: We want We Don’t Waste, our programs, and our policies to reflect the diverse communities we serve, and I’d like to continue to prioritize furthering our investment into and focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and practices organization-wide. 
• More Food, More Impact: This should come as no surprise, but I aim to increase We Don’t Waste’s impact through more food recovered, so we can support more families attending our mobile Food Markets and visiting our amazing nonprofit partners. Unfortunately, the need is great, yet we know here is still more food we could be recovering with greater capacity through increased staff, fleet, and food donor partnerships. 

Our previous Executive Director and Founder, Arlan Preblud, had an incredible vision for what We Don’t Waste would be and laid a strong foundation for the work we’re doing today, and I look forward to continuing to build upon it with all of you. Thank you to Arlan for his dedication, his support, and his steadfast commitment to We Don’t Waste.

We Don’t Waste’s core values have remained at the top of my mind during this transition period: Food is a human right, champion innovation, foster inclusion, build community, and cultivate sustainability. With these values in place, our team will continue moving toward our vision of a world without food insecurity or food waste!

And we must never forget the reasons we have these values and why we do this work. Children should be able to go to school or bed full. Parents should be able to provide nutritious food, even on limited means. Our nonprofit partners should be able to provide enough food to their clients. And, ultimately, quality food should be eaten, not thrown away.

Let’s continue to make a difference and bring our community more meals and less waste!

With Gratitude,

Kyle Endres

Executive Director