The Feed

May is Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! AAPI Heritage Month began in the 70s as several resolutions each proposing a week or two to honor the Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in America. In 1990, the separate weeks of celebration finally became a full month of recognition for the rich history and culture of Asian and Pacific Islander peoples.  This year’s theme for AAPI Heritage Month is “Advancing Leaders Through Innovation”.  

Despite being the fastest-growing minority group in the country, there is also the widest wealth gap. It’s often difficult to discuss solving this issue because research into the quality of life experienced by AAPI people is incredibly minimal. Between 1992-2018, only .17% of the National Institutes of Health’s budget was for studying Asian American and Pacific Islander people. This is an incredible disservice because of how vast and diverse AAPI communities are. 

Asia is the most populous continent, and combined with all of the countries in Oceania, AAPI as a category encompasses over half of the world’s population and over 2,750 spoken languages alone. There is a wide variety of cultures present, which impacts how these groups and individuals experience integration into American culture, politics, and economics. There is not a single brushstroke statement that can be made to encompass all of these unique experiences in the American melting pot. 

Overall, AAPI Americans have a low poverty rate at 13.8%; however, when looking at ethnic groups that make up the overall stat, there are alarming rates of poverty and food insecurity including 38% of Hmong people, 29% of Cambodian, and 25.1% of Malaysians. If that isn’t concerning enough, AAPI people are the least likely to apply for and utilize public benefits and safety nets. The “why” behind that stat is immensely frustrating–the registration forms are simply unavailable in many languages. 

So what can we do to help? First and foremost, we can advocate for inclusion, research, and policy that is more considerate of the AAPI experience. We can’t make up for lost time, but we can be vocal to make sure that EVERYONE is included when we look into systemic issues and creating solutions. 

Someone who is putting in a massive amount of work to bring power to the voices of young, intersectional activists is Kevin Patel. He is the founder of One Up Action and helped create the first Youth Climate Commission in LA County. He is an environmental activist based in LA who brings to light the ways changes in the environment negatively impact quality of life. An issue we know all too well, and will be deep diving in our next blog (keep an eye out for that). 

To do our part, We Don’t Waste is proud to prioritize recovering culturally relevant foods for our food recipient partners. We do this by partnering with companies like Lee Hing Park Hill Supermarket to provide familiar foods to people attending our Mobile Food Markets and partner agencies. Offering fresh produce is another way we practice cultural responsiveness. Many times, food distribution programs and governmental organizations will prioritize providing shelf-stable, boxed, or canned foods. Simply offering a variety of produce and spices allows our nonprofit partners and Mobile Food Market participants to select the fresh foods they would have purchased! 

You can support our efforts in providing food access for all! Make a donation on our website, or volunteer with our team to support local food distribution in Denver.

I think we can all agree that keeping kids fed, especially while they’re at school, is incredibly important, and crucial for learning. It’s why we’ve seen so many states adopt free school meals for students regardless of their economic demographics. As of April 2024, 8 states have policies in practice regarding free school meals, with Colorado having adopted the Healthy School Meals for All Program just this school year! There are an additional 28 states that have similar legislation in the works, or just recently passed. This level of popularity and agreement across so many states demonstrates how much we care about keeping kids fed. 

Why then, is there a drafted Federal budget for 2025  proposing the elimination of the Community Eligibility Provision from the School Lunch Program? For those who may be unfamiliar with Community Eligibility Provision, it is a program that allows the nation’s low income schools and districts to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to all enrolled students, without the need to collect individual household applications.  In this budget, it is proposed that the Community Eligibility Provision be cut, and only those who are financially eligible for Free and Reduced Lunch through the National School Lunch Program application receive meals at no cost throughout the school year. 

It might seem like this would be a good idea to reduce federal costs to only provide for those who are explicitly below the federal level of poverty; however, we already know that there are 1 in 6 people currently who are eligible for public benefits such as SNAP who are not enrolled, and thus are not utilizing the assistance they are entitled to. This tells us that eligibility alone for the program does not mean that people will receive their needed access to nutrition. Food insecurity continues to rise, with 11.2% of Coloradans not having enough to meet their nutritional needs, 25% of whom are children.

The “why” behind this proposed cut is stated to be preventing “widespread fraud.” The citation is coming from this report, which states that there is a higher rate of students using FRL programs than there were rates of improper payment, or the number of kids who were not able to pay for their meals in full, or pay off any balance owed to the school for meals, in schools. However, this report is older than the Healthy School Meals for All Program, which ensures that all kids in an eligible school can eat for free and thus have better cognition, which leads to improved performance in school. The citation doesn’t make sense as an argument to punish kids who need access to nutrition, especially when the need is so blatantly evident. 

Here in Colorado, Healthy School Meals for All has been a massive success. Every eligible district has enrolled in the program, and there has been a 36% increase in breakfast and 31% increase in lunch provided to students. With food costs continuing to rise, with a projection of yet another price hike, these programs can be what makes or breaks a family’s budget. On average, a family saves $1,250 per child each year because of Healthy School Meals for All. 

If you’d like to show your support for keeping school kids fed, please contact your representatives. This form will send an email to applicable representatives to show your support for Healthy School Meals for All. 

Well everyone, we wrapped up another successful Food Prevention Week! We hope you joined us as a #foodwastehero but, in case you missed it, we wanted to give y’all a recap of all the useful tips and tricks shared on our Facebook and Instagram. 

At the beginning of the week, we shared some super fridge tips, starting off with the use of an “Eat Now” section. This is a designated spot in your fridge where you put everything that needs to be eaten ASAP! This can be fresh foods that don’t have much life left, anything you’ve purchased a duplicate of (we’ve all been there, right?) or leftovers. The next day, we stayed in the fridge, but shifted the focus over to safe storage habits. Check out the chart below to let you know what produce is better off in your fridge, and what is better off being stored at room temperature. 

On Thursday, we promoted leftover night! Did you know the average American family wastes $1500 due to food waste? To avoid the double whammy of lost food AND lost money, commit your household to having a designated leftover night! Any food that is still good to your senses can be cleared out by eating leftovers as they are, or repurposing ingredients from past meals into new meals! Leftover nights can be as high or low energy as you want – whatever works for you and your family. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out some recipes here.  

Friday was answering the age-old question of: to eat, or not to eat? We’ve all looked at a food that’s sat a bit too long and wondered, is that too far gone, or will I be okay to eat this? Thankfully, with eatortoss.com, there’s an easy way to find the answer! Maybe you’ll even learn along the way that something you would have thrown out is perfectly edible the way it is. For example, did you know that a sprouted sweet potato is 100% edible? 

We closed out Food Waste Prevention Week with ways to keep the momentum going! One of the most impactful ways to keep food waste prevention at the forefront of our minds is to volunteer with organizations that fight against food waste (organizations such as We Don’t Waste)! If you’re interested in exploring opportunities to donate your time, check out our schedule of upcoming events. 

You’ll find a scorecard just below, where you can tally up points to see how your actions as a food waste hero add up. Be sure to share it on social media, and tag us at @WeDontWaste on Instagram, @WeDontWasteDenver on Facebook, or @WeDontWaste on TikTok!

We Don’t Waste is proud to celebrate Cesar Chavez for his national day of recognition, March 31st. But what is his story, and what are the accomplishments he helped farmers and laborers achieve that we can still learn from today? We thought we’d pull together some fast facts about Cesar Chavez so we can all take a moment to appreciate how he impacted the labor movement and the work culture in the United States. 

1. In 1962 along with Dolores Huerta and Larry Itliong, he cofounded National Farm Workers Association, which is now known as United Farm Workers of America. This union helped farm workers fight for just wages, medical protection, and adequate living conditions.

2. From 1965-70, the United Farm Workers of America led one of the most impactful combination efforts of striking, boycotting, and fasting against grape growers. Workers were making .40 per hour for their labor in the fields. These efforts were one of cross-racial unity and became a global effort. By their conclusion, workers gained the ability to collectively bargain and organize, in addition to better, livable wages. 

3. In 1986, Cesar began the “Wrath of the Grapes” boycott which brought attention to the use of harmful pesticides and the high levels of exposure for the workers. Laborers and their family were experiencing chronic illnesses, and the land, air, and water all were experiencing negative effects as well.

4. Cesar was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 for his life’s work dedicated to social justice ranging from labor rights, to supporting LGBTQ+ rights, immigration rights, and anti-war efforts. 

Chavez’s values of equity, health, and improving living conditions are values We Don’t Waste shares. We are happy to live within his legacy by partnering with local farmers and ranchers who equally see the importance of ensuring their staff, their animals, and the produce they grows are as healthy as possible for communities at large. We Don’t Waste will be closed in observance of Cesar Chavez day on Monday April 1, 2024. 

Arlan Preblud speaks with Ed Greene on stage at Fill a Plate for Hunger 2023.

We Don’t Waste celebrates its 15th year of operation in 2024, and it’s been an incredible, one-of-a-kind ride for our Founder and Executive Director, Arlan Preblud. The organization began first as a food recovery nonprofit out of the back of Arlan’s vehicle with only himself as an employee and has since grown to become a leading food recovery nonprofit in Colorado. Our staff and Board of Directors are incredibly grateful for Arlan’s leadership and his passion to make our shared vision for a Colorado without food insecurity or food waste a reality. 

While we can’t imagine anyone more deserving of time to rest in retirement (running a nonprofit is hard work), it is still bittersweet to share that Arlan will be passing the torch to the next Executive Director of We Don’t Waste in the summer of 2024. 

Arlan may be leaving his title of Executive Director behind, but he will always remain We Don’t Waste’s greatest champion, “I could not be more proud of this organization and the impact our staff, partners, and volunteers have in Denver today. If you had told me when I started recovering food back in 2009 what We Don’t Waste would have become I wouldn’t have believed you. I’m honored to have spent the last 15 years leading this organization and working alongside so many passionate, innovative people, but now I can look forward to continuing to support the organization outside of my current role.”

This now becomes a season of change for We Don’t Waste. We’ve spread our roots and partnered with other incredible nonprofits in the community, grown in size and resilience, and, under Arlan’s guidance, created a stable foundation on which we can confidently grow to feed more people and reduce food waste and its environmental impact. The new Food Recovery Hub is an example of this stability and is a testament both to the strength of the organization and our community’s optimism in the future of food recovery. 

Arlan will be supporting the search for a new Executive Director alongside the Board of Directors, and we are confident that with his guidance during the transition, We Don’t Waste will not skip a beat as we move to the new leader of We Don’t Waste. Arlan is one-of-a-kind and completely irreplaceable, and we’ll miss him dearly (though he’ll still be around supporting We Don’t Waste). Still, our team is excited to continue our work with a new perspective to help us direct our shared love for innovative solutions in supporting food access in Colorado.

Food has an incredible long-term effect on your mood and overall health, and we’ve discussed this before in the blog Food & Your Mood: How Eating Makes Us Happy. 

That blog focused a lot more on the bigger picture and how “good” foods and “unhealthy” food can still have positive outcomes for our health. Ultimately, just having access to food and enough food is the most important thing in anyone’s diet!

This time, we wanted to go a little bit deeper this time and dive into what’s happening in our stomachs that’s making us feel that post-meal high. Spoiler alert, the answer is your gut microbiome. Let’s talk about the power these trillions of organisms have on our health and how the food we fuel ourselves with impacts them. 

Throughout digestion, many of the microbiota are responsible for extracting vitamins and other nutrients like enzymes and amino acids our bodies need to function but otherwise would not be able to break down. Think about the microbiota like miners in a cave. They break down the rocks in the cave (the food in our stomach) and bring the diamonds and rare minerals to the surface. Without them, the extra vitamins and nutrients we get from our food would just remain sealed away and unused. What a waste when produce costs are so high!

Having a robust variety of bacteria, fungi, and viruses from a varied diet is quintessential so these processes of digestion can happen and give us the most benefit possible from the foods we are eating. 

When our gut microbiome is out of balance, called dysbiosis, this leads to both physical and mental health issues ranging in severity. For example, your sleep schedule could be negatively impacted because the gut releases muramyl peptides, which trigger the feeling of sleepiness that pulls you into bed at night. Or, one can experience an increase in anxiety and depression.

A mother selects produce at a Mobile Food Market.

This is because approximately 50% of the body’s dopamine and 95% of serotonin are created within the gut. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that gives your brain the feelings of a reward and satisfaction, and plays a big part in motivation. It’s a lot easier to have the motivation to do something when your brain gets pleasure from doing whatever it is you need to do, like eating, sleeping, or exercising. Serotonin, another neurotransmitter, helps regulate your mood and keep your emotions on an even keel, while also contributing to sleep, memory, concentration, and more.

These two neurotransmitters, out of the many in our bodies, are some of the powerhouses in stabilizing our mood and keeping the brain fit and functioning well. They ebb and flow with food intake, hormones, stress levels, age, exercise and activity level, and more. But with so much of our dopamine and serotonin coming from our stomach, consistent access to healthy food becomes a great way to give ourselves a healthy baseline and stable mood.

Who would’ve thought that these drivers of our brain and our feelings would have come from our gut? It makes you think of the phrase “gut feeling”, doesn’t it?

There’s also preliminary research showing that an imbalance within the microbiome is linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia. This makes sense now, considering what we know about dopamine and serotonin and their ever-present influence on the brain.

You’re probably wondering how the activity of chemicals in our stomach is getting these messages across to our brain. The gut-brain axis is the answer! The biggest player in this connection is our vagus nerve, which runs directly from the brain to our stomach, colon, and intestines (with a few other stops along the way). It is the highway by which signals from within our gastrointestinal tract are interpreted and communicated to the brain, and vice versa. This is why when we experience nervousness, we can feel it in our stomach. It’s not actually butterflies flying around in there, but our brain’s interpretation of the emotional response.

So what can we do to ensure that our microbiome is healthy in order to promote our best overall health possible? It’s actually incredibly simple despite how complex these systems are. The answer is to eat a balance of prebiotic and probiotic rich foods.

Prebiotics are foods that nourish our microbiome. These foods are typically high in fiber, examples of which are oats, barley, garlic, leeks, artichokes, and bananas to name a few.

Probiotics are foods that are filled with the healthy microorganisms that we want in our gut. These are foods that are typically fermented, such as yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, pickles, and tempeh. The two really work hand in hand so it’s important to consume a combination of the two.

Having too many prebiotics can lead us to experiencing a wide variety of GI distress because there aren’t enough microbiota to break down those nutrients. On the other hand, consuming too much probiotics also leads to GI distress, dehydration and brain fog. If keeping track of these types of food feels too complicated, there are many prebiotic and probiotic supplements that do the balancing act for you! 

Just like our last deep dive into the topic, we’ve found that achieving a healthy diet comes down to having a varied diet consisting of all of the food groups. And the consequences are pretty major! Food is hugely powerful in your overall health and happiness.

Unfortunately, consistent access to food, especially nutritious food, is something that millions of Americans don’t enjoy. As many as 1 in 3 Colorodans are facing food insecurity today. Their first concern is making sure they have another meal today to fill an empty stomach.

You can help us ensure that your neighbors have the right to a healthy and happy life by supporting We Don’t Waste! We believe food should go to people, not landfills. We do this by recovering surplus food from the food industry and distribute it to 100+ nonprofit partners serving families, seniors, the unhoused, and more, and directly to neighborhoods in food deserts through Mobile Food Markets. This diverts good food from the landfill, and creates food access for thousands of Coloradans every year.

It’s officially Black History Month! It’s a time to learn, appreciate, and celebrate the history of Black Americans. There’s no denying that the history of what Black people in the United States have lived through is a long and complicated one. However, amazing stories of perseverance, optimism, and hope arose from years of working to thrive in a culture that was actively oppressive. Stories that need to be shared. 

Food access and food recovery wouldn’t be what it is today without a long line of Black activists who paved the way for food justice within their communities. We thought we’d take a moment to highlight just a few of the people who have been critical to our understanding today of the intersections of food, nutrition, oppression, and liberation.

Karen Washington has received many accolades for her work in food justice. She is the founder of Black Urban Growers,  an organization working to empower people through food sovereignty by supporting growers both in urban and rural settings. She is responsible for coining the term food apartheid, which describes the intentional, systematic separation of people from food access, farmland, and business opportunities within the food industry. 

Dr. George Washington Carver is one of the earliest documented activists for food sovereignty. Although best known for discovering over 300 uses for the peanut, Carver’s research extended far beyond this. While working as a professor at Tuskegee University, he taught people about soil revitalization and natural fertilization. He shared his knowledge outside of academia through a mobile classroom where he taught the same lessons directly to farmers. 

Pam Jiner is Denver’s own. She helped bring food to Montbello with Black farmers at Freedom Acres Ranch throughout the pandemic. An award-winning community leader in Denver, Jiner takes a holistic approach to health within the Montbello community, a historically disenfranchised neighborhood. She does this with the organization Montbello Walks, which gets people moving, and helped with food distribution at the peak of food insecurity for the neighborhood. 

Ron Finley is a revolutionary urban gardener based in south central LA known as the “gangsta gardener.” He began growing guerilla gardens on dirt patches within the neighborhood as a means to bring fresh, healthy foods to a neighborhood heavily affected by food apartheid. He was cited by the city for growing without a permit, which started a large community effort to fight antiquated policies preventing people from food access. His mission for over a decade has been “empowerment through growing our own food.” 

Fannie Lou Hammer was an activist and community organizer most known as a leader during the civil rights movement. In the 60s, Fannie formed a Freedom Farm Cooperative to help farmers experiencing food insecurity. This cooperative spanned 640 acres and helped provide locals with space to grow crops in order to promote self-sufficiency, create access to affordable housing, and build entrepreneurship opportunities. 

Shirley Chisolm was not only the first Black woman to serve in Congress, but she was also massively important to getting food access to those needing it. She was the architect of the Women Infants and Children (WIC) program, which, to this day, is a critical source of nutrition for pregnant people and children. She also helped pass the Agriculture and Consumption Act, the predecessor to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). 

Huey P. Newton & Ericka Huggins, a founder and member, respectively, of the Black Panther Party, an organization responsible for creating the Free Breakfast for School Children Program in Oakland California. At its peak, the Black Panthers were providing breakfast to school-aged children at 45 locations across the country. This program was the first of its kind. The government had no such program, and they wouldn’t create one on a federal level until 1975, nearly a decade after the Panthers’ program. Today, free and reduced-cost breakfasts and lunches are responsible for feeding 14.57 million children across the U.S., which would not have been possible without the influence of Huey and Ericka and the pressure of their wildly successful breakfast program. 

We are proud to announce We Don’t Waste’s new volunteer-led food recovery app, We Rescue, serving the Denver metro area (including Boulder)! 

Join We Don’t Waste in our mission to end local food insecurity while preventing food waste. It’s as easy as downloading the app and going on your first food rescue run! 

Volunteers sign up and select the time they prefer to volunteer and the areas they’d like to serve, and food rescues with good, surplus food from food donors (like your favorite local restaurants, delis, and bakeries) are posted to the app. Volunteers claim a rescue, head to the food donor to pick up the food and drop it off with one of We Don’t Waste’s food recipient agencies.

Your impact as a We Rescue volunteer is huge. Smaller and more frequent food recoveries mean even more vital food access becomes available through nonprofits and community centers across Denver and Boulder. Local food businesses also have an easy, free way to donate food without interrupting their daily operations. 

It’s a win-win for the organizations creating food access and businesses with surplus food!

Volunteers can get started TODAY with We Rescue by downloading the app in the Google Play Store or in the App Store.

Why is it a big deal? Food insecurity is a major issue for communities in our own backyard. Data has shown that as many as 1 in 3 Coloradans are experiencing food insecurity, meaning they do not have consistent access to affordable, nutritious food. Shockingly, about 40% of all food produced in the US ends up in a landfill, and much of this food is edible, nutritious product. See the connection? We Rescue volunteers bridge the gap between the two, much like We Don’t Waste with our food recovery and distribution network.

“We really enjoy the flexibility of the program. The time commitment can be as much or as little as our schedule allows. We’ve done rescues on our way to the airport, on our way to other events, or just when we had some free time.”

—John & Betsy, We Rescue volunteers

F.A.Q. 

Is this the same app (Careit) We Don’t Waste has used for volunteer food recovery before?

The We Rescue app is a brand-new app, built from the ground up and powered by Food Rescue Hero to support We Don’t Waste’s distribution network in Denver and Boulder. 

How long does it take to get started? 

Downloading the app and creating an account takes just a few minutes. Make sure your notifications are turned on to be notified when runs are available in your area, and then you’re ready to rescue food!

Do I have to volunteer regularly? 

You can choose to claim a food rescue run just once, or claim a run each week as it becomes available. It’s up to you to decide how regularly you’d like to volunteer! 

Can I donate food through We Rescue? 

We accept food from local businesses like delis, bakeries, restaurants, and more, but we do not recover from households, clubs, etc. For more details on donating food, check out our food recovery page here. 

Top view set of healthy raw vegetables on the green background with Veganuary message on wooden blocks. Vegetarian and vegan diet. Veganism concept. Sustainable lifestyle, good, real plant-based foods.

It’s the start of a new year, and like everyone else, the We Don’t Waste team has new beginnings, challenges, and goals for ourselves on our minds. This January, we can’t help but think about what challenges we can try to care for our planet—which is how we stumbled onto Veganuary.

Veganuary is a way to encourage people to try veganism for the month of January. Get the name now? We recognize that changing your diet and shopping practices is never easy, and is, frankly, a privilege. It can impact your budget and even how you feel, and it is a great experience to reflect on how you might like to maintain your current food habits or would consider changing them in the future.  

If you would like to join us in removing animal products from your diet this month (or maybe even just Meatless Monday) here are some reasons it would be beneficial:

• Vegan diets produce 75% less climate-heating emissions, water pollution, and land use than a carnivorous diet
• According to a report from GRAIN and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, The world’s five biggest meat and dairy producers emit more combined greenhouse gases than ExxonMobil, Shell, or BP, the top three oil production companies
• To support eating meat, we must grow crops to feed said animals. For example, 25lbs of grains are needed to produce 1lb of beef. With there being 75 billion farm animals on the planet for just 8 billion people, that results in us growing an astronomical amount of food to be funneled down to animal feed. Especially considering crops such as lentils and soy produce the same amount of protein as meat, such as chicken. 
• Communities most affected by climate change are also disproportionately experiencing food insecurity. By reducing our carbon footprint through our own diets we can help mitigate the harm that others experience. 

To make this challenge a little bit easier, we’ve got a few recipes to recommend you try out. Like this waste-free bouillon bag that can be the base of your next soup.

Or a carrot-top pesto to go on pasta or use as a dip for carrot chips.

If you’re feeling extra creative, give our Carnitas a try–they aren’t pork-based, but they are made from banana peels and are every bit as delicious. Do you think you’ll give this challenge a try? 

Christmas tree thrown to the trash bin on the street after celebration with recycling sign cardboard and Santa hat

It’s the time of year when everyone is showing off their best decoration skills. From creative menorahs and kinaras in windows to string lights, Christmas trees, and window decals. And it is a tradition for most to have some sort of feast, or holiday meal. The holiday celebrations may look different in every home, but one thing is consistent for Denver households: our waste levels skyrocket! Now that’s something truly frightful. To help make the season more delightful, and sustainable, we did a little digging and found some options to help folks adjust their holiday routines to take care of our planet. 

1. During the holiday season the average American wastes increases by 25%! A good portion of this is, sadly, uneaten food. Luckily, there’s a great tool to help folks get a better idea of how much food to make for any number of guests. Just plug in how many visitors you’re expecting, and how many meals’ worth of leftovers you’d like to have, and the tool tells you how many pounds of protein, sides, and desserts you’ll need. 

2. If you’ve already purchased your ingredients, it’s not too late! Transforming those leftovers into other meals, like soups, pot pies, and casseroles, is a great way to reduce the amount of wasted food at the holiday table. 

3. Lastly, remember to compost anything you can’t eat! It’s so much better for our environment than letting food waste become methane in our landfills.

4. Got broken string lights? It happens to us all. This year, if you have old lights that need to be disposed of–recycle them! Yes, you read that right. Denver has a network of light recycling drop-off locations available FOR FREE throughout December. Find a location near you. 

5. While we’re on the topic of recycling, did you know there are drop-off days for your tree? Once you’ve removed all decorations from the tree, you can bring it to one of twelve locations across the city throughout January. Your tree will then become mulch that you can pick up in May! 

6. Host an upcycled White Elephant. This tip is inspired by the yearly We Don’t Waste holiday party. Gather with friends and family, take an item from your home that still has lots of life left in it, that isn’t getting the attention it deserves, and have some fun! It’s a great way to extend the life cycle of household items and reduce the impact of gift exchanges. 

Friends giving gifts to each other while sitting at table. In background Christmas tree. Christmas holidays concept.

Please consider donating if you’d like to help us support increasing Denver’s food security this holiday season. What better way to bring holiday cheer than ensuring your neighbors can participate? 

Finally, from the We Don’t Waste team, we hope you have a happy and healthy holiday season!

Multicolor Happy Holidays framed by candy canes, pinecones, cranberries, and string lights.