ReFED, the only U.S. nonprofit wholly dedicated to reducing food waste, announced this week a cohort of 10 organizations that will participate in its Nonprofit Food Recovery Accelerator. Thanks to the generous support of the Walmart Foundation, in partnership with +Acumen and in collaboration with a 50-member expert network, the accelerator aims to catalyze ideas and inspire actions that lead to a doubling of healthy food available to the 40 million Americans facing food insecurity.

“The accelerator’s nationwide open call for applications confirmed ReFED’s hypothesis that this type of program will provide value in the form of helping food recovery organizations overcome some of the biggest barriers to increasing the amount of nutritious food they can deliver in a dignified manner,” Alexandria Coari, ReFED director of capital and innovation, said. “Some of these barriers include funding models dependent on grants versus earned revenue, a reliance on volunteers instead of paid staff, underutilization of technology solutions and a lack of collaboration and best practice sharing across the sector. These are just a few of the topics we’ll tackle throughout the accelerator.”

According to ReFED, the Nonprofit Food Recovery Accelerator’s one-of-a-kind, highly customized curriculum will combine a virtual classroom with in-person ReFED Learning Labs that focus on co-creating earned revenue models and technology-enabled solutions using human-centered design.

More than 125 candidates applied for the accelerator. The selected cohort ranges from long-standing food recovery organizations with hundreds of employees servicing thousands of donors to newly formed, innovative organizations that leverage concepts from the sharing economy and apply them to food rescue. What unites them, ReFED said, is the desire to work together on a shared mission: to become operationally sustainable and deliver more impact at scale in a dignified and convenient way.

“Growing awareness about the scale of senseless food waste in this country has catalyzed existing organizations to innovate their paradigms and inspired energetic entrepreneurs to launch creative new models that use this surplus food as a resource,” noted Emily Broad Leib, assistant clinical professor of law and director of Harvard Law School's Food Law & Policy Clinic. “As an expert network member, it has been incredible to see the response to ReFED’s Nonprofit Food Recovery Accelerator, which will build the needed network and resources for these innovators. I am excited about the announcement of the 2019 cohort and cannot wait to see them take the next steps to address this major societal issue of our era.”

The cohort for the first-ever Nonprofit Food Recovery Accelerator includes:

"We are a small nonprofit with a big vision,” Seeds That Feed co-founder and chief seeder Alyssa Snyder said. “The opportunity to work alongside nine other like-minded organizations and in conjunction with an expert network of more than 50 leaders in the field is an absolute game changer. Improving the lives of our neighbors through food is what drives us forward, and the opportunities ReFED is creating are quite literally providing the fuel that we've so desperately needed."

Each participating organization will receive $30,000, plus an additional $100,000 will be awarded to a selected winner at the end of the accelerator. In addition, organizations will have access to a world-class group of food business and technology executives, capital providers and subject matter experts who make up the accelerator’s expert network, which includes: Afresh, Albertsons, Aramark, Baldor Speciality Foods, Blue Apron, Bon Appetit Management Co., CalRecycle, Center for EcoTechnology, Chick-fil-a, Cisco, Claneil Foundation, ClimateWorks Foundation, Closed Loop Partners, Compass, DoorDash, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, Fast Forward, Food & Drug Administration, Feeding America, Fink Family Foundation, Food Donation Connection, Food for Soul, FoodMaven, General Mills, GoodR, Harvard Law School Food Law & Policy Clinic, HelloFresh, Imperfect Produce, Nestle, Next Course LLC, Ovio, Pisces Foundation, Posner Foundation, Rabobank, Sodexo, Spoiler Alert, Starbucks, Taylor Farms, The Ajana Foundation, The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation, The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Wonderful Co., Tyson Foods, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Village Capital, Wells Fargo, Whole Foods Market and World Wildlife Fund.

“ReFED is thrilled with the response that we received to the open call for applications, which has enabled us to put together a cohort of truly exciting organizations positioned to improve and expand food recovery throughout the U.S. food value chain,” ReFED executive director Chris Cochran said. “With the support of our project partners and expert network, I have full confidence that a key outcome of this initiative will be a significant increase in food recovered for the 40 million Americans currently facing food insecurity.”

Overall, the more than 125 applicants to the open call for applications reported statistics that indicate the impressive impact they’re already having on the food recovery space, according to the announcement. Collectively, these organizations have more than 5,600 full-time employees, mobilize 190,000 volunteers, run a total annual budget of $240 million and need $30 million in additional funding in the next 12 months. Additionally, and consistent with trends previously identified in ReFED’s Innovator Database:

“We are committed to help innovate and strengthen the food system through philanthropy, and this includes a focus on the reduction of food waste,” said Eileen Hyde, director of strategic initiatives for the Walmart Foundation. “ReFED's Nonprofit Food Recovery Accelerator is a key part of this strategy, and we’re proud to be involved in the project.”

The three-month accelerator kicks off in September 2019.