We Don’t Waste – Denver, Colorado

We Don’t Waste is a Denver-based nonprofit organization working to reduce hunger and food waste by recovering quality, unused food from the food industry and delivering it to nonprofit partners, such as food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, schools and daycare programs, and more.

In 2020, We Don’t Waste received a FRWD grant for $199,689 to increase the organization’s capacity to rescue more food, feed more people, and divert more tons of organic material from Front Range landfills. With the help of the FRWD funding, We Don’t Waste purchased a 216 square-foot walk-in freezer to expand the amount of space available to safely store recovered, excess food.

The organization also was able to fund the purchase of a new cargo van (pictured), which has allowed We Don’t Waste to pick up and transport small food donations, in addition to transporting Mobile Food Market supplies. Utilizing the van for these smaller tasks allows We Don’t Waste to keep their 10-foot box truck on the road, recovering and distributing food during the organization’s seven to eight monthly markets.

According to We Don’t Waste’s Director of Impact and Engagement, Allie Hoffman, the organization has been able to keep an additional 234 tons of frozen food out of the landfill since the start of this project. We Don’t Waste also grew its team and created a food acquisition position, promoted one specialist to a director position, and hired an additional Food Recovery Specialist.

Thanks to the financial support from the FRWD grant program, We Don’t Waste was able to rescue more food, hire additional staff, and ultimately feed more people – all while keeping valuable tons of organic material from landfills.