Food Tank’s Sold-Out NYC Summit on Food Waste

Food Tank, in partnership with Rethink Food Waste Through Economics and Data (ReFED) and with support from The Rockefeller Foundation and The Fink Family Foundation, will present a one-day summit on September 13, 2017, at the WNYC Greene Space in New York City (44 Charlton St., New York, NY, 10013), titled “Focusing on Food Loss and Waste.”

Confirmed speakers include (in alphabetical order—dozens more to be announced soon): Emily Bachman, GrowNYC; Elizabeth Balkan, NYC Department of Sanitation (DSNY); John Boyd, Jr., National Black Farmers Association; Diane Brady, Bloomberg; Joan Briggs, The Fink Family Foundation; Gigi Lee Chang, FoodFutureCo; Chris Cochran, ReFED; Tom Colicchio, Craft restaurants; Karl Deily, Sealed Air; Ron Gonen, Closed Loop Partners; Tony Hillery, Harlem Grown; Helen Hollyman, Vice; Lynette Johnson, Society of St. Andrews; Prasanta Kalita, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Justin Kamine, KDC Ag – Kamine Development Corporation; Sam Kass, Trove; Amy Keister, Compass Group; Devon Klatell, The Rockefeller Foundation; Bonnie McClafferty, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN); Jude Medeiros, Sodexo; Clare Miflin, Kiss + Cathcart; Carina Millston, Feedback Global; Monica Munn, The Rockefeller Foundation; Kimbal Musk, The Kitchen; Danielle Nierenberg, Food Tank; Pete Pearson, WWF; Tinia Pina, Re-Nuble; Antonio Reynoso, New York City Councilmember; Ruth Reichl, PBS/Food Writer; Brian Roe, The Ohio State University; Christine Datz-Romero, Lower East Side Ecology Center; Kim Severson, The New York Times; Stephanie Strom, The New York Times; Tom Vilsack, U.S. Dairy Export Council; Luca Virginio, Barilla; Brian Wansink, Cornell University; Jocelyn Zuckerman, Modern Farmer; and Konstantin Zvereff, BlueCart.

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With about 8 million residents, New York City alone sends 4 million tons of waste to landfills each year. An estimated one-third of that waste is food. As home to Hunts Point, the largest food distribution center in the world, New York City is primed to lead the nation’s (and even the world’s) food waste movement.

The 2017 Food Tank Summit in New York, NY, will consist of dynamic panel discussions featuring a variety of speakers from around the world and exciting keynote speakers moderated by journalists from The New York Times, Vice, Bloomberg, Modern Farmer, and more. Within just four hours of announcing the event, demand was so high that Food Tank received four-times more applications than there are seats.

The event will be co-hosted by ReFED, the leading national organization dedicated to reducing U.S. food waste. In 2016, ReFED published the Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste, a landmark report that presented cost-effective solutions capable of cutting food waste by 20 percent while conserving natural resources, creating jobs, feeding the hungry, and generating US$100B in economic value. ReFED now collaborates with businesses, nonprofits, and government to implement these solutions.

The Summit is also supported by The Rockefeller Foundation, who has committed US$130 million through their YieldWise initiative to work with private, public, and nonprofit actors across the food supply system to cut their food loss and waste by half. Support from The Fink Family Foundation has also made this event possible.

At the New York City Food Tank Summit, audiences will have the opportunity to participate in extended question-and-answer sessions and expert journalists will moderate each panel—topics include leveraging capital to fund innovations and fill research gaps, forging creative partnerships, encouraging behavior change, and more.

The Food Tank Summit is also made possible with the support of the Barilla Center for Food & Nutrition, Sealed Air, Blue Apron, Organic Valley, and Niman Ranch. Food and beverage donations will come from Niman Ranch, Juice Press, Harmless Harvest, Brooklyn Roasting Co., and GT’s Kombucha.

Great Performances, an NYC-based catering and events company engaged in the principles of sustainability and food justice, is graciously donating the breakfast and lunch receptions for all attendees. The menus will reflect the company’s commitment to the reduction of food waste and the creative application of full-food utilization.

Through a national partnership, many Food Recovery Network organizations and chapters on 230 university campuses nationwide will be participating in Food Tank Summit watch parties live. They are the largest student movement fighting hunger and food waste in the country

The following day on Thursday, September 14, 2017, Food Tank will be organizing a free public awareness event to benefit GrowNYC, featuring speakers to educate around food waste and showcasing its new dance fitness concept called Garjana at Washington Square Park (1:30 to 2:30pm). Garjana is led by a team of five Broadway performers, featuring choreography from Mamma Mia’s Monica Kapoor and debuting all-original music from Douglas Romanow, whose credits include Justin Bieber, Tyga, and hundreds more. Garjana has been selling out major venues across New York and getting rave reviews from outlets ranging from Billboard, Time Out, Edible Magazine, and more. Conceived by Food Tank Board Chairman Bernard Pollack with visuals and video by award-winning film and television director Kevin Arbouet. On September 28, Garjana will be making its Brooklyn debut at House of Yes.

More details can be found on the Facebook event page.

Since 2015, Food Tank has convened more than 275 speakers in front of more than 2,500 in-person attendees (all of our Summits have sold out!). More than 175,000 livestream viewers have tuned in from countries around the globe, representing six continents. Major food journalists from The Washington Post, National Public Radio, The Hill, Politico, National Geographic, and more have served as panel moderators. Food Tank Summits feature major partnerships with universities including George Washington University, Tufts University, the University of Chicago, University of California-Davis, and many more. In 2018, we will continue to bring Food Tank Summits to existing and new cities including Washington, D.C., Boston, Chicago, Seattle, San Diego, New York City, New Orleans, and more.

The entire NYC Food Tank Summit can also be viewed remotely FREE via Facebook Live and live on FoodTank.com. Additionally, we will be featuring backstage interviews with speakers all day using Instagram Live and Periscope/Twitter Live. After the event, all videos will be immediately archived on Food Tank’s YouTube Channel.