Breakout Peer-to-Peer Discussions on Roadmap to 2030 Key Action Areas

Past Event

April 27, 2022 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm EST

Virtual

Join your fellow FWAN Members for an opportunity to hear from one another about their ongoing projects and share your asks or offers with other FWAN members. We hope you will leave feeling both inspired and connected to others in the Network who are working in similar spaces!

We will sort attendees into breakout groups according to ReFED’s seven Key Action Areas, and specifically the four action areas that cover the latter half of the food supply chain. More information about specific topics we will cover in each breakout room is below. You will choose which breakout room you prefer when registering for the event.

This is our first FWAN networking event so we will be holding future sessions which will cover additional topics in the food waste space in the coming months.

Breakout 1: Maximize Product Utilization

Maximizing product utilization means designing facilities, operations, and menus to use as much of each product as possible. It also means rethinking the concept of “waste” by turning surplus and byproducts into food products through upcycling, which has opened new doors for innovation and investment. Examples of related solution areas include:

  • Manufacturing Byproduct Utilization (upcycling)
  • Active & Intelligent Packaging
  • Manufacturing Line Optimization
  • Edible Coatings
  • In-house Repurposing
  • Improved Recipe Planning
  • Precision Food Safety

Breakout 2: Reshape Consumer Environments

Reshaping consumer environments means driving consumers toward better food management and less waste by creating shopping, cooking, and eating environments that promote those behaviors. There’s also a big opportunity to shift our overall culture to place more value on food and to make sure that people truly understand the implications of food waste for our environment, economy, and more. Examples of related solution areas include:

  • Portion Sizes
  • Meal Kits
  • Consumer Education Campaigns
  • Standardized Date Labels
  • Package Design
  • Trayless
  • Small Plates
  • Buffet Signage
  • K-12 Education Campaigns
  • K-12 Lunch Improvements
  • Home Shelf-life Extension Technologies
  • Smart Home Devices

Breakout 3: Strengthen Food Rescue 

Strengthening food rescue means furthering the rescue of high-quality, nutritious food by increasing the capacity of food relief agencies, addressing distribution bottlenecks, and improving communication flow. Examples of related solution areas include:

  • Donation Education
  • Donation Transportation
  • Donation Storage Handling & Capacity
  • Donation Coordination & Matching
  • Donation Value-added Processing
  • Blast Chilling to Enable Donations
  • Donation Reverse Logistics

Breakout 4: Recycle Anything Remaining

Recycling anything remaining means capturing nutrients, energy, or other residual value by finding the highest and best use for any food or food scraps that remain. Solutions in this action area range from mature practices of feeding food scraps to livestock, to modern innovations such as insect farming. Examples of related solution areas include:

  • Centralized Anaerobic Digestion
  • Co-digestion at Wastewater Treatment Plants
  • Centralized Composting
  • Home Composting
  • Community Composting
  • Livestock Feed
  • Waste-derived Agricultural Inputs
  • Insect Farming
  • Rendering
  • Waste-derived Processed Animal Feed
  • Waste-derived Bio-plastics
  • Waste-derived Biomaterials

Note that we will be capping each room at ~10 participants to make the discussions interactive and engaging, so sign up soon to ensure your spot!

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