[Chicago, IL, January 15, 2025] — The U.S. Food Waste Pact, a national voluntary agreement focused on reducing food waste in the U.S. through precompetitive collaboration and data sharing, announced today that the Residential & Dining Enterprises (R&DE) Stanford Food Institute (SFI), which works with collegiate dining halls across the country to build a better food system, has become its latest signatory. With this collaboration, the Pact is expanding its reach to college and university campuses, which generate an estimated 22 million pounds of food waste per year.
In the United States, 38% of produced food—over 91 million tons—goes uneaten or unsold, with the vast majority becoming waste that gets sent to destinations like landfills, incinerators, and sewer systems. This surplus has harmful effects on the environment, generating 5.2% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, including the highly potent methane. It is also equivalent to 149 billion meals and costs the country $495 billion annually.
“We are thrilled to take this step as the next chapter in our long-term commitment to preventing and reducing food waste,” said Eric Montell, Assistant Vice Provost for R&DE Stanford Dining, Hospitality & Auxiliaries. “SFI collaborates with a diverse range of stakeholders both within and beyond Stanford, to advance research, education, flavor, and innovation to shape a better food future, which includes preventing and reducing food waste. Through our collaboration with over 80 colleges and universities and over 300 members in the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC)—which we co-founded and jointly lead with the Stanford Prevention Research Center and the Culinary Institute of America—we have been strategizing on this issue for quite some time. Joining the U.S. Food Waste Pact will only accelerate progress on food waste reduction in college and university foodservice. By harnessing our proven unique ability to drive change at scale through collaboration, we can expand our successful Collective Impact Initiative—which has already substantially reduced greenhouse gas emissions from protein purchases—to unite dozens of mission-aligned institutions in tackling climate change strategies.”
Created by Dr. Shirley J. Everett, Senior Associate Vice Provost for R&DE, SFI works to advance research, education, policy, and business to promote a holistic approach to improving what people eat and how people access food. For years, SFI’s work has included a focus on bold climate action throughout the food system, such as through open-source publications like its Food Waste Prevention Playbook, in order to share learnings and inspire other leaders in the foodservice industry to implement innovative, evidence-based solutions for the industry’s most pressing health and sustainability challenges. With its commitment to the U.S. Food Waste Pact, SFI continues its legacy of leadership and serves as an inspiration to industry peers on the issue of food waste.
“Having SFI as a signatory of the U.S. Food Waste Pact marks a significant milestone for us,” said Jackie Suggitt, VP of Business Initiatives & Community Engagement at ReFED. “Collaborators like SFI are able to reach food businesses that are smaller in scale and oftentimes independently owned. With their focus on collegiate foodservice, we’ll be able to analyze more robust data sets, have more diversity of thought in our working groups, and pilot solutions in new corners of the supply chain.”
SFI joins fifteen other signatories from across the food supply chain. These include foodservice companies Aramark, Compass Group USA, ISS Guckenheimer, and Sodexo USA; coalition partner signatory Health Care Without Harm; retailers Ahold Delhaize USA, ALDI US, Amazon Fresh, Raley’s, Walmart Inc., and Whole Foods Market; manufacturers Bob’s Red Mill, Del Monte Fresh Produce Company, and Lamb Weston, Inc.; and Chick-fil-A, the Pact’s first signatory in the quick-service restaurant subsector.
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About the U.S. Food Waste Pact
The U.S. Food Waste Pact is a national voluntary agreement that uses the “Target, Measure, Act” framework to reduce food waste across the supply chain. The Pact works with waste-generating food businesses to collect and analyze data about food waste in their operations, share best practices through pre-competitive working groups, and pilot and scale solutions through intervention projects. The Pact is an initiative between nonprofits ReFED and the World Wildlife Fund. For more information about the U.S. Food Waste Pact, visit http://usfoodwastepact.org/.
Media Contacts:
Nia D’Emilio, ReFED
Susan McCarthy, WWF
Jocelyn Breeland, SFI