FAQ

The U.S. Food Waste Pact is a joint initiative of ReFED and World Wildlife Fund. Both organizations run the initiative in tandem, bringing their combined experience and expertise in data collection, convening facilitation, and pilot execution to the program.

The Advisory Council is an invitation-only group composed of industry experts. They represent many corners of the food system, and they provide insight into current trends and act as a sounding board for new Pact initiatives.

The U.S. Food Waste Pact does not employ people as an organization. It is a program that is fully run by employees of ReFED and World Wildlife Fund. Visit ReFED’s career page here and WWF’s career page here to learn more about open opportunities in the food waste space.

Per the voluntary agreement that food businesses sign upon joining the U.S. Food Waste Pact, it is not a requirement to report data. However, a core part of Pact programming is data collection, and many signatories across sectors do participate in the data collection process on an annual basis, even if their data is not included in the Pact’s Annual Report. Analysis of a company’s food waste data is an essential part of making progress on food waste reduction, and many food businesses and organizations that are Pact signatories find the process valuable in reaching their goals.

All precompetitive convenings (e.g., Working Groups, Sector Summits, ad hoc meetings) are facilitated in environments that abide by Chatham House Rules, which states, “When a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.” This encourages signatories to speak openly about their own food waste reduction efforts, fostering collaboration and maximizing impact.

If you work for a food business or a waste-generating organization, the best way to participate in a pilot project is by joining the U.S. Food Waste Pact. If you are a facilitator or have expertise in a specific area that a pilot project requires, please look out for RFPs related to pilot projects or use the Contact Us form to inquire.

To fully participate in the Pact’s core offerings—data collection, precompetitive convenings, and pilot projects—food businesses and waste-generating organizations must be signatories of the U.S. Food Waste Pact. If you are interested in your business or organization becoming a signatory, please use the Contact Us form or email Kristen Lee at [email protected].

To become a U.S. Food Waste Pact signatory, please use the Contact Us form or email Kristen Lee at [email protected]. To see a sample voluntary agreement, please view one here.

Food waste is a systemic issue, one that takes collaboration across the supply chain to solve. Signatories of the U.S. Food Waste Pact receive support in measuring and tracking their waste through the Pact’s data collection offerings, share best practices and learnings with other signatories through the Pact’s precompetitive convenings, and test and scale food waste solutions through the Pact’s pilot projects. To see a more detailed view of the Pact’s offerings and their benefits to waste-generating food businesses and organizations, please see our “About Us” sheet here.

Per the voluntary agreement that food businesses sign upon joining the U.S. Food Waste Pact, it is not a requirement that signatories have a reduction goal or commitment. However, it is preferred if signatories do have a goal or are taking active steps to determine one. The U.S. Food Waste Pact does not have an expressed goal to reduce food waste by a particular amount, but the philosophy of its program is in line with the national and global goals to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.

Signatories span a number of food system actors, including waste-generating food businesses (e.g., growers, manufacturers, distributors, foodservice companies, retailers, etc.) and coalition organizations (e.g., trade associations, coalitions, etc.). The U.S. Food Waste Pact does not work directly with jurisdictional agencies, nor does the program work with solution providers in a signatory capacity.

For media-related requests, please email Nia D’Emilio at [email protected].

Yes! The Employee Engagement Toolkit was built for all food businesses, using principles and learnings from the manufacturing space and previous employee engagement pilots. Any waste-generating organization can use the toolkit to engage frontline workers in waste reduction idea generation and implementation.

You are welcome to use Pact content for your own reference and for internal stakeholders at your organization. If you wish to republish Pact content on your own website or other channels, please contact Nia D’Emilio at [email protected].

Yes! Adopting and scaling solutions is a core tenet of the U.S. Food Waste Pact’s two leading organizations, ReFED and WWF. The Pact’s case studies exist to memorialize pilot projects and act as references to aid in solution scaling. If you have any questions related to implementing and scaling a solution piloted in a case study, please reach out to Anne Garsztka at [email protected].