Kroger has new ally in food waste fight

Kroger is teaming up with ReFED in its mission to eliminate food waste by 2025.

The partnership was announced at the Third Annual Food Rescue Summit hosted by Feeding America in Washington, D.C.

"When we shared our bold Zero Hunger | Zero Waste initiative in September, we emphasized our plans to establish a $10 million Innovation Fund within The Kroger Co. Foundation to address hunger, food waste and the paradoxical relationship between the two," said Jessica Adelman, Kroger's group vice president of corporate affairs. "Our newly-formed relationship with ReFED will challenge us to create the best strategy, structure and program to invest the funds in the most innovative solutions that will help end hunger in the communities we call home and eliminate waste in our company by 2025."

ReFED works with businesses, investors, innovators and policymakers to move the food system from acting on instinct to insights to solve the national food waste problem. The leaders at ReFED have deep knowledge and experience in food waste innovation, scaling solutions, and the philanthropic and impact investment sectors. ReFED has an innovator database with more than 400 food waste solutions providers, and the system closely tracks where investments are being made.

"Philanthropic capital is needed to foster innovation in ways that other sources of capital cannot; to target and scale solutions lacking a market-rate application, develop capacity for market-based solutions, and seed pilot projects, proofs of concept, and other market-building activities," said Chris Cochran, ReFED's executive director. "We're excited to work alongside Kroger and The Kroger Co. Foundation – a true leader in bringing together capital and innovation to eliminate food waste."