Make Food Not Waste

Make Food Not Waste is an environmental organization that works to decrease waste in the food system. Wasted food both wastes critical resources and also produces harmful greenhouse gasses. The organization's efforts are in line with shared goal of the state of Michigan, the federal government, and the United Nations to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.

Make Food Not Waste is Michigan’s voice for food waste reduction and prevention. Our
Upcycling Kitchens on Detroit’s East and West sides utilize food that would otherwise be wasted. There, the chef’s turn food that was headed for the landfill into delicious and nutritious meals that are distributed for free to community members.

Consumers account for the largest portion of food waste. We partner with individuals and other organizations to educate consumers about the importance of reducing food waste.

We also pursue our goals by providing technical assistance services including two programs to help restaurants reduce their food waste: The PLEDGE™ and The PRIMER on Food Waste. By joining one of these programs, restaurants commit to reducing their carbon footprints, saving money, and giving back to the community. The PLEDGE™ on Food Waste is an international third-party certification program that instructs restaurants, hotels, convention centers, and other foodservice businesses in tactics to reduce the amount of food they throw away. Make Food Not Waste is the first organization in the United States to offer this program. The PRIMER on Food Waste is a bite-sized version of The PLEDGE™, designed specifically for smaller scale food businesses or restaurants that aren’t ready to commit to the full PLEDGE™ curriculum. This program takes a simplified approach to allow restaurants to easily adopt the most important tactics for food waste reduction. Restaurants can get started with the PRIMER and progress to the full PLEDGE™ certification to continue their food waste reduction journey.

Finally, we work with regulators and other like minded partners across the state to inform and advocate for policy aiming to reduce food waste at all levels of the supply chain.

Our UpcyclingKitchens are staffed by professional chefs who were brought into the organization because of the passion they share for our mission, and their particular skill at working with irregular sources, varieties, and volumes of food.

We’ve grown a lot since our first community feast in 2017. Since then we’ve developed programs to support local businesses in reducing their food waste and have built lasting partnerships with organizations like the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). We are working with the state of Michigan to plot a course to reduce food waste and have a board full of resourceful, passionate, experts to help us take steps to increase the impact of our work.

Partnerships are another key to success. Rather than be distracted by logistics, we partner with food rescue organizations and other experts in the community to help food find its way to our kitchens. By specializing in the processing and distribution of rescued food to Detroiters, we save effort and increase capacity.

During our last fiscal year, we kept approximately 625,000 pounds of greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere by saving food and preparing 100,000 meals for our community. We opened our second Upcycling Kitchen which has allowed us to modify operations in a way that optimizes the two kitchens based on their size, infrastructure, and accessibility.

We also certified 7 area kitchens, including the first university dining service in the United States in The PledgeTM on Food Waste. We were selected to co-write Michigan’s first Roadmap on Food Waste Reduction for the Department of Energy, Great Lakes and Energy. We raised more funds than ever before and began an ongoing expansion of our team that will increase our capacity to affect change and increase our impact. We are also working with partners to explore innovative solutions that would allow us to utilize new technologies to process Michigan’s food waste into upcycled ingredients for the production of new retail foods.