The Zero Hunger | Zero Waste Foundation Innovation Fund helps fill the gap in philanthropic funding needed to support entrepreneurs and creative thinkers with solutions to improve food security and prevent food waste.
In 2019, an enormous 35% of all food in the United States went unsold or uneaten. That’s $408 billion worth of food – roughly 2% of U.S. GDP – with a greenhouse gas footprint equivalent to 4% of total U.S. GHG emissions. This means 52 million tons of food waste sent to landfill annually, plus another 10 million tons that is discarded or left unharvested on farms. Meanwhile, over 40 million Americans struggle with hunger.
Call for Applications
The 2021 Call for Application is closed.
In 2021, we collaborated with Village Capital to help source, understand and unlock capital to support innovative solutions that prevent, recover and recycle food waste.
We encouraged applications from innovators building high-growth, scalable solutions focused on the following challenge:
We seek to reshape the food system by supporting innovators who are elevating food to its highest use and disrupting the linear supply chain. This could include solutions such as imperfect produce lines, upcycled foods & meal kits, upcycled commercial ingredients and more.
We believe in the potential for innovation to help reinvent the food system and tackle the gaps between production and consumption to ensure food never arrives in the landfill.
To learn more about how we developed the challenge and food systems innovation, read the market assessment here.
