America is wasting billions of pounds of food ReFED attendees don't usually see: The surplus harvests from 62 million home and community gardens.
Summary: AmpleHarvest.org, founded in 2009, is an award winning nationwide nonprofit that enables food pantries in 5,700 communities across all 50 states to receive donations of surplus harvests from the nation's 62 million gardeners.
Why AmpleHarvest.org matters at ReFED: Most food waste solutions focus on farms, retailers, restaurants, institutions, or households after food enters the commercial system. AmpleHarvest.org addresses a largely overlooked source: food grown outside the commercial food system in America’s home and community gardens. Because the food is donated directly by gardeners to nearby pantries, the model requires no logistics, no local facilities, and no new food-handling infrastructure.