The DC Food Recovery Working Group is an independent volunteer working group separate from any private or public entity. Our initiatives are chosen, developed and implemented either independent of any member organizations or in partnership with specific organizations and/or fiscal agents selected for each unique initiative.
Our members come from organizations including:
Non-Profits
Government
Composting Organizations
Other Organizations
Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC)
A community-based non-profit that provides supplemental groceries to our Arlington, VA neighbors in need.
Brainfood
Non-profit youth development organization in Washington, DC. Using food as a tool, Brainfood builds life skills and promotes healthy living in a fun and safe environment.
Capital Area Food Bank
The largest organization in the Washington metro area working to solve hunger and its companion problems: chronic under-nutrition, heart disease, and obesity
Center for Food Safety
National non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization working to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture.
DC Central Kitchen
America’s leader in reducing hunger with recycled food, training unemployed adults for culinary careers, serving healthy school meals, and rebuilding urban food systems through social enterprise.
DC Food Project
DC Food Project is a local non-profit organization aiming to reduce food waste in D.C. schools while improving access to healthy food for students through two initiatives: A Share Table & Weekend Bag Program
DC Greens
Uses the power of partnerships to support food education, food access, and food policy in the nation’s capital.
Feedback
An environmental organization that campaigns to end food waste at every level of the food system. We catalyze action on eliminating food waste globally, working with governments, international institutions, businesses, NGOs, grassroots organizations and the public to change society’s attitude toward wasting food.
FoodCorps
Through hands-on lessons, healthy meals and a school-wide culture of health FoodCorps connects kids to healthy food in school so they can lead healthier lives and reach their full potential.
Food Rescue US (Formally Community Plates)
Volunteers use the app to self-schedule food runs from restaurants, grocers, caterers and other food service organizations who have food destined to be thrown away and deliver it to soup kitchens, food pantries and other hunger relief organizations who serve food-insecure individuals and families.
Food Not Bombs
A consensus-based collective that solicits food donations from grocery stores and restaurants and shares hot vegan meals, bags of groceries, and seasonal clothes with and for those in need every Saturday from 2-4pm at Franklin Square in Washington DC.
Food Recovery Network
National nonprofit organization that unites and supports college students to fight food waste and hunger by recovering surplus food from their campuses and local restaurants that would otherwise go to waste and donating it to hungry Americans.
Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR)
Supports environmentally sound and equitable community development. To this end, ILSR works with citizens, activists, policymakers and entrepreneurs to design systems, policies and enterprises that meet local or regional needs; to maximize human, material, natural and financial resources; and to ensure that the benefits of these systems and resources accrue to all local citizens.
Kid Power Inc
Inspires youth leadership by promoting academic advancement, physical and emotional wellness, and positive civic engagement in underserved communities throughout the District of Columbia.
Miriam’s Kitchen
Nonprofit working to end chronic homelessness in Washington, DC.
Point A
The Point A project is working to create a network of ambitious and engages income-sharing egalitarian urban communes as a starting point on the road to a more humane, satisfying, and sustainable world for all.
Sierra Club DC Chapter (Zero Waste Committee)
A committee of the Sierra Club DC Chapter dedicated to achieving zero waste in Washington, D.C.
Government
DC Department of General Services (DGS)
Under the DC Healthy Schools Act of 2010, DGS is responsible for a variety of activities designed to ensure that schools are healthy, safe places to learn. These include programs on recycling and composting, energy reduction, drinking water testing, indoor air quality, and integrated pest management.
DC Department of Public Works (DPW) – Office of Waste Diversion
Charged with developing a zero waste plan to achieve at least an 80% waste diversion rate. It also serves as a liaison between the District and neighboring jurisdictions in developing regional waste reduction and diversion campaigns.
DC Food Policy Council
Washington, DC Mayoral council tasked with identifying regulatory burdens on the local food economy, collecting and analyzing data on the food economy and food equity, promoting positive food policies, and guiding organizations and individuals involved in the food economy.
DC Parks and Rec (DPR) – Urban Gardens Division
Works with communities across the District to establish outdoor gardens; offer workshops, classes and programs that enhance, enrich and expose all participants who are interested in gardening; and introduce new and innovative gardening ideas and best practices.
EPA – Sustainable Management of Food
This Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) office located in the Resource Conservation and Sustainability Division focuses on national wide food recovery initiatives.
Composting Organizations
Compost Alex
A community organization in the city of Alexandria, VA. It’s mission, to gather the community around composting and to make composting the norm in Alexandria.
Compost Cab
Compost Cab deploys a clean, convenient, and cost-effective pick-up service for your organics. Then we deliver these materials to a nearby not-for-profit urban farm, where they’re transformed into the fertile soil needed to grow good, nutritious food for the local community. Everybody wins.
Compost Crew
Similar to a recycling service, Compost Crew collects food waste and other organic material from the local community to be composted and reused. They offer both residential and commercial service as well as composting for events.
Loop Closing
Loop Closing seeks to regenerate our soils, environment, and underrepresented communities by composting food waste where trash cans once stood and bringing finished compost to our farms on food delivery vehicles that once returned empty. For what organizations currently pay to haul food waste to landfills and incineration exacerbating many problems, with Loop Closing’s help they can instead compost the food waste and be a part of the solution.
Other Organizations
EatOrToss.com
Is it OK to eat? This website features images of food items that might give some people pause (i.e. separated yogurt, a russeted apple, a really brown banana). Articles explain the science behind the items, in most cases concluding that they’re perfectly fine to eat. The goal is more peace of mind and less wasted food.
Fruit Cycle
A social enterprise that makes delicious, healthy, locally sourced snacks. We focus on using produce that would otherwise go to waste and we provide jobs for women who have been formerly incarcerated, homeless or are otherwise disadvantaged.
(r)evolve
Waste reduction reduces costs and increases efficiencies. Revolve helps businesses or organizations reimagine and redesign products and supply chains while reducing material and packaging use, minimizing energy and water use, and finding innovative ways to reuse and recycle anything left over.
DC Food Recovery Working Group 