Denver Life Magazine – April 2019

atlas giving

34 denverlifemagazine.com | APRIL 2019

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WE DON’T WASTE

Leverages leftovers for the hungry.

wedontwaste.org

The evolution

“I got a tarp at Home Depot, put down

the seats in my Volvo station wagon, and

started by picking up prepared food—

panned, wrapped, labeled, and dated—

from caterers. Sometimes I’d get fresh

produce, too. We outgrew that after a

few months and got a van, then a 14-foot

refrigerated truck, and in 2017 we found a

warehouse with a cooler to use as a distri-

bution center. It’s increased our efficiency

and effectiveness.”

How it has grown

“We now have more than 150 food donors,

including the Colorado Convention Center,

and they are protected by the federal and

state Good Samaritan Acts, which basical-

ly say that as long as the food has been

properly maintained and its integrity is

W

e Don’t Waste all began with a simple question, says founder Arlan

Preblud. “My wife and I are foodies, and I began asking people I

knew in the restaurant industry, ‘What do you do with the food that

you have left over at the end of the night?’ And they said, ‘We throw it

away. We’ve asked agencies to come pick it up, and the response was not good.’ I asked

them, ‘Would you be willing to donate your food?’ and they said, ‘Absolutely.’ And

then I went to nonprofits affiliated with soup kitchens or food pantries and asked if

the would accept donated food. And they said, ‘Certainly.’ ”

MARK YOUR CALENDARS The agency’s annual fund-raiser, Fill a Plate for Hunger, will be held Sept. 19 at the Botanic Gardens.

Waste not, want not

FOR TWO DECADES, WE DON’T WASTE HAS BEEN RECOVERING

EXCESS MEALS AND REDISTRIBUTING THEM TO THE FOOD-NEEDY.

BY AMANDA BONNER

intact, there is no liability. We directly serve

about 60 agencies, which in turn distribute

to smaller agencies to effectively reach

about 190 community-based agencies in

the metro area, as far north as Fort Collins

and south almost to Colorado Springs. Last

year, we put out 33 million servings, which

equates to 10.9 million meals.”

What’s next

“We’ve determined that there are approxi-

mately 50 food deserts within the city and

county of Denver, where local populations

have no grocery store within a half mile of

where they reside. So we are developing a

mobile food market to address this need—

taking refrigerated trucks and setting up

like a farmers market. We’ve started in the

Globeville Elyria-Swansea neighborhood,

which has been severely impacted by the

I-70 construction.” DLM