Episode 168: The Complex Systems of Food Waste and Food Rescue
About the Podcast
In this episode, Clancy speaks with Hayden Dansky, co-founder and co-director of Boulder Food Rescue. They are also the founder of Food Rescue Alliance and co-founder of Boulder Food Not Bombs, an LGBTQ+ housing cooperative. You won’t want to miss their discussion about the complex systems of food waste and food rescue.
About Hayden Dansky
Hayden Dansky is the co-founder and co-director of Boulder Food Rescue, a community-led nonprofit that works to create a more just and less wasteful food system by using food as a mechanism to meet the survival needs of people, interrupting the systems that create a need, and leveraging participatory systems of leadership and collective action. They are also a founder of the Food Rescue Alliance, cofounder of Boulder Food Not Bombs, and an alumnus of the Chinook Fund Giving Project.
Discussion Takeaways
- Hayden got deep into food waste and the environmental impacts of food waste when they observed vast amounts of really healthy and nourishing food going to waste.
- People run charitable food systems but don't acknowledge they have a lot of power. They are holding a resource that people need to survive.
- Non-profit organizations in the food system operate from a place of scarcity and fear.
- There is a misassumption that if we reduce food waste, we can feed hungry people. They are blended up together as if they are not two complex systems.
- Grocery program coordinators are the people who make sure that everyone is receiving food. They go to the store and grab the food that they know their community wants.
- The food waste system and the hunger system have the same root causes.
- People perceive themselves as not needing the food more.
- Entities, governments, and non-profits are collecting data all the time, but who has access to that data and what is that data useful for? Communities don't have access to the same data about them.
#1 tip to improve access to healthy food
When you're just trying to survive, it's hard to dream. Communities have always supported their own well-being. Our goal should be to create space and build scaffolding for their creativity to emerge. People know what they need.
Each week on the Food Dignity® Podcast, the Food Dignity® Movement's Clancy Harrison hosts a wide variety of hunger experts and other people making changes on the frontlines. Join us as we dive deep into conversations that will change the way you think about food insecurity.
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