We Don’t Waste believes nutritious food should be fed to people, not landfills and reduces food insecurity and waste by rescuing food from venues, caterers, distributors, and restaurants, then delivering it free of charge to hunger-fighting local agencies.

Executive Director Arlan Preblud started We Don’t Waste with a simple mission: feed hungry people and keep perfectly good food out of the trash. After frequently volunteering at food banks, Preblud, a self-described foodie, decided to contact friends who worked at restaurants to find out what they did with leftover food. That led him to found We Don’t Waste, a Denver-based nonprofit that since 2009 has provided more than 17,753,447 servings to those in need and kept more than 2,220 tons of food out of landfills.

We Don’t Waste has partnerships with more than 80 local food suppliers, including big names like the Pepsi Center and Coors Field.  They deliver the over-produced and unused food to more than 60 local recipients such as the Denver Rescue Mission and Food Bank of the Rockies.

We Don’t Waste offices are located in the RiNo neighborhood (35th & Walnut St), but their refrigerated trucks are out and about in our Denver community everyday.

 

 

Why did you choose this RiNo to do business in?

 

The neighborhood allows We Don’t Waste to locate in the geographic hub where we obtain a large percentage of the product we distribute as well as being central to the organizations we distribute food. Also, at the time we began, the rents were reasonable.

 

What about this neighborhood jives with your business culture?

 

We Don’t Waste is the innovative organization for food recovery in the state and the RiNo district is also a very innovative and creative neighborhood.

 

Why are you passionate about your business?

 

My passion is derived from the ability to provide wholesome, nutritious restaurant grade food to those who are less fortunate, while reducing the amount of food waste in our community.

 

What inspired the look of your business?

 

It was serendipitous as the color of hunger is orange and many in this field use orange and green, although at the time I was unaware of the color scheme. These colors are known to subconsciously trigger hunger and/or induce excitement.