Beginning on November 18 and continuing through January 4, you may notice a familiar name while ordering Chipotle online or through the Chipotle App. We at The Farmlink Project are grateful and proud to partner with Chipotle to empower people all across the country to help provide meals to food-insecure families when buying a meal of their own. This holiday season, Chipotle customers are able to round up their purchase to the next-highest dollar as a donation to The Farmlink Project. But how does a nonprofit organization, one that is less than a year old and run largely by college students, find themselves in a partnership with Chipotle? This story begins in the early summer months when Farmlink Project team members Maxwell Goldman and Caroline Ricksen reached out to Chipotle in an email, crossing their fingers that someone might notice it and respond.
On a Sunday evening, about two months ago, they received a response asking to talk at 8:30 the next morning. Farmlink Project team members found themselves being interviewed by Chipotle, excited by the opportunity but unsure what they were being interviewed for. Two days later, Chipotle reached out and said they wanted The Farmlink Project to be a part of their new Round Up initiative. Chipotle had interviewed over twenty food waste organizations but wanted to partner with The Farmlink Project because of what makes us unique. Maxwell reflects on why Chipotle was drawn to The Farmlink Project, “Chipotle recognized that we are different; we haven’t been around forever, we have no overhead costs which means that every single dollar goes to rescuing food waste, and we are authentic—we make mistakes, but are hungry to learn.”
Through this partnership, Chipotle has seen aspects of their organization within The Farmlink Project. Although Chipotle has grown worldwide, it began as an ambitious start-up taqueria and continues to be an innovative and forward-thinking company today. “They saw us as scrappy, authentic, and tenacious and wanted to do everything they could to help us,” commented Maxwell. The relationship with Chipotle goes beyond just the Round Up event; they have been in constant communication with our team, generating new ideas and seeking more ways to support The Farmlink Project. Chipotle put The Farmlink Project in contact with all of their farmers across the country with the goal of moving any surplus these growers may produce to communities in need. Since this relationship began over the summer, Chipotle has shown its passion to make an impact in reducing hunger and food waste. Chipotle released their Real Foodprint calculator in October 2020—a sustainability impact tracker that compares average values for Chipotle’s ingredients to their competitors against five metrics: reduced carbon in atmosphere, gallons of water, improved soil health, organic land supported, and antibiotics avoided.
Although the Round Up event with Chipotle will not last forever, the relationship with Chipotle has strengthened The Farmlink Project as a whole, beyond just the contributions to our cause from Round Up donations. We are incredibly grateful for Chipotle’s support and belief in The Farmlink Project. Together, Chipotle and The Farmlink Project can help reduce hunger and food waste throughout the country.
These changes are great. But how’s it all going to be funded?
During the comment process, Farmlink, as well as other food rescue organizations and coalitions, raised critical questions about how the strategy would be funded and, as a result, which measures are feasible. In particular, we hoped for more clarity beyond the draft’s statement that the USDA would use American Rescue Plan Act and Inflation Reduction Act funds and the EPA would use Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. Of the 86 programs or initiatives reviewed in the final strategy, only 15 are completely new programs announced in the strategy.
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The other 71 are existing programs or initiatives that either already have a food loss and waste focus or that the national strategy has repackaged as food loss and waste solutions. While we had hopes of new, innovative programs being included in the strategy, the good news with these 71 programs is that most, if not all, are already funded, meaning that they are not reliant on an increasingly turbulent Congress for implementation. Of the 15 new programs, which included the EPA’s new consumer education campaign and several new cooperative agreements with land-grant universities, only 2 had specific funding mechanisms. It has become increasingly clear that food rescue organizations and other stakeholders in the food and agriculture space should not consider this strategy as a new rollout of FLW solutions, programs, and funding but rather as an evaluation of the current resources and solutions and how each can be most effectively utilized to achieve the strategy’s goals. In particular, the framing of many of USDA’s programs as FLW solutions offers opportunities to utilize existing funding, data, and infrastructure to solve one of the United States’s most pressing problems.
Whats next?
Now that we have the strategy, it’s time to truly take advantage of the opportunities it presents. In the immediate future at Farmlink, we’re excited to continue optimizing Section 32 as a critical on-farm food loss solution as we anticipate significant surplus recoveries in the fall. As we move forward, we continue to advocate for dignity with food distribution, emphasizing cultural appropriateness and quality in every pound of food we rescue. As outlined in our comments, food rescue organizations are critical stakeholders and thought partners for the agencies. Our inclusion in the strategy as such is an opportunity we are taking full advantage of to help guide federal action to support farmers, feed communities, and heal the planet.
< BackBeginning on November 18 and continuing through January 4, you may notice a familiar name while ordering Chipotle online or through the Chipotle App. We at The Farmlink Project are grateful and proud to partner with Chipotle to empower people all across the country to help provide meals to food-insecure families when buying a meal of their own. This holiday season, Chipotle customers are able to round up their purchase to the next-highest dollar as a donation to The Farmlink Project. But how does a nonprofit organization, one that is less than a year old and run largely by college students, find themselves in a partnership with Chipotle? This story begins in the early summer months when Farmlink Project team members Maxwell Goldman and Caroline Ricksen reached out to Chipotle in an email, crossing their fingers that someone might notice it and respond.
On a Sunday evening, about two months ago, they received a response asking to talk at 8:30 the next morning. Farmlink Project team members found themselves being interviewed by Chipotle, excited by the opportunity but unsure what they were being interviewed for. Two days later, Chipotle reached out and said they wanted The Farmlink Project to be a part of their new Round Up initiative. Chipotle had interviewed over twenty food waste organizations but wanted to partner with The Farmlink Project because of what makes us unique. Maxwell reflects on why Chipotle was drawn to The Farmlink Project, “Chipotle recognized that we are different; we haven’t been around forever, we have no overhead costs which means that every single dollar goes to rescuing food waste, and we are authentic—we make mistakes, but are hungry to learn.”
Through this partnership, Chipotle has seen aspects of their organization within The Farmlink Project. Although Chipotle has grown worldwide, it began as an ambitious start-up taqueria and continues to be an innovative and forward-thinking company today. “They saw us as scrappy, authentic, and tenacious and wanted to do everything they could to help us,” commented Maxwell. The relationship with Chipotle goes beyond just the Round Up event; they have been in constant communication with our team, generating new ideas and seeking more ways to support The Farmlink Project. Chipotle put The Farmlink Project in contact with all of their farmers across the country with the goal of moving any surplus these growers may produce to communities in need. Since this relationship began over the summer, Chipotle has shown its passion to make an impact in reducing hunger and food waste. Chipotle released their Real Foodprint calculator in October 2020—a sustainability impact tracker that compares average values for Chipotle’s ingredients to their competitors against five metrics: reduced carbon in atmosphere, gallons of water, improved soil health, organic land supported, and antibiotics avoided.
Although the Round Up event with Chipotle will not last forever, the relationship with Chipotle has strengthened The Farmlink Project as a whole, beyond just the contributions to our cause from Round Up donations. We are incredibly grateful for Chipotle’s support and belief in The Farmlink Project. Together, Chipotle and The Farmlink Project can help reduce hunger and food waste throughout the country.
Chipotle Partnership
Beginning on November 18 and continuing through January 4, you may notice a familiar name while ordering Chipotle online or through the Chipotle App. We at The Farmlink Project are grateful and proud to partner with Chipotle to empower people all across the country to help provide meals to food-insecure families when buying a meal of their own. This holiday season, Chipotle customers are able to round up their purchase to the next-highest dollar as a donation to The Farmlink Project. But how does a nonprofit organization, one that is less than a year old and run largely by college students, find themselves in a partnership with Chipotle? This story begins in the early summer months when Farmlink Project team members Maxwell Goldman and Caroline Ricksen reached out to Chipotle in an email, crossing their fingers that someone might notice it and respond.
On a Sunday evening, about two months ago, they received a response asking to talk at 8:30 the next morning. Farmlink Project team members found themselves being interviewed by Chipotle, excited by the opportunity but unsure what they were being interviewed for. Two days later, Chipotle reached out and said they wanted The Farmlink Project to be a part of their new Round Up initiative. Chipotle had interviewed over twenty food waste organizations but wanted to partner with The Farmlink Project because of what makes us unique. Maxwell reflects on why Chipotle was drawn to The Farmlink Project, “Chipotle recognized that we are different; we haven’t been around forever, we have no overhead costs which means that every single dollar goes to rescuing food waste, and we are authentic—we make mistakes, but are hungry to learn.”
Through this partnership, Chipotle has seen aspects of their organization within The Farmlink Project. Although Chipotle has grown worldwide, it began as an ambitious start-up taqueria and continues to be an innovative and forward-thinking company today. “They saw us as scrappy, authentic, and tenacious and wanted to do everything they could to help us,” commented Maxwell. The relationship with Chipotle goes beyond just the Round Up event; they have been in constant communication with our team, generating new ideas and seeking more ways to support The Farmlink Project. Chipotle put The Farmlink Project in contact with all of their farmers across the country with the goal of moving any surplus these growers may produce to communities in need. Since this relationship began over the summer, Chipotle has shown its passion to make an impact in reducing hunger and food waste. Chipotle released their Real Foodprint calculator in October 2020—a sustainability impact tracker that compares average values for Chipotle’s ingredients to their competitors against five metrics: reduced carbon in atmosphere, gallons of water, improved soil health, organic land supported, and antibiotics avoided.
Although the Round Up event with Chipotle will not last forever, the relationship with Chipotle has strengthened The Farmlink Project as a whole, beyond just the contributions to our cause from Round Up donations. We are incredibly grateful for Chipotle’s support and belief in The Farmlink Project. Together, Chipotle and The Farmlink Project can help reduce hunger and food waste throughout the country.
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