Catalytic Grants to support Food Waste Solution Providers

The Catalytic Grant Fund is focused on accelerating the adoption of food waste solutions for restaurants. They’re looking for proven or pilot-ready solutions that are simple, affordable, and convenient to implement and/or have a strong business case for small to medium-sized independent restaurants – including increased cost savings, improved staff retention, higher customer acquisition, and more.

And to bolster the catalytic nature of this open call, they’re excited to announce that a subset of the selected grantees will get a unique opportunity to pilot their solution with restaurants.

Funding Information

It anticipates the average grant size to be approximately $100,000 to $250,000.

Requirements

• Proposals for this open call must demonstrate the following in their Letter of Intent in order to be considered for funding:
  • Are pilot-ready OR successfully implementing proven solutions and best practices in restaurants
  • Can reduce restaurant food waste in a simple, affordable, and convenient way and/or demonstrate a strong business case
  • Be operating in the United States OR seeking funding to expand to the United States.
• Proposals that could be a strong fit for this open call could include but are not limited to:
  • Solutions that can be easily integrated into existing operations that can compare restaurants’ inventory and sales
  • Modular, refrigerated storage systems to store otherwise wasted byproducts and surplus food for pick-up
  • Solutions to support standardized, consistent portioning when plating food
  • Co-branding opportunities, particularly ones that maximize the value of commonly wasted byproducts and trim in restaurant settings (e.g., coffee grounds, citrus peels, egg shells, etc.) such as upcycling solutions
  • Implementation of varying serving sizes (e.g., full serving, half serving)
  • Solutions to address waste generated on the line in full-service restaurants, where there typically isn’t space for a compost bin
  • AI-powered robots that can minimize prep trim and cut labor costs
  • New food donation, composting, upcycling models, etc. that offer a hassle-free pick-up system (could also offer feedback loops to restaurants with actionable insights on how much and what types of foods they’re diverting from landfill, and/or a compelling economic advantage for restaurants)

Ineligible

• Research proposals
• Advocacy or policy-related proposals
• Traditional food donation and compost pick-up services (unless the services incorporate an innovative aspect that remove the existing challenges that has limited restaurant uptake such as costliness and capacity to store food until pick-up)
• Proposals that do not directly reduce pre or post-consumer food waste in restaurant settings

For more information, visit ReFED.