Reducing Waste and Feeding the Roaring Fork Valley

Food rescue redirects safe, high-quality surplus food from businesses to people who can use it. In the Roaring Fork Valley, Harvest for Hunger founder Gray Warr rescues food from grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, hotels, and local events, then redistributes it through a stigma-free pantry and hunger-relief partners serving neighbors experiencing food insecurity.

Every week, Warr rescues 2,000 pounds of food from grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, and hotels throughout the Roaring Fork Valley for redistribution to local residents facing food insecurity. He collects day-old loaves of bread and other baked goods, oddly shaped produce, ready-to-eat meals, and other foods nearing their “sell by” or expiration dates.

Rescued items also include refrigerated juices, tea, coffee, eggs, cheese, and milk — perfectly good-to-eat foods that would otherwise go to waste.

Key Takeaways

• Harvest for Hunger rescues approximately 2,000 pounds of food each week from Roaring Fork Valley businesses.
• The organization rescued 67,000 pounds of food in its first year and 107,000 pounds in its second year.
• Rescued foods include baked goods, produce, ready-to-eat meals, eggs, cheese, milk, refrigerated beverages, and other usable items.
• Harvest for Hunger partners with Food Bank of the Rockies, Aspen Family Connections, and LIFT-UP to help distribute food locally.
• The Snowmass food pantry is open five days a week, eight hours a day, and serves children, adults, parents, older adults, service workers, and other local residents.
• Food rescue helps keep edible food out of landfills while helping neighbors access food close to home.

What Is Food Rescue?

Food rescue is the collection and redistribution of food that is still safe and suitable for people to eat but might otherwise go unused. Surplus food can come from grocery stores, restaurants, hotels, bakeries, farms, events, vacation rentals, and other businesses.

Food may become available because of overstock, cosmetic imperfections, event leftovers, seasonal changes, packaging updates, or date labels. Food rescue helps redirect these items before they are discarded.

Food rescue is different from distributing food that is spoiled or unsafe. Organizations involved in food rescue evaluate donations before making them available to neighbors, and products that cannot be safely used are not distributed.

Harvest for Hunger by the Numbers

Harvest for Hunger’s local impact has grown quickly since its founding:

• 2,000 pounds of food rescued each week from Roaring Fork Valley businesses
• 67,000 pounds of food rescued in its first year
• 107,000 pounds of food rescued in its second year
• More than 4,000 pounds rescued from the Aspen Food and Wine Festival alone
• Food also collected from events including the Aspen Ideas Festival
• Snowmass food pantry open five days a week, eight hours a day
• Households served by the Snowmass food pantry grew from 240 in January 2024 to more than 550

These numbers show how local food rescue can grow from a simple idea into a community-wide response to food waste and food insecurity.

Why Food Rescue Matters in the Roaring Fork Valley

Mountain resort communities can experience food waste and food insecurity at the same time. Hotels, restaurants, events, vacation rentals, and grocery stores may have surplus food, while many local workers and families face high housing costs, transportation barriers, and limited food budgets.

In the Roaring Fork Valley, Warr sees this contrast firsthand.

“We have so much food; it’s amazing,” Warr said. “We’re serving lift operators, housekeepers, people doing any service job where they might be earning $15 an hour while paying $4,000 a month in rent. A lot of people drive from Rifle, Silt, and New Castle to the Roaring Fork Valley to work.”

Food rescue helps address both sides of that equation. It gives businesses a way to redirect usable food and gives local residents another way to access groceries, prepared foods, and other items that might otherwise be out of reach.

How Harvest for Hunger Rescues and Redistributes Food

Harvest for Hunger’s food-rescue model is built around local relationships and consistent pickups.

The process generally works like this:

1. Local businesses identify surplus food that is still usable.
2. Harvest for Hunger collects food from grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants, hotels, events, and other businesses.
3. Rescued food is sorted and directed to the Snowmass food pantry or local hunger-relief partners.
4. Food Bank of the Rockies helps supplement rescued food with shelf-stable items and other groceries.
5. Neighbors access food through the Snowmass pantry, mobile pantries, LIFT-UP, and other local partners.

This type of coordinated local effort helps move food quickly from businesses to people who can use it.

From Vacation Leftovers to Local Food Rescue

A native of Columbia, South Carolina, Warr moved to Snowmass in 2012 to teach snowboarding. When his snowboard clients began offering him their leftover food at the end of their stays — food he gladly accepted — it occurred to Warr there must be a lot wasted when tourists leave town.

In 2020, he founded Harvest for Hunger with the idea of collecting the leftovers to give to area food pantries.

“When the COVID pandemic hit I saw these opportunities,” he said. “I saw a lot of food going to waste. I just decided to try something, and it has grown.”

However, collecting food via word of mouth from vacationers proved to be inefficient. Some people called with offers of open containers of unusable food.

“I could only use 25% of what was given,” Warr recalled.

At the same time Warr was launching Harvest for Hunger, he was also volunteering at a Food Bank of the Rockies mobile pantry in Aspen, where he worked with Katherine Sand, director of Aspen Family Connections, a Pitkin County family resource center. She suggested he collect food by going to the source — grocery stores and restaurants.

Warr heeded Sand’s advice and began driving around to various Roaring Fork Valley businesses.

“I went from picking up small amounts [of food] to 500-2,000 pounds every time I did a route,” Warr said. “The first year, I rescued 67,000 pounds of food.”

In that first year, with the help of grants from the Aspen Community Foundation and the Karl Arthur Severson Foundation, Warr was able to purchase an all-wheel van for Harvest for Hunger, further aiding his efforts.

In Harvest for Hunger’s second year of operating, Warr diverted 107,000 pounds — nearly 54 tons — of food from the waste stream, including more than 4,000 pounds from the Aspen Food and Wine Festival alone. He’s also collected leftover food from the Aspen Ideas Festival.

A Stigma-Free Food Pantry in Snowmass

Along with operating Harvest for Hunger, Warr also began partnering with Food Bank of the Rockies to provide food for its mobile pantries in El Jebel. He also supplies food to LIFT-UP, a Rifle-based nonprofit that supports food pantries in Aspen, Carbondale, Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Rifle, and Parachute. LIFT-UP is also a Hunger Relief Partner of Food Bank of the Rockies.

On December 26, 2023, Warr took his hunger-relief efforts a step further by founding a food pantry in Snowmass, located inside Snowmass Town Hall. The pantry is open five days a week, eight hours a day — a rarity in the world of food pantries.

“Not only that, but our food pantry is stigma-free,” Warr explained. “There’s no data collection, we won’t look over your shoulder, we’re not checking immigration status or financials. If you’re hungry, we want you to eat. Some people are living paycheck to paycheck. I feel if you need food, you should get it. You can go there on your way to work or on your lunch hour.”

Kids, adults, parents, and older adults all use the Snowmass food pantry. Since January 2024, the pantry has more than doubled the number of households it serves, from 240 to more than 550.

It’s something Warr is extremely passionate about, observed Sand, who added that Warr is vocal in his belief that there should be no barriers when it comes to food.

“He’s passionate about this stigma-free food pantry in Snowmass where there is such a need,” she said.

How Food Bank of the Rockies Supports Harvest for Hunger

As a Hunger Relief Partner, Harvest for Hunger purchases some of its food items at a discount from Food Bank of the Rockies. The groceries Warr purchases — including shelf-stable canned goods like corn, beans, and tomatoes, as well as pasta and staples — supplement what he collects from food rescue.

This partnership helps Harvest for Hunger offer a broader mix of food. Rescued items such as produce, baked goods, dairy products, and ready-to-eat foods can be paired with pantry staples that help households prepare meals.

Food Bank of the Rockies also supports mobile pantries and Hunger Relief Partners throughout the region, helping strengthen the network of local organizations working to reduce hunger.

Keeping Food Out of Landfills

Nationally, food waste is a major environmental and social challenge. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that approximately one-third of the food produced in the United States is never eaten. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that food waste accounts for 30% to 40% of the U.S. food supply.

When food is wasted, the water, energy, fertilizer, land, labor, packaging, and transportation used to produce and move that food are wasted as well. Food that decomposes in landfills can also produce methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Food rescue helps put edible food to its intended use: feeding people.

Before Warr started his food-rescue work, “there was no one in this area rescuing food,” said Sand. “He had the energy and imagination. As a country, we waste a huge amount of food. In just our valley, Gray is reducing the waste by hundreds of thousands of pounds. He’s keeping it out of the landfill and supporting people who need it.”

Frequently Asked Questions About Food Rescue in the Roaring Fork Valley