Food Rescue & Upcycling Day in Echo Park
👋 Join Us!
Food is not garbage but we treat it like trash! How we deal with our kitchen scraps, industrial food waste, and food that’s gone bad can help us save money, energy, and cultivate a more resilient food system. As part of the Food Sustainability Track of LA Climate Week, Seeds of Hope is hosting a full day dedicated to Food Rescue & Upcycling. Enjoy scrappy cooking demos, upcycling innovations, and composting workshops with local food hubs, upcycling activists, and food waste pioneers. Register here for the full Food Rescue & Upcycling Day AND check out the rest of the Food Sustainability focused LA Climate Week events.
🤙 About Event
Every year, millions of pounds of perfectly good food go to waste—food that could nourish communities and help combat climate change. Food Rescue & Upcycling Day is a full day of LA Climate Week sessions exploring innovative ways to transform food waste into solutions. Through cooking demos, sustainability panels, and composting workshops, we’ll discover how rescued food can be repurposed into delicious meals, how upcycled ingredients can become more sustainable materials, and how composting contributes to healthier communities. Gain practical tools to reduce food waste in Los Angeles so we can turn food scraps into food resilience, rethink sustainability, and build a future where nothing goes to waste. 🌍♻️🍽
🗓 Food Rescue & Upcycling Day Agenda:
9:00am – Tabling Upcycled Food Showcase
10:00am – Hollywood Food Coalition: Rescued Food Scrap Cooking Demo
11:15 am – Harvesting Change: How Food Forward Rescues LA’s Abundance
12:30pm – Food x Climate: Upcycled + Sustainable Food Innovation
3:00pm – Universal Waste Systems - Food Disposal + Rescue + Compost
4:00pm – Community Compost Club with Special Guest: Food ED Compost Critters
🙌 Event Hosts
Seeds of Hope cultivates wellness and food justice by helping communities reconnect with fresh, healthy food. We distribute more than 70,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables weekly, establish community gardens, and provide education on gardening, composting, healthy cooking, and food preservation to increase nutrition and minimize food waste.
Food Forward rescues fresh surplus produce that would otherwise go to waste and connects it to people experiencing food insecurity across Southern California. Since 2009, they’ve recovered over 350 million pounds of fruits and vegetables through backyard harvests, farmers markets, and wholesale recovery — building a more just, resilient, and waste-free food system.
Food x Climate is a group of climate-minded food innovators and activists seeking solutions to one of the most critical yet underserved areas of the climate fight: Food and Climate. Current estimates suggest that we can do everything else right and still lose the fight for a healthy environment if we don’t sufficiently decarbonize food!
Hollywood Food Coalition The mission of Hollywood Food Coalition is to nourish the community by rescuing and distributing food, preparing nightly meals, and uniting efforts to achieve food equity. We welcome people to dinner each night. We rescue and redistribute food daily to other organizations. We care for our immediate community through our wellness program. We build community with and through our volunteers and community partnerships. Our vision is a city where everyone has food, community, and support.
Universal Waste Systems exists to provide outstanding quality waste stream solutions for a clean and healthy environment for communities we serve by applying innovative solutions to the challenges of today and tomorrow. UWS is one of the largest family owned and operated companies in the West. Our business model is simple: customers are always #1. We pride ourselves on excellent customer service, and a hands-on management approach.
Food ED is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization collaborating with San Gabriel Valley communities and schools to construct and sustain edible education sites hosting programs on ecosystem stewardship, healthy living, and environmental innovation and entrepreneurship. Our mission is to create programs that utilize gardens to inspire community building, problem solving, and stewardship rather than just growing food. We reimagine school and community gardens alongside our partners. We want to integrate holistic learning and STEAM education as well as innovative entrepreneurship programs in a dynamic way across K-12 education. We desire to incorporate the community-at-large into the work by opening the gardens to families and community members to learn about environmental stewardship, eco-justice, and healthy living practices through gardening, nature, and cooking workshops.
☝️General Notice
By registering for this event, or any other event organized by Seeds of Hope or by attending, you are acknowledging that you are aware and made your guests aware of the risks, dangers, and hazards associated with any group activity. You accept, and fully assume all such risks, dangers, and hazards, and further agree to release, and discharge the Organizer, Assistant Organizers, and Event Hosts from, and against any, and all liability arising from your and your guest's participation in the group activities.
By registering for this event, you consent to the use of photos, videos, or other media taken during the event for promotional purposes.
By registering for this event, you agree to share your registration information with the LA Climate Week Organizers.