A Big Win for Waste: Food Rescue Program Nears 100,000-Pound Mark at Gaylord National

How a two-year push turned leftover convention food into community meals

After nearly two years of steady work, the Food Recovery Network (FRN) and Gaylord National are closing in on a meaningful milestone: almost 100,000 pounds of surplus food diverted from the trash and redirected to local charities. The effort started as a small pilot tied to conventions and events at the National Harbor property. Over time it has grown into a reliable rhythm of nightly collections, volunteer shifts and partnerships with area shelters and food banks.

For people who pass the Gaylord National complex on busy event nights, the change is simple but powerful: trays that would have been tossed are packaged and picked up, ready to feed families instead of filling landfills. That human payoff — warm food on a table — is the point that has kept the project running and growing.

Day-to-day: who does what and how the program keeps up with big events

The program runs like a small logistics operation embedded inside a large hospitality venue. Event planners and culinary teams at Gaylord National identify surplus food during or after events. Gaylord staff then package safe, reusable items and set them aside in a designated holding area. FRN volunteers and staff make scheduled pickups, transport the food in insulated containers, and deliver it to prearranged nonprofit partners within the same day.

On the Gaylord side, the biggest tasks are sorting and safe storage. Staff must decide what can be rescued, quickly chill hot items when needed, and label packages so the receiving organizations know what they will get. FRN focuses on the last-mile work: training volunteers, arranging transport, and matching donations to charities that can use them right away.

Scale matters here. When a convention runs many track sessions or a trade show closes with a boxed-lunch surplus, the partners scale up the number of volunteers and trips. For smaller banquets or weddings, one or two pickups are enough. The system is flexible, and that flexibility makes it fit the unpredictable pace of event venues.

Counting the impact: pounds, meals and the pace toward 100,000

The program is now approaching the 100,000-pound mark after about two years of activity. That works out to an average of roughly 4,000 pounds of food rescued each month — a steady clip given how seasonal convention traffic can be.

In human terms, those pounds translate into tens of thousands of meals. Many food-rescue groups use a simple one-for-one rule of thumb — one pound is about one meal — so the work at Gaylord National is already providing a large number of ready-to-eat portions for area shelters, meal programs and food pantries. Compared with the first months of the partnership, when pickups were ad hoc and smaller, the current program is far more frequent and predictable.

Moments that show the program in action

Some recoveries stand out. After a multi-day industry conference, volunteers collected trays of boxed lunches that would otherwise have been boxed for the trash; those went straight to a nearby family shelter the same afternoon. At a holiday banquet, overstocked platters of sandwiches and desserts were bundled and delivered to a youth-serving nonprofit that used them for evening meals. Even smaller wins matter: a single wedding’s extra buffet spread meant a week’s worth of dinners for a local senior center.

Those stories make the numbers feel real: food that could have been wasted instead kept people fed that same day.

What leaders say and where the work goes next

FRN and Gaylord National spokespeople framed the milestone as proof that simple systems can scale. “This partnership shows what happens when hotels, event teams and community groups work together,” said a representative for Food Recovery Network. “Volunteers, staff and our nonprofit partners have turned potential waste into immediate food for neighbors in need.”

A Gaylord National executive added: “Sustainability is part of how we run our property now. The collaboration with FRN reduces waste, helps the community and fits with our larger event operations. We’re exploring ways to expand the program to more properties and more events next year.”

How other communities can follow this lead

The model is straightforward and repeatable: venues identify surplus early, set aside safe storage space, and connect with a local food-rescue group that can make quick pickups. For nonprofits, the ask is to be ready to receive variable donations on short notice. Volunteers matter: a reliable pool of people who can move food the same day makes the whole chain work.

For towns and venues looking to replicate the success, the lesson is practical: build the simple steps into event plans. When that happens, leftover food becomes a predictable community resource rather than a waste problem.

Sources

• prnewswire.com