WasteLess Solutions expands Summit County effort to rescue food
WasteLess Solutions is pushing into Summit County with food rescue that could cut landfill waste and put edible surplus back into local kitchens. About 4,000 county residents face food insecurity.
WasteLess Solutions is widening its Summit County footprint by turning edible surplus from local businesses into meals for residents who cannot afford enough food. The model is simple on paper: collect excess food from grocery stores, restaurants, caterers and farmers, then move it through WasteLess markets or partner organizations before it becomes trash.
The stakes are far bigger than a feel-good donation drive. Utah Department of Health and Human Services data cited in the county discussion puts the number of Summit County residents experiencing food insecurity at roughly 4,000. Across Utah, about 1.32 billion pounds of fresh, edible food still ends up in landfills each year, a waste stream that hits resort communities especially hard because disposal, hauling and environmental stewardship all come with real costs.
Utah State University Extension’s Summit County fact sheet shows the county’s household food insecurity rate at 8 percent and child food insecurity at 5.2 percent. That compares with 9 percent statewide and 12 percent nationally, a reminder that Summit County’s high property values and busy tourism economy do not shield every household from grocery bills that are getting harder to absorb. Statewide, the extension says one in 10 Utah households experiences food insecurity, and more than 102,000 Utah families do not have the resources to buy enough food.
The county expansion also fits a larger waste-reduction push already underway in Park City. Park City Community Foundation launched its Zero Food Waste initiative in June 2024 with a goal of eliminating and diverting all food waste from the Summit County landfill by 2030, then backed that effort with a grant to WasteLess Solutions in September to expand food rescue locally. The foundation’s work includes curbside composting, a restaurant cohort, a community fridge pilot and countywide outreach, all of which depend on the same basic logic: keep usable material out of the landfill and move it into a system that serves people first.
WasteLess frames that approach through what it calls the Hierarchy of Food, which prioritizes feeding people, then animals, then composting what is left. That lines up with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Wasted Food Scale, an update to the older Food Recovery Hierarchy that still puts higher-value uses ahead of disposal. Lo Bannerman Dennis, the Summit County food rescue coordinator, said the organization began in Salt Lake County about eight years ago and has been working in Summit County for about a year. WasteLess says it has rescued more than $6 million worth of food statewide, and its recent launch of a Summit County community fridge suggests the local network is becoming more visible and more operational.
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