Dana Gunders

Dana Gunders has dedicated her career to catalyzing national awareness of the scale of food waste and to working with industry, policymakers and consumers to activate successful solutions. Her work is helping food businesses and farmers reduce waste in their operations and promoting the adoption of sustainable practices to reduce both the 73.9 million that ends up in U.S landfills and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with that waste.  

To bring attention to the scale of unsold or uneaten food that becomes waste but still requires resources to grow, harvest, transport, cool, cook or otherwise prepare, Ms. Gunders authored the 2012 groundbreaking report “Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill” while working as a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. In partnership with the Ad Council, she helped launch the Save The Food campaign, providing consumers with simple strategies to reduce waste in their own kitchens.  

Ms. Gunders is president of ReFED, a national think tank that fosters data-informed action and works with food businesses, farmers, policymakers, researchers and funders to address the problem of food waste. ReFED’s most recent report, “From Surplus to Solutions: 2025 ReFED U.S. Food Waste Report,” estimates 31% of the nation’s food supply is wasted annually.  

A founding member of the Zero Food Waste Coalition, ReFED also educates policymakers on the impact of solutions such as organic waste bans, which a growing number of states have enacted, and standardized date labels, recently introduced at the federal level to reduce consumer confusion and unnecessary waste.  

In addition to her work with ReFED, Ms. Gunders is the author of the Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook and continues to bring broad attention to the issue of food waste — and data-driven solutions — through testimony before Congress and media appearances.