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Local nonprofit urges Murray to partner on food-rescue infrastructure
Summary
Waste Less Solutions told Murray City Council it rescues surplus food across four counties, serves hundreds of nonprofits and volunteers, and is seeking city help to connect with event permitting and secure a small local storage/prep space to scale weekend and holiday rescues.
Alex Fuller, chief executive officer of Murray-based nonprofit Waste Less Solutions, asked the Murray City Council on July 7 to consider formal partnership steps to expand the group’s volunteer food-rescue work.
“We are dedicated to the education, prevention, and diversion of food waste here in Utah,” Fuller said in a 15-minute presentation. She told the council that roughly 600,000 tons of food are wasted annually in Utah, that about 16% of children face food insecurity, and that reducing food waste is “one of the largest things that you can do to lessen your carbon footprint.”
Fuller described a volunteer-driven Food Rescue US platform that her group uses to collect surplus from restaurants, caterers, grocery stores, farmers markets and events. Since 2018, Waste Less Solutions has operated out of a Murray coworking space and has routed rescued food to partners including the YWCA, the Boys & Girls Club, homeless shelters and senior centers. Fuller said the nonprofit has more than 600 volunteers across several counties and has rescued more than 3 million pounds of food—equating, by her estimate, to more than 2.5 million meals.
She asked the city to consider three concrete supports: (1) including Waste Less Solutions in the event-permitting process so the group can be notified and prepared to collect surplus from large events; (2) connecting the organization early in the permitting process for new restaurants so waste-reduction systems are set up from opening; and (3) helping identify or provide small, near-term infrastructure (a fridge/freezer and short-term storage or certified kitchen space) where the nonprofit could stage large weekend deliveries.
Fuller said the organization already conducts mobile markets, operates a rented kitchen in Murray for meal prep, and distributes roughly 500 pounds of food at each mobile market. She also noted logistical limits: Waste Less does not serve individuals directly but matches donors to nonprofit recipients, and non-distributable food is diverted to partners for composting or animal feed when it cannot be safely delivered to people.
Council members asked about partnerships with existing pantries and where non-distributable food is routed. Fuller said Waste Less has relationships with about 150 nonprofits and is developing composting and animal-feed pathways with local schools, farms and community gardens. She also welcomed further council suggestions about sites and permitting changes that would streamline pickups.
The council did not take formal action on the presentation; Fuller closed by offering contact information and a request that staff explore ways to coordinate event permitting and restaurant outreach with her group.
