A city-led program is urging Denver restaurants to cut food waste through a 12-week challenge that offers free help, which could boost tight restaurant profit margins.
The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE) started the original Denver Restaurant Food Waste Challenge in 2019. The program stopped during the COVID-19 pandemic, but just began again in the fall of 2025. After a huge success with businesses like Restaurant Olivia, they’re looking for participants for a cohort that begins February 2.
Participants receive on-site technical assistance, operational audits and a customized action plan to reduce waste. The business that accrues the most points by hitting food waste goals throughout the competition wins bragging rights and social media exposure, but every participating business will learn how to reduce food waste as well as business costs.
“We estimate that about 30% of food that is produced in the U.S. is wasted,” Lesly Baesens, food waste program coordinator for DDPHE, said. “We literally go in the restaurants and look at their operations, ask them some questions about, ‘where do they see currently waste occurring?’”…