Food Tank

Food Tank: The Think Tank for Food is a global non-profit community working towards positive transformation in how food is produced and consumed. Founded in 2013,^[1] it is a research and advocacy organization that educates, advocates, and collaborates with local partners to amplify on-the-ground solutions.^[2]

In 2015, Food Tank launched its first Food Tank Summit in Washington, D.C. Since then, Food Tank has been holding a series of summits in various cities focused on sustainability and equity in food systems.^[3] Food Tank has hosted summits in Boston,^[4] Chicago,^[5] New York City,^[6] Sacramento,^[7] San Francisco,^[8] Seattle,^[9] and Washington, D.C.^[10] The conferences gather experts across all sectors of the food industry including business, government, nonprofit organizations, farmers, unions, and chefs.

Food Tank has hosted annual programming at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) since 2021, discussing how food and agriculture offer solutions to the climate crisis. At COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, Food Tank partnered with Aleph Farms and Nourish Scotland for a discussion around "A New Approach to Meat".^[11][12] Food Tank also partnered with organizations like Compassion in World Farming,^[13] ProVeg International,^[14] CGIAR,^[15] and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA)^[16] at COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, COP28 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Topics range from sustainable meat^[17] to the role of finance in transforming the food system.^[18] The events have included a journalists' lunch^[19] with the Future Economy Forum.^[20]

Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg has also joined discussions at various Pavilions within the COP Blue Zone, including the panels on food security at the Food Systems Pavilion^[21] and the intersection of food waste and climate change at the Penn Pavilion and Nordic Pavilion.^[22][23]

Food Tank hosts and participates in annual programming at Climate Week NYC. The events explore food and agriculture as key solutions to the climate crisis, hosted with organizations like Wholechain, WWF, NYU Steinhardt, the UN Global Compact Ocean Accelerator Network, Envisible LLC, the UN Environment Programme, and ReFED.^[24][25] Events have included a discussion around the film "Food Inc 2" with Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, and Eric Schlosser,^[26] and a summit around climate resilience through agriculture with the American Farmland Trust.^[27] In 2025, Food Tank will host a performance of "Little Peasants," an immersive play about a union-organizing effort at a coffeehouse.^[28]

Food Tank convened an official listening session in the lead-up to the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health in 2022.^[29][30] The session explored the theme "Dismantling Silos to Strengthen Nutrition and Food Security Research" and key takeaways were compiled into a formal report for the White House's consideration as they develop a strategy to end hunger, increase healthy eating and physical activity, and eliminate disparities.

Food Tank joined a coalition of non-governmental organizations and institutions including the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic, WeightWatchers International Inc., Grubhub and the Natural Resources Defense Council^[31] to help build bipartisan support for the Food Donation Improvement Act, which was signed into law in January 2023.^[32] Food Tank's efforts included convening an event on Capitol Hill in partnership with WW, Bread for the World, the Harvard Law School Food Law and Policy Clinic (FLPC), and The Healthy Living Coalition where lawmakers, policy experts, and advocates fighting food waste called on Congress to pass the legislation.^[33]

The organization's website is a publishing platform for news about the food industry and system, and it also provides research and analysis with the goal of building a science-based foundation for changing the food system.^[34] Topics covered include sustainable agriculture, climate change, food waste, urban agriculture, and policy and organizing.^[35]

In 2014, Food Tank partnered with the James Beard Foundation to publish an annual "Good Food Org Guide," a comprehensive directory of nonprofit organizations that are working toward a better food system.^[36]

In 2018, Food Tank launched an original podcast, Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg, on which Nierenberg invites chefs, experts, and activists to outline their ideal food system and how their projects are making a better food system more attainable.^[37]

Food Tank hosts annual programming at the Sundance Film Festival. In January 2023, Food Tank collaborated with The Lodge at Blue Sky Auberge Resort and Fed by Blue to host a three-day event of screenings, tastings, talks, and live music. The event included a screening of and discussion about "Hope in the Water," a docuseries produced by celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern, Brian Peter Falk, and David E. Kelly about the foods that come from the Earth's bodies of water, including wetlands, streams, and lakes.^[38]

On January 20, 2024, Food Tank hosted a day of discussions during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, around the relationship between climate change and the food system.^[39] Topics included Indigenous foods, food as medicine, the intersections of food and technology, the potential of restaurants in community revitalization, with celebrity speakers including Kimbal Musk and Chef Susan Feniger.^[40]

WeCameToDance is Food Tank's interactive original musical about the climate crisis. It was developed by Creative Producer Bernard Pollack^[41] with choreography by House of Jack,^[42] original language by David Peterson of Game of Thrones,^[43] and original music by Rocky Dawuni.^[44] The show debuted a month-long run at 2021 Edinburgh Fringe Festival^[45] and is commissioned perform at the U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.^[46]

During its initial run, WeCameToDance was featured in the New York Times,^[47] The List,^[48] Scotsman,^[42] The Herald (Scotland),^[49] and Edinburgh Reporter^[50] and the cast performed live on Good Morning Britain, Al Jazeera, and the BBC.^[51]

In 2024, Food Tank debuted Little Peasants, an immersive theatrical showcase by playwright Bernard Pollack and director Dori A. Robinson that spotlights how baristas at a fictional chain called Unicorn Coffee come together to unionize.^[52] The audience gains firsthand experience with employer and employee struggles during a unionizing campaign by participating in a meeting with the baristas during the show. At the end, the audience decides if Unicorn Coffee unionizes and the workers and managers must abide by their decision.^[53]

A one-act iteration of Little Peasants was previously featured at SXSW in March 2023, where it received critical acclaim and multiple standing ovations.^[54]