JACKSON, Wyo. — From dumpster diving to rescuing millions of pounds of food, Hole Food Rescue (HFR) has come a long way in the past 10 years, evolving to meet community needs and continuing to keep food out of landfills.
“We’re a little scrappy,” Hannah Cooley, executive director of Hole Food Rescue, said. “We literally started from the dumpster.”
Working her way up from a volunteer, gaining experience in almost every aspect of the organization, Cooley stepped into the role of Executive Director in 2022 filling the shoes of founder Ali Dunford.
“She [Dunford] unintentionally prepared me for this role, we worked very closely together,” Cooley said.
It all started when Dunford was in her early 20s, new to Jackson and living near the Jackson Whole Grocer, now home to Whole Foods. Dunford noticed that perfectly good food was ending up in the dumpster. She began grabbing what was salvageable, cooking it up for friends and hosting dinner parties.
“It got to a point where her friends were like, okay you gotta do something,” Cooley explained.
Hole Food Rescue started on June 24, 2013, when Dunford did the first official food rescue from Jackson Whole Grocer as a subsidiary of the Jackson Cupboard. By 2015, Hole Food Rescue became its own 501(c)(3) non-profit.
“Across the board, this is a stigma-free environment.”
Hannah Cooley, executive director of Hole Food Rescue
Today, an estimated 200 volunteers participate in the organization, rescuing food, weighing it in and packing it to be distributed. Any food that can’t be redistributed in the community is sent to Haderlie Farms to be used as animal feed.
“Volunteers are the backbone of the organization,” Cooley said.
As the organization and its programs continue to expand, Cooley says her goal is to help foster growth in an intentional way.
“It’s important to not just make decisions on behalf of those you are serving but include them in the decision-making process,” Cooley said. “Giving participants leadership roles in the organization, that’s something that could be expanded more. It’s going to take time, but that’s not a concern.”
Cooley explained that at the beginning, HFR was rescuing food and distributing it to other non-profits but a question kept arising; “How do we get closer ties to the individual and a better understanding of what they want out of the programs?”
In 2019, HFR launched the Sprout Summer Lunch Program, in collaboration with One22. Then when the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to set in, the “no-cost grocery” program evolved into “Food for the Community/ Comida de la Comunidad,” which distributes food directly to community members.
“Seventy percent of rescued food is distributed through the Food for the Community program,” Cooley explained.
There are nine Food for the Community pickup locations around town that operate at varying times and days to work with a variety of schedules. Pickup times are as early as 11:30 a.m. (Senior Center, Thursdays and Fridays) or as late as 8 p.m., (Teton Free Clinic, Tuesdays).
According to Teton County School District #1, 20% of children enrolled, or about 500 children, are eligible to receive free or reduced-priced lunches at school. When summer comes around the need still exists and the Sprout Summer Lunch Program aims to fill this gap.
The Sprout Mobile visits six locations across town; three on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and three on Tuesdays and Thursdays starting at 10:30 a.m. HFR has also created a “Sprout Stand” which offers free lunches at Karl Johnson Mobile Home Park, Blair Place Apartments and Evans Mobile Home Court, from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday for added accessibility.
When the school year starts, HFR offers free weekend food bags that include fruits and vegetables, easy-to-prepare meals and kid-friendly snacks. The bags have a number of delivery options, directly to homes, pick up at the hub or given discreetly to a child after school.
“Food rescue is so unknown,” Cooley said, about the items they receive but, “things we value and prioritize are fresh produce, bread, milk and frozen meat.”
None of the programs offered through Hole Food Rescue requires qualification of any kind.
“Across the board, this is a stigma-free environment,” Cooley said.
With no intake forms, it’s harder to gauge exactly how many people benefit from the program but that exact metric isn’t the most important thing to Cooley.
“There is a significant amount of need within the community,” Cooley explained. “Last year, the national free and reduced-priced lunch program retracted free lunch for all students. Families are now required to enroll and eligibility is based on the national income levels.”
“A family of four, making $50,000 a year, doesn’t qualify for free lunch in Teton County,” Cooley said, but HFR’s Sprout Summer Lunch Program and Sprout Weekend Food Bags aim to help fill these gaps.
“Right now we are seeing about 1,300 individual visits per month at our Food for the Community sites, which is estimated to be about 200 families,” Cooley said.
From 2022 to 2023 HFR saw a 20% increase in participation through the Food for the Community program.
“As far as we know, there are no additional grocery stores coming to Jackson,” Cooley said. “The goal now is to strengthen those existing partnerships with stores in order to prevent food waste and to cultivate food security in our community.”
