Westword's Second Members-Only Event Serves Up Food for Thought

A dozen years ago, Arlan Preblud loaded up the back of his Volvo station wagon with leftover party food and took it to a shelter; he and his wife were self-professed "foodies" with a busy social calendar, and they were tired of seeing so much good food going in the trash.

That was the humble start of We Don't Waste, a nonprofit whose mission is to feed people, not landfills. On Thursday, December 7, Preblud met up with Environmental Protection Agency officials at the nonprofit's new, 30,000 square-foot facility to host a tour and accept a three-year, $809,665 EPA grant to reduce food waste and methane emissions through education and community engagement. Hours later, he was at the Westword office, discussing his work at our second members-only event, where two dozen readers heard his origin story.

Since its start as a strictly volunteer effort, We Don't Waste has grown to 23 employees and numerous programs, including a partnership with Denver Public Schools. The new spot even has a classroom, where students can learn more about climate change and sustainability; one kid pointed out the hazards of methane to an EPA official, Preblud told the Westword gathering.
Also on the bill: Pete Marczyk, who founded Marczyk Fine Foods more than twenty years ago and has helped Denver discover how delicious responsibly sourced food can be. As he spoke to the group about the challenges facing small businesses (even those that have won Best of Denver awards, as Marczyk has), a platter of sandwiches — on bread Marczyk learned to make when he couldn't find the quality he wanted in town — certainly did not go to waste. And Molly Martin, our Food & Drink Editor who'd just finished the annual "Eat Here" of a hundred metro Denver restaurants we don't want to live without, described the process of coming up with that list — and also fielded questions from the group.

We'd invited Preblud and Marcyzk to to speak at this gathering because they both are inspirational examples of how in Denver, people with a good idea can fight seemingly insurmountable odds and do good as they make their dream a reality. A dream like saving food, or selling food...or starting a newspaper.

But while Westword is free — both online and in print — journalism is not. To help boost editorial efforts in uncertain times, Westword started a membership program five years ago. Lily Black, our new membership manager, shared details of that program with this members-only gathering, too. For the month of December, for example, the Denver Media Project is matching the first $5,000 in member contributions through its #newsCOneeds program.

Although that deal ends in two weeks, Westword's membership program will continue — and so will special events such as the Westword collaboration with Odell Brewing that resulted in the debut of Westword Wheat at Odell's Sloan's Lake outpost on December 15.

We'll drink to that! In the meantime, you can send suggestion for the next members-only event to [email protected]; find information on the Westword membership program here.