That Pivotal Moment Every Young Nonprofit Dreams Of. Now, Let’s See What We Can Grow. 🌱

Written By Adrienne Anghelone

Summit County's CAFE Food Rescue joins the inaugural class of Katz Amsterdam's Catalyst Grant Program, with $450,000 over three years.

If you’ve ever built something from scratch, you know the feeling.

Every young nonprofit carries the same quiet questions. Can we keep this going? Can we hire the people we need? When the next grocery store calls with a truckload of good food, will we have the hands to say yes?

You keep going anyway, because the work matters. But those questions never quite go away.

This week, for the first time in a long time, we get to exhale.

The Big News: A $450,000 Catalyst Grant

CAFE Food Rescue has been selected for the inaugural class of the Catalyst Grant Program, a new initiative from the Katz Amsterdam Foundation and Charitable Trust. We’ll receive $450,000 over three years in general operating support.

We’re one of just seven organizations across Summit County, Eagle County, and Park City, Utah, chosen for this first class. We’re still letting that sink in.

Why This One is Different

Most grants fund a specific project for a single year. This one gives us something rarer: time, trust and room to grow

Three years of flexible support means we can plan ahead instead of just keeping up. It means we can grow our team, bring on more food donor partners, and get even more good food from local grocers, restaurants and event centers onto our neighbors’ tables.

Imagine a donor who puts your mind at ease, not so you can slow down, but so you can finally do the work the way it deserves to be done. That’s what Katz Amsterdam just gave us.

How Far Food Rescue in Summit County Has Come

CAFE Food Rescue started with our founder, Diane Calvin, picking up and dropping off food herself during the pandemic. Since 2022, we’ve turned more than 585,000 pounds of surplus food into the equivalent of 438,000 meals for local families.

In a county of about 30,000 residents and roughly 7 million visitors a year, there’s a lot of good surplus food that could end up in the landfill. And there are a lot of neighbors who could use it.

“Food recovery engages the community to take care of their neighbors. CAFE provides the framework and logistics so that our neighbors can help each other.”
— Diane Calvin, Founder and Executive Director, CAFE Food Rescue

CAFE is a connector in the community. This funding will not only help us, but every Free Food Access partner, Food Donor, Volunteer, neighbor, and CAFE Collaborator. Together, we are not just moving food, but we are building a more equitable food system and enacting climate justice at the same time. 

From Slow and Steady to Full Steam Ahead

Here’s the thing about a moment to breathe: it doesn’t mean we’re slowing down.

We’ve always known what was possible. We could see the need. But like a lot of young organizations, we played it safe. We grew slow and steady and purposefully held off on some bold steps we knew could make a real difference simply because we did not have funding.

Over the next three years, we finally get to pick up speed with strategic confidence. This building period isn't just about rescuing more food and deepening our community support—we're able to invest in much-needed staff to expand our relationship development with partners, donors, and volunteers. We can also upgrade our commissary kitchen at CAFE’s HUB to enhance the food we share, elevate local food entrepreneurs, and establish a sustainable earned income stream that ensures what we're building together is here to stay. 

Katz Amsterdam created Catalyst to support emerging organizations at pivotal moments, exactly like this one.

“When a young organization gets steady support at the right moment, the whole community benefits.”
— Rob Katz, co-founder, Katz Amsterdam

We couldn’t agree more.

In Very Good Company

We’re honored to share this first Catalyst class with six incredible organizations doing vital work in mountain communities:

Congratulations to all of them. 🎉

Read the full announcement from Katz Amsterdam → Catalyst Grant Program press release

To Katz Amsterdam, With Gratitude 

To everyone at Katz Amsterdam: thank you for seeing what CAFE Food Rescue could become, and for betting on us early. Support like this, so early on, is rare, and we don’t take it for granted. We’re going to make it count. 💚

Want to be part of what comes next?

Adrienne Anghelone
Next

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