Food waste is one of the most solvable problems in sustainability. In theory.

In practice, solutions that show real promise in pilots stall before they ever reach scale. The technology works. The will is there. And yet the pattern repeats itself across contexts that look nothing alike. If you've ever watched a promising initiative lose momentum after the grant ended, the pilot wrapped, or leadership changed, you already know this pattern isn't unique to food systems.

In this session, Emily Janoch, Associate Vice President, Design and Thought Leadership at CARE and a senior leader from Starbucks, will share what it actually takes to cross the gap between a promising pilot and lasting, systemic change. The food system is the lens. The framework is transferable.

CARE's new research, drawing on evidence from more than 25 projects across 21 countries, identifies four recurring drivers that determine whether solutions scale or stall: women's time and economic agency, enterprise viability, reliable market demand, and accessible financing. These drivers show up consistently across countries, technologies, and cause areas. Meanwhile, Starbucks' FoodShare program, the 2025 Halo Award Best of the Best winner, offers a parallel story from the other end of the value chain: what it took to build, sustain, and grow a program that rescues food daily from stores across North America. FoodShare didn't start at scale. It required sustained investment, operational problem-solving, and a willingness to work through friction at every level of the organization.

Attendees will leave with:

• CARE's four-driver framework for evaluating whether any initiative is built to scale or built to stall
• Hard-won lessons from Starbucks FoodShare on navigating the messy middle between pilot and enterprise-wide practice
• A clearer picture of what deeper corporate and nonprofit partnership looks like beyond the grant
• Language and evidence to make the internal case for investing in systems change, not just technology deployment
• Insight on how strong measurement unlocks climate finance and builds the leadership case for long-term investment