FarmLink’s Rise: From Pandemic Startup to National Food Partner

Name: Send it to a Landfill | Ben Collier, MBA ’27
Uploaded: 2026-04-03T19:49:33.311212+00:00
Duration: 10 min 20 s
Channel: Stanford Graduate School of Business
Description: Summary and key takeaways on Send it to a Landfill | Ben Collier, MBA ’27 — Summary, covering The Origin of FarmLink During the 2020 pandemic the founder

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Apr 03, 2026

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10 min video

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2 min read

YouTube video ID: WdjU3xAcGSg

Source: YouTube video by Stanford Graduate School of Business — Watch original video

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During the 2020 pandemic the founder noticed that farms were discarding produce while food banks struggled to feed hungry families. Food waste, he learned, occurs at ten times the amount needed to end hunger before the food even reaches grocery stores. The first operation moved 40,000 pounds of onions from a farmer to a local food bank for a cost of $900. Student volunteers helped load the truck, and a segment on ABC World News Tonight generated $150,000 in donations, jump‑starting the venture.

Confronting Systemic Resistance

Established food banks viewed the new nonprofit as a threat to their territory. One food bank actively discouraged a farmer from working with FarmLink, and the farmer’s 25 truckloads of cucumbers—about one million pounds—ended up in a landfill. The speaker recalls a Feeding America leader telling staff to “send it to a landfill before you call FarmLink.” Feeding America, despite billions in funding, suffered from a lack of regional collaboration, creating “turf wars” that blocked early progress.

Strategic Pivot

Realizing that the core problem lay in logistics rather than production, the team abandoned a confrontational stance. They introduced “collaborative donations,” a model where a food bank with excess surplus transfers it to another bank that can distribute it. As a CEO of a Feeding America food bank admitted, some leaders once instructed members to “send it to a landfill before you call FarmLink.” The long‑term game became enabling food banks to help each other, turning an immovable surplus into a shared resource.

Scaling and Impact

FarmLink eventually became the first nationally recognized nonprofit partner of Feeding America. The organization has moved over 500 million pounds of fruits and vegetables, including a single collaborative donation of 400,000 pounds of Brussels sprouts. Today, 47 million Americans remain food insecure, but FarmLink’s logistics layer continues to bridge the gap between farm surplus and hungry communities, proving that building the missing piece can shift an entire system.

Takeaways

FarmLink was founded during the 2020 pandemic after the founder saw a massive gap between farm surplus and food‑bank needs, moving 40,000 pounds of onions for $900.
Early resistance from established food banks and Feeding America manifested as “turf wars,” even leading a farmer’s million‑pound cucumber crop to a landfill.
The organization shifted from confrontation to a collaborative‑donations model, using logistics to transfer surplus between food banks rather than increasing production.
Collaborative donations have enabled FarmLink to move over 500 million pounds of fruits and vegetables, earning national partnership with Feeding America.
Despite the impact, 47 million Americans remain food insecure, highlighting the ongoing need for regional logistics and cooperation.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does FarmLink’s collaborative donations model address the gap in food distribution?

FarmLink’s collaborative donations act as a logistics bridge; when a food bank receives more surplus than it can handle, FarmLink coordinates transport to other banks with spare capacity, turning waste‑prone “tsunami” deliveries into usable food for communities in need.

What incident illustrated Feeding America’s resistance to outside intervention?

A food bank discouraged a farmer from partnering with FarmLink, resulting in a million pounds of cucumbers being dumped in a landfill despite the farmer having 25 truckloads ready.

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Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.

Books On Supply Chain Management Logistics Recommended

Provides foundational knowledge on logistics and distribution networks, which are the core mechanisms used by the speaker to solve food waste.

Amazon →

Books On Social Entrepreneurship And Impact

Offers insights into building mission-driven organizations and navigating systemic challenges, mirroring the speaker's journey with FarmLink.

Amazon →

Heavy Duty Commercial Food Storage Containers

Practical equipment for managing large-scale food surplus, reflecting the logistical challenges of handling massive quantities of produce.

Amazon →

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Full Transcript YouTube

At the start of 2020, I was a junior in
college recovering from major
reconstructive foot and ankle surgery.
Months of immobility, piles of
painkillers, and all of a sudden, CO the
world started crumbling around all of
us. I'd never felt more helpless, more
useless. I could only watch.
And as I did, one story kept appearing.
Food piling up on farms as food banks
faced the longest lines they'd ever
seen.
It didn't make any sense. On one hand,
you had farms with more food than they
could even throw away. And on the other,
food banks couldn't possibly get enough
food through their doors.
It's not a matter of food production. We
throw away 10 times the amount of food
we need to end hunger before it even
reaches grocery stores. So why wasn't it
reaching people?
I'm from a suburb in Connecticut. I know
nothing well knew nothing about
agriculture, food banks, logistics.
But if you ask my mom, she'll be quick
to first roll her eyes and then share
that I'm the type of person who really
struggles to let something go if it
doesn't add up. So my brother, some
friends, we started calling these
farmers. We were reading about hundreds
of them.
And hundreds of calls days later, we get
through to an onion farmer who is
digging a ditch to bury 6 million pounds
of onions.
He said, "If you get a truck here, you
can take whatever you can." And we did.
We pulled together $900 and paid a truck
driver to pick up 40,000 pounds of
onions that he brought back to a local
food bank. The next day, eggs. Same
deal. Some of my co-founders in
California rented a U-Haul, picked up
11,000 eggs, and dropped them off at a
food pantry in Santa Monica.
And just like that, the FarmLink Project
was off to the races. We opened our
virtual doors and students from all over
the country joined our team. We became
this feel-good story in a time when
people needed one more than ever.
Within a month, we were hundreds of
students spending all day on Zoom with
new updates, new partners, new wins. One
night, my phone started blowing up. Turn
on the news. Farm Link was on ABC World
News Tonight, the most watched newscast
in America. David Mir, the host, was
thanking us for our work. The next day,
we woke up with $150,000 of donations in
my friend's bank account. Holy [ __ ] Our
momentum felt surreal. And I wasn't just
watching anymore. We were saving farmers
enormous dumping fees. We were covering
all the transportation costs and we were
getting truckloads of fresh produce to
communities that needed them more than
ever for free. What we were doing felt
so obvious, so needed. I kept asking
myself the same question. Why was this
not already happening?
And then a food bank called me.
I had just spoken with a cucumber farmer
in Florida who had 25 truckloads of
cucumbers with nowhere to go. The local
food bank was going to take five. I
jumped at the chance to deliver the
remaining 20 truckloads to so many
communities who needed them around the
Southeast.
It would have been a breakthrough, our
biggest recovery yet. And then I picked
up the phone call from this food bank.
cold and condescending. They said this
was their farmer.
They said they had it under control and
that I was confusing the farmer. But I
heard a different message loud and
clear. We don't want you here. Get the
[ __ ] off our turf. And then they called
the food bank. Excuse me. They called
the farmer with us on the phone and
said, "These kids are scamming you." And
hung up. The farmer didn't work with us
and a million pounds of fresh cucumbers
were sent to rot in a landfill.
I was rattled and pissed off.
My first thought was, maybe it's a
Florida thing,
but it wasn't. This food bank was a
member of Feeding America, the largest
charity in the United States. 200 food
banks, billions in funding, and an
enormous wall between them and everyone
else. In most regions, there wasn't
collaboration. There was a turf war, and
we were a threat.
As a young startup founded by idealist
college students who wanted to change
systems, David and Goliath style, we had
just found our perfect big bad. I could
hop on my soap box and condemn Feeding
America, this immovable object that is
preventing progress in a system that
desperately needs it. I could fulfill my
duty as a graduate of Brown University.
But then what? If we toppled this food
bank oligarchy, how would we build it
back better than before?
We didn't know. And that felt wrong.
So we fought our rebellious instincts
and we went the other way. We became
obsessed with understanding the needs of
food banks.
And we learned when surplus happens, it
happens in waves, in tsunamis, hundreds
of thousands, millions of pounds of a
single type of produce. The local food
banks will get their fill, but they
don't have the capacity or the mission
to see to it that those piles of
remaining food get to other regions.
So that was it. the gap. Not growing
more food, not building more warehouses,
logistics and collaboration.
Our ultimate long game became to get
food banks to help each other. Our
thesis, they knew where these piles of
surplus were. They just didn't know what
to do with them.
So, every time we'd speak with a food
bank, we'd now tell them, "If you ever
have access to more than you can handle,
we'll help get it to a place who needs
it." And when they have surplus, you'll
benefit right back.
Collaborative donations. It's a simple
concept, but I explained it so many
times for months, it felt impossible to
believe anything else.
And then months later, I get a call from
a food bank here in California. I have
access to 10 truckloads of Brussels
sprouts. I can only take two. Can you
find a home for the other eight? 400,000
of Brussels sprouts. Just like that. And
we got another call the next week and
another. It was working.
Two years later at a national food waste
conference. Sexy. Um,
a CEO of a Feeding America food bank
asked if we could go on a walk. My first
thought was, "Is he going to kill me?"
But I had also just watched Good Fellas.
Um to my surprise, we rounded a corner
and he began to cry. He said that on a
call with 20 other CEOs of Feeding
America food banks from his region, the
leader of their group had told them,
"If you have surplus, send it to a
landfill before you call FarmLink."
He said he was ashamed to be a part of
something like that. And he would leave
the Feeding America Network six months
later.
Even saying it now gives me a pit in my
stomach.
Send it to a landfill before you call
Farm Lake.
But what kept me level in that moment
was the same thought that gives me
optimism now. It didn't matter.
For every food bank that was stuck in
their ways, 10 more were coming forward
to work with FarmLink. A few months
later, Farm Link would become the first
nationally recognized nonprofit partner
to feeding America.
The organization with people who had
once said to send food to a landfill
before working with us was working with
us. We've started started started to
move an immovable object.
Today, Farm Link has moved over half a
billion pounds of fruits and vegetables
to communities around North America. And
over half of that has come from
collaborative donations.
And yet Farm Link's work is far from
over.
47 million Americans are food insecure
today.
But the infrastructure exists. The
relationships exist. And we've proven
this works. It's now a matter of
capacity.
If you know anybody in agriculture,
logistics, and especially philanthropy,
an introduction goes so much further
than you might think. And if you want
the most efficient way to get more fresh
produce to families who need it right
now, farmlink project.org is ready for
you.
The next time you see a system that's
broken, and you will. You might feel
that urge to tear it down. I'm not
saying don't. Sometimes that's the
answer.
But before you do, ask yourself,
are the people holding this system
together the ones best positioned to fix
it?
With FarmLink, we didn't tear down a
system. We built the piece it was
missing. Thank you.
[cheering]