Come shop with us.

Vindeket’s mission is to empower each of us to take ownership in the food cycle to restore our earth, our communities, and ourselves.

Vindeket: noun
/ˈvin-də-kət/ 

Vindeket is so much more than a place. The made-up word combines vindicate and advocate—we are advocates of food vindication, working towards fixing our food system and the structures surrounding it. Our people— participants, shoppers, donors, service participants volunteers, supporters—are Vindekets, joining together to make real change possible.

Forty percent of all food the United States produces ends up in a landfill.

Vindeket is rescuing this food before it reaches the trash and providing it for consumers.

 

40%

Of all food produced
in the U.S. is wasted!


133

Billion pounds per year.


$161

Billion dollars of
uneaten food per year.


$1500

Per family of
four per year.


 

A note about food dates.

Our dream is to see everyone standing together against wasted food redeeming the value of the food worker, plant, animal, fuel, and water.

We are the next generation of sustainable food. All are welcome!

 
  • Families

  • Environmentally conscious consumers

  • Health conscious consumers

  • Foodies

  • College students

  • People with dietary restrictions or preferences

  • Young professionals

  • Seniors

Vindeket seeks to connect with the community, empowering individuals at any level in the socioeconomic structure to participate in the consumption of economically and environmentally sustainable foods.

What we stand by

Nothing created should be wasted.

All things - people, plants and animals - play a vital role in our ecosystem.


Food waste is our collective problem.

It does not belong to a single sector of society. Therefore, we all need to be a part of the solution.


Food waste impacts civilization negatively on every level:

Hunger, water scarcity, climate, diminishing resources, poverty, fossil fuel consumption, food prices, materialism and the death of historical, artisan food practices.

 

Healthy, organic, local foods shouldn’t be unattainable.

People of all socio-economic statuses should have access to these foods. We throw away enough food to solve food insecurity. When we grow less and waste less, food is more affordable for everyone.


We rescue excess, imperfect, messy and outdated food because it’s worth it.

It’s easier to buy a new box of strawberries from the grocery store than it is to pick some up from Vindeket, pick out the mushy ones and do a little extra washing. But the “sacrifice” of time and energy we take to properly steward our food resources is far less than the collective cost of food waste. 

By coming together as a community to rescue valuable food we empower one another to care for ourselves and our families and act as participants, not bystanders, in fixing our food system.


Meet the mind
behind Vindeket


Founder/Executive Director, Nathan Shaw

Nathan Shaw is a Texas-born Coloradoan with a degree in geology, an insatiable appetite for making things better and zero tolerance for unnecessary waste.

When he started dumpster diving 10 years ago, he was overwhelmed by the quantity and quality of food in the trash. No matter how many community meals he hosted or friends’ freezers he filled, there was always more than enough to go around, and inevitably, good food was still being dumped into the landfill.

But it didn’t take long to realize that the only thing bigger than the problem of food waste was his community’s drive and support to tackle it. He’d found his calling.

Nathan got rid of the middle man (the dumpster) by fostering partnerships with food producers and distributors. He’s grown Vindeket from a garage grocery store to a full-functioning nonprofit market and leader in food rescue.

He may have the title of executive director, but Nathan does literally every job from sorting produce to making last-minute food pick-ups to fixing the walk-in cooler to giving speeches at community events. He wouldn’t have it any other way.

On those rare occasions when Nathan isn’t fighting food waste, you can find him on a mountain, in a kitchen, under the stars or trapezing around town on a bike.

Recent Interview

Vindeket Board of Directors

Hannah Wittmeyer

Ben Story

Hailey Kohl

Ben Jewell

Charlene Van Buiten

Shayna Lentz

Chelsea Gilmore

“We are trashing our land to grow food that no one eats.”

— Tristram Stuart