From convention leftovers to community meals: Venetian hits $1M toward food-rescue effort

A Strip megaresort has reached a major milestone in its efforts to combat food insecurity in the valley.

The Venetian hotel-casino has contributed $1 million to The Just One Project since 2023 as part of a larger initiative to redirect surplus food from the resort’s convention operations to Southern Nevadans facing food insecurity.

The milestone, announced during Hunger Action Month, comes as the partnership’s Food Rescue Alliance has recovered more than 754,000 pounds of food, the equivalent of about 628,000 meals, according to the resort.

The partnership grew out of conversations at The Venetian that began around 2020 about how to preserve and distribute food that otherwise would go to waste, said Marcy Miles, chief marketing officer for the resort.

The financial commitment was important because having surplus food available was only part of the problem. The food also had to be recovered, preserved, packaged and delivered quickly enough to reach people, Miles said.

“We have the food, but the food gets wasted if it’s not preserved within a period of time,” said Miles.

Working with The Just One Project allowed the resort to build a system around that process, she said.

The Food Rescue Alliance was launched as a pilot in 2023, with The Venetian as its founding partner. The program recovers surplus food from catered events, conventions, trade shows and meetings and distributes it through The Just One Project and other community organizations.

Miles said The Venetian has expanded its efforts as the program has developed, including finding additional ways to recover food through its culinary operations.

She said the resort measures the program less by the dollars contributed than by the amount of food actually reaching people.

“It’s not just dollars that are going out there. It is food that is going into people’s stomachs when they need it,” Miles said.

The partnership also was designed from the beginning to extend beyond The Venetian, Miles said. The Food Rescue Alliance allows other businesses and organizations to participate, with The Just One Project coordinating distribution through its network of community partners.

“That’s why it’s called the alliance,” Miles said. “Who else can come in?”

Brooke Neubauer, CEO and founder of The Just One Project, said The Venetian’s support has provided a significant investment in both the nonprofit’s mission and the infrastructure required to move food from large hospitality operations into the community.

“The Just One Project is grateful for The Venetian Resort Las Vegas’ continued partnership and support,” Neubauer said in a statement. “This milestone represents a meaningful investment in our mission and in the thousands of Southern Nevadans who rely on access to groceries, meals, and essential resources.”

An example for the nation

The nonprofit’s work with large convention properties requires coordination with culinary and banquet teams, food-safety procedures, transportation, packaging and rapid distribution.

The model is intended to make use of food that has already been prepared for an event but remains safe and suitable for redistribution, rather than sending it to the trash after a convention or meeting concludes.

The Venetian’s partnership received national recognition in 2024, when then-Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff highlighted the Food Rescue Alliance during a White House briefing on the White House Challenge to End Hunger and Build Healthy Communities by 2030. The initiative was one of three highlighted from 141 efforts recognized during the briefing.

For Miles, the broader goal is to demonstrate that a convention-heavy market such as Las Vegas can create a repeatable system for moving surplus food to people who need it.

“We are pioneering ways for other communities to follow us,” Miles said. “There’s a lot of places that create food like we have, and right now, in other places, it’s going to waste.”

The Venetian’s effort comes as other Las Vegas hospitality companies also have begun working with The Just One Project on food rescue. Caesars Entertainment launched a partnership with the nonprofit in May focused on recovering surplus food from its meetings and convention operations.

The growth of those partnerships is central to Neubauer’s vision for the Food Rescue Alliance, which seeks to build a broader network connecting the hospitality industry with organizations that already distribute food throughout Southern Nevada.

For Miles, that makes the $1 million milestone less of an endpoint than a measure of how far the program has grown.

“It’s not about any one entity,” she said. “It’s about all of us doing it.”