FOUNDER OF KAIZEN FOOD RESCUE WITH HER OWN LIVED EXPERIENCES OF WAR AND HUNGER, THAI NGUYEN NOW WORKS TO ELIMINATE FOOD APARTHEID AND FOOD WASTE By Annie Guo VanDan “I know what it is like being on the receiving end of government and social services as a refugee and a first generation immigrant,” said Thai Nguyen, Founding Executive Director of Kaizen Food Rescue. “Because of this path, I am confidently utilizing my qi to help create change. Not only in tackling our food waste issue, but also changing draconian ‘charity’ practices in our food system and working with, not for immigrant and refugee families and those facing food insecurity.” This is what motivated Nguyen to establish Kaizen Food Rescue three years ago with a mission to prevent food waste and improve food justice and health equity in the Denver metro area. Kaizen Food Rescue provides community pop-up food shares, gardens, and meals to historically underserved communities. At the intersection of motherhood and starting a new career, Nguyen joined Jeffco’s first Colorado State University’s Family Leadership Training Institute to learn about making a difference in her community through civic engagement. Her capstone project for the 20-week training was to build a community garden at her children’s Montessori school, only to find that this was not possible due to high levels of arsenic on the land. Becoming a family effort, she and her husband instead volunteered to pick fresh food from Food Bank of the Rockies to provide at their children’s school. “It was very eye-opening to see all the food do-
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April 2022 | Spotlight
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nations from grocery stores and the amount of food waste,” Nguyen said. She soon started the paperwork to become a nonprofit as her husband supported the family for a year before Nguyen made a salary. “Now three years later, we are a disruptor in our local food system,” she said. What makes Kaizen Food Rescue unique is the design thinking application focused on community-based power sharing. Community members engage in joint decision-making, planning, and the implementation of projects and programs to advance a collective vision that transcends organizational boundaries. “The kaizen methodology is to do what our ancestors have done for thousands of years. Throughout generations, they taught us to bring people and community together by centering and sharing food. It’s the way we naturally show love - sharing food, sharing resources and sharing knowledge,” she said. Nguyen’s ancestors and family are from the island of Hon Tre and Rach Gia. It’s in the Kien Giang province of Vietnam near the border of Cambodia and South Vietnam. “We are boat people,” said Nguyen. “We fled oppression, violence and unspeakable war atrocities. We drifted in the Gulf of Thailand searching for asylum. My mom, late cousin, older brother and I were in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, then transferred to Singapore before arriving in San Francisco, then Houston.”