Hi, we’re Core Matter.

About a third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted every year. It doesn’t have to be that way, and change starts with every meal.

OUR VISION

A world without food waste.

When we look at the core causes of climate change, food loss and waste is responsible for 8-10% of our global emissions. We envision a world where food waste is designed out of our systems—to reduce the impact of related emissions and increase the sustainability of our planet.

OUR MISSION

We’re building a movement to reduce the climate impact of food waste.

Food waste is solvable. But information alone doesn't change behavior. We create tools and experiences that spark people to act – across individuals, communities, and systems.

OUR VALUES

What’s at our core.

Climate focus

Wasted food is a climate problem.

Food sent to landfills releases methane. Preventing waste is one of the easiest climate wins available.

Human-Centered

The people closest to it know the fix.

Kitchens, food banks, and grocers already know where it breaks down. We build what they tell us is missing, and design for people first.

Inclusion

Everyone has a role to play.

Climate affects all of us, but we don’t all experience or address it in the same way. We create common ground so everyone can take part.

Play

Fun is the best motivator.

Shame is a lousy motivator. We bring humor, delight, and surprise to climate action, a topic that often feels heavy.

Systems thinking

Make the better choice the easy choice.

Individual effort matters. Conditions shape what’s possible.

THEORY OF CHANGE

Change ripples both directions.

We work at every scale at once. Food waste declines when individuals act, when communities make that action expected, and when systems make it easy, and each of those makes the others more likely.

INDIVIDUALS make lower-waste choices at home.

COMMUNITIES make those choices visible and expected.

SYSTEMS make them the easy default.

OUTWARD | Collective
action ripples outward

INWARD | Systems
make action possible

WHO WE ARE

Our team, at your service.

Core Matter is a women- and LGBTQ+-led organization. Shannon brings design and advocacy, Caitlin brings program development and behavior change. We both start from the conviction that food waste is solvable rather than inevitable.

Shannon McGill

Founder, Co-Executive Director | Design and Strategy

Shannon makes the sustainable choice the obvious one. Twelve years of design work have convinced her that waste is built into systems long before anyone chooses it, and that what was designed can be redesigned. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies, governments, nonprofits, and startups across graphic design, digital design, and user-centered research, and has spent years in environmental activism.

She holds a BFA in Visual Communication and a BS in Community Health from the University of Kansas. She does her best work in collaboration, where a clear design process turns a shared problem into something a group can build.

Connect on LinkedIn

Caitlin Quarrington

Co-Executive Director | Development and Research

Most food waste efforts ask people to try harder. Caitlin starts with the conditions around them. She led global culture strategy at Autodesk and employee experience at Amazon Web Services, where she learned to back good intentions with action plans and measurable data. She co-authored a peer-reviewed paper on food loss and waste in a circular economy, published in Frontiers in Environmental Science.

She holds an MA in Critical & Creative Thinking from UMass Boston, a BSc Honours, and a BEd, plus certifications in change management and coaching. Her TED-Ed lesson, The Key to Work Is Play, draws on her research connecting play, creativity, and purpose.