Keynote and Fireside Chat with Aidan Reilly

Join us at the March TIA Incubator for a keynote and fireside chat with Aidan Reilly.

Reilly is a social entrepreneur best known as the co-founder and chief of external affairs of The Farmlink Project, a national nonprofit organization that addresses food insecurity and waste by connecting farms with surplus produce to communities in need. His entrepreneurial journey began in March 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when, as a college student sent home from Brown University, he recognized a critical disconnect in the food supply chain. After learning that local food banks were experiencing severe shortages while farmers were forced to discard massive amounts of fresh food due to market disruptions, Reilly and his co-founder, James Kanoff, adopted a scrappy, hands-on approach. They began by cold-calling farmers, renting their own trucks, and personally delivering produce to food banks in Los Angeles, proving the viability of their logistical solution.

Under Reilly’s leadership, The Farmlink Project evolved from a grassroots, volunteer-driven effort into a sophisticated national movement. Eschewing the traditional asset-heavy model of food distribution, the organization operates as a lean, responsive logistics network that matches supply with demand in real time. This agility has allowed the project to scale rapidly across all 50 states, rescuing and distributing nearly 500 million pounds of farm-fresh food that would have gone to waste. By prioritizing a collaborative, student-led culture, Reilly has empowered a diverse team of young volunteers and professionals to solve complex systemic problems with speed and creativity.

Reilly’s work has garnered significant international and domestic acclaim, including being named a 2021 Congressional Medal of Honor Society Citizen Honors awardee. Beyond the immediate impact of distributing millions of pounds of food, Reilly views his entrepreneurial role as a means to inspire others to take initiative in solving systemic issues. He remains a vocal advocate for rethinking the food supply chain, emphasizing that meaningful change can be achieved without vast resources if one is willing to challenge existing inefficiencies. Today, he continues to lead the organization’s efforts to build a sustainable model for food equity, focusing on how technology and logistics can be better harnessed to eliminate hunger and reduce environmental waste.

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We will have a catered lunch from noon to 1 p.m., and attendees are invited to that as well.