Disaster Relief, From the Garden

Helping disaster victims get food is certainly a worthy cause. Helping them get fresh, healthy food is even better.

AmpleHarvest.org, a site that connects backyard gardeners with an abundance to local food banks, is doing just that by helping tornado victims in Alabama.

More specifically, they’re encouraging food banks in ravaged areas to sign up on the site to allow potential donors to find them. The site also facilitates donations of non-home grown food by allowing users to find nearby recipient agencies.

The move echoes a similar one last summer that emphasized donations in Gulf States affected by the BP oil leak. Let’s hope the outpouring of support is similar. And for those without a garden or not living near the affected areas of Alabama, there are many ways to help.

May 9, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Great news from the bottom of the food waste hierarchy: Waste Management has invested in a composting company. They’ve been sniffing around the idea for a while, so it’s encouraging to see them invest in it.

— —

Mary Baldwin College of Virginia reduced waste by 60% during their Sustainable Meal Week! Really shows how much fat is there for the trimming.

— —

Whether you call them Freegans or foragers, more Spaniards are eating from the trash. And here’s a look at whether Dumpster diving jibes with Jewish values.

— —

Finally, the Recyclemania results are in. While the exercise has its merits, I’ve always been confused by the Food Service Organics category. Shouldn’t we reward reduction (fewest pounds per student?) instead of rewarding schools for using and composting the most pounds? In that case, congrats to Nova Southeastern Univ. for producing 0.00 pounds of food waste per student! 😉

May 6, 2011 | Posted in College, Composting, Freegan, Friday Buffet, International, Waste Stream | Comments closed

Challenge Your Group

Yesterday, I participated in my first webinar. Once you get past the oddness of talking into a void with no audio or video feedback, it’s a neat way to reach a wide audience.

The event featured two other speakers, both EPA employees who work on food waste reduction. One of them brought up the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge, an encouraging idea that I haven’t written about here. Essentially, the program:

…encourages participants to reduce, donate, and recycle as much of their food waste as possible — saving money and helping protect the environment. Participants will conduct a food waste assessment, undertake three specific waste reduction activities, create a food waste recovery plan, and report progress using WasteWise ReTRAC.

Scrolling down on the site, you can find a bunch of useful tools to help facilitate the various steps. You’ll also find a list of participating schools, organizations and businesses.

And you may even notice that there are only 23 participants thus far. That seems like a miniscule small number to me. So…if you’re affiliated with a business, school or other organization and have been wondering how you can get that group to start reducing waste–here’s your chance!

May 4, 2011 | Posted in Energy, Environment, Institutional | Comments closed

Log on and (hopefully) Learn

If you’ve ever wondered what a presentation on food waste would sound like, here’s your chance to stop wondering: I’m doing an EPA-coordinated webinar tomorrow (Tuesday).

My online talk with accompanying slides begins at 12:30pm EST and there will be an opportunity to ask questions afterwards. In addition to providing some insight on squandered food, I hope to prompt hearty discussion on source reduction–the real key with food waste.

Two dynamic food waste thinkers will follow my talk. The EPA’s Jean Schwab and Ashley Zanolli are both great, and they will discuss their most recent efforts to reduce the amount of food wasted.

So please sign up, log on, and listen in!

May 2, 2011 | Posted in Personal | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

I didn’t see the 7-11 episode of Undercover Boss, but it’s nice to hear that an employee throwing out doughnuts peeved said incognito CEO.

— —

As the playoffs are in full swing, the NHL is still recovering food league-wide. And still getting EPA recognition.

— —

NYC and composting: Not a Love a Story

— —

My Fridge Food is pretty useful if you’re trying to eat down the fridge.

— —

This column in the Contra Costa Times on how residences are better than businesses at composting. Come on businesses–keep up!

— —

OK, Jason Schwartzman, that’s a pretty painless way to learn about CAFOs. I thought for sure Meatless Monday was gonna get a little love at the end, though.

April 29, 2011 | Posted in Composting, Events, Food Recovery, Friday Buffet, Household | Comments closed

Healing Hospital Waste

Hospitals are going to waste a lot of food. They just are.

Hospitals must provide patients with the required amount of food, even when they have little or no appetite. That ingrained plate waste is a major disadvantage for hospitals. But that doesn’t mean they can’t reduce their waste.

Two hospitals in La Crosse, Wis., have dramatically trimmed their food waste. Gundersen Lutheran (paging Dr. Keillor) has halved its waste in just six months.

How have they done so? A few ways. The hospital kitchen produces smaller batches of each item, so there’s less to discard at the end of each meal. And then there’s the food tracking system (by LeanPath, I’m guessing) that helps a hospital or any commercial kitchen learn how much it’s wasting and why. And then there’s the donation of edible food, which has found a home for two-thirds of the food Gundersen used to trash.

Finally, there’s the introduction of choice. That simple concept is a huge waste avoider in homes, supermarkets and restaurants, and hospitals are no different. Franciscan Skemp, the other hospital mentioned in the article, has begun letting patients order the food they want, when they want it.

It has slashed waste, which makes perfect sense:

“We have decreased plate waste, patients order what they want, so therefore they eat it, so we have minimum waste,” said Walter Shillinger, nutrition services director at Franciscan Skemp.

And here’s the kicker: Franciscan will save $200,000 from reduced waste in 2011.

April 26, 2011 | Posted in Institutional | Comments closed

E-day

Here’s a brief Earth Day message from me to you:

Don’t waste food!

Producing most of our food taxes our environment. The least we can do is eat what we buy.

Nuff said. Now get outside and enjoy the day!

April 22, 2011 | Posted in General | Comments closed

Q & A: NHL’s Green Guru

The National Hockey League is the only major sports league with all of its teams participating in stadium food recovery. Bernadette Mansur, the NHL’s senior VP of public affairs, helped launch the NHL Green Initiative in 2010. To find out how the Green initiative came to include its league-wide food recovery program, I spoke with Mansur:

Wasted Food: How did the NHL food recovery program come to exist?
Bernadette Mansur: The fellow who heads Rock and Wrap It Up, the food recovery program, Syd Mandelbaum, has been recovering food from arenas with different sports and clubs. He came in through a recommendation to one of the executives in the league. Because it was food donation and something that would be in the community, it was referred to me.

So I brought Syd in to meet [commissioner] Gary [Bettman] and the same thing happened. To get untouched but prepared food to homeless shelters was simply the right thing to do. And the way they do it is failsafe. They vet the shelters to make sure they have all their bases covered.

Gary then presented the idea to the owners at the June 2010 board meeting. And at that meeting, he gave the presentation and said let’s vote. It took about 20 seconds before everyone in the room raised their hands. It was a very simple decision to make. And then we found that nine of our clubs were already doing it!

How does the food recovery work, in practice?
The Concessionaires have these big carts and they go from stand to stand and pick up the unsold, untouched foods. They bring it to the loading platforms at the stadia. The shelter is responsible for picking up the food. That alleviates the issue of having the club or concessionaires drive it to the shelters. One of the questions that came up in the board meeting was on the Good Samaritan Act passed in the Clinton Administration. This US law was adopted in all the provinces in Canada. But the concessionaires were satisfied with the law and really love participating in the program.

What kinds of foods are/are not donated?
The food that is donated is concession food that has been prepared but not sold. And the majority of concessions have backup food–you never know when there will be an overtime. That also is donated. Some stadiums donate food served in the suites and some don’t.

Read More »

April 21, 2011 | Posted in Events, Food Recovery, Q & A | Comments closed

Britain Bids Adieu to ‘Best Before’

Environment Minister Hilary Benn hinted at it when we spoke in 2009. One minister and two years later, it looks set to happen: The British government has advised food retailers to scrap some date labels because they cause confusion, and ultimately, waste.

After consulting with food makers and sellers, the government has recommended that retailers phase out “best before” dates, which mostly focus on taste. This Guardian editorial supports that view.

The  changes, due to happen in the next month, will also include “sell-by” or “display-until” dates. Those labels are meant to help retailers know long to keep items on the shelf, but consumers often think they’re aimed at them. [Aside: It was fascinating to learn in the above editorial that UK retailer Marks and Spencer introduced sell-by dates in 1970.]

It will be interesting to see how the implementation happens, and whether there’s any backlash. There’s already an interesting discussion on the topic in New Zealand, where the major paper picked up on the idea. What do you make of this idea?

April 19, 2011 | Posted in International, Supermarket | Comments closed

Expiration Attention

I’m traveling now, but wanted to highlight this article on expiration dates that ran this week in The Boston Globe. I don’t recall such a detailed look at the topic in a major newspaper.

The food waste awareness is mounting…

April 15, 2011 | Posted in Food Safety, Household | Comments closed