Things We Can Do to Reduce Food Waste

As you do menu planning for events, you can actually do your part in reducing food waste. A recent article by Alex Palmer in Successful Meetings, highlights some of the ways to make that happen.

Palmer notes that “Americans waste a lot of food. According to a report by The Guardian, about 50 percent of all produce in the U.S. is tossed. And as any planner who has seen entire chafing dishes go untouched knows, meetings and events are often guilty of contributing to this problem.”

To combat it, the World Wildlife Fund has launched a Zero Waste Menu program. Dolan Lane, executive chef of Red Star Tavern in Portland, Oregon, part of the Kimpton Hotel Monaco Portland, is taking part in the project. He offers some tips on how he’s fighting waste:

• Rather than discarding day-old bread, incorporate it into Bread Pudding French Toast.
• Scraps from beets used in the Roasted Heirloom Beet and Pear Salad are pickled and used in the bar’s house Bloody Mary.
• Vegetable ends and trimmings are pureed and used in the restaurant’s Celeriac and Apple or Roasted Butternut Squash Soups.
• Uncut produce is turned into cold-pressed juices like the Morning Zinger.
• Bread by request, rather than given to every attendee automatically.

Palmer writes, “Now that the Zero Waste Menu has been formally launched, Lane emphasizes, it is cutting back on food waste without creating more work for planners. They simply request the Zero Waste Menu when booking their event and Lane’s team takes care of the rest. Though he adds that those who would like to get more involved, say by selecting a local charity to receive the excess food, can do so.”