Weigh the Waste: A Conversation of Food Waste Prevention

Illustration by Breanna Newburn

Article by Lucille Lettau

NEWBERG Ore. – On the night of Oct. 28, over the course of four hours, scraps of leftover pasta, bread, salad and meat grew into a heap as students poured their leftovers into plastic bins. This dinner demonstration by Bon Appétit was named “Weigh the Waste.”

Students were instructed to scrape excess food into the bins. From there, the workers took plates, bowls, cups and utensils to the dish conveyor belt. The result: all students eating at The Bon that night saw how much food waste is produced during a single meal.

“It was both a visual educational campaign for students to learn about plate waste and a chance for us to quantify the volume of food wasted during Tuesday’s Dinner,” said Bon Appétit West Coast Fellow, Mitchell Everetts.

This event is just one of the ways that Everetts fulfills his job as a fellow where he says he “focuses on connecting students to their local food systems.” Spreading awareness of plate waste–the technical term for food left on one’s plate to be thrown away–is a fraction of Bon Appétit’s food waste reduction initiative.

Ryan Jensen, the general manager of Bon Appétit at George Fox University (GFU),

works proactively to reduce food waste at each step of the cooking process. “We aim to prevent [food waste] before it happens,” said Jensen. “In our kitchens, food waste is mitigated through inventory management as well as our root-to-stem cooking techniques. A great example of this is utilizing vegetable trimmings for soup stock.”

Other strategies of reducing food waste implemented by Bon Appétit are proper food storage techniques, strategic menu engineering, cooking food in small batches, seasonal purchasing for greater shelf life and finding causes of preventable food waste to make operational changes.

Despite the proactivity in preventing waste, some food is always thrown away from the kitchen at the end of each meal. The quantity of wasted food is monitored, a step by Bon Appétit to reduce waste.

When working front of house, Annie Kurdelak, a student employee at Bon Appétit, is a part of this process. “We keep a log of all the food that gets thrown away, no matter what reason,” said Kurdelak. “It helps on a macro-level. Tracking the food waste so [Bon Appétit] can buy the right amount of food.”

Because of these food conservation tactics, “the vast majority (74%) of the food waste that has been generated this school year is either inedible parts of ingredients (trim, bones, shells, etc.) or food that was not consumed and needed to be discarded,” said Jensen.

This means that the remaining 26% of food waste is involving food that still is or was edible in some form, whether that be plate waste, quantity waste or food that has gone bad. Weigh the Waste aimed to inform students of their role in this percentage.

  “When we conduct Weigh the Waste events, it’s never our intention to shame or gross-out students,” said Jensen, “only to start a conversation about the importance of reducing food waste.” The goal is for students to consider mindfulness in their food waste practices.

In fact, “students had a lot of positive comments about the event, mentioning that it was eye-opening as the food waste started to build during the tail end of the event,” said Everetts. “Many students were surprised to see such a huge quantity of waste build up as the night went on.”

Plate waste gone uneaten at The Bon is all thrown in the garbage, while food from the kitchen gone uneaten at the end of the day is not always thrown out. “So far this school year, we have also donated hundreds of pounds of perfectly edible leftover food to the George Fox Food Pantry,” said Jensen.

Because of this partnership between Bon Appétit and the Bruin Food Pantry, leftovers are given a new life. Student Care and Student Life Operations Specialist and Manager of the Bruin Community Pantry, Jere Witherspoon, is grateful for this partnership and the opportunities it brings to students who receive help from the food.

“I appreciate what they've provided because it supplements people. There's a lot of students that come [to the Pantry]. I've heard their stories,” said Witherspoon. “They are commuting or they don't have money to buy lunch on campus.”

Donations to the Pantry include any leftover food in good condition. Other than that, Bon Appétit gives away all kinds of food. This use of leftover food by Bon Appétit is why students should be mindful of plate waste, as food that does not go into the trash could make its way to the Pantry.

By continuing the conversation of food waste, Witherspoon, Jensen and Everetts hope to raise awareness in ways that we contribute. Witherspoon acknowledges the complexities of plate waste in specific.

“I know how it is if you see something and you're hungry. Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, or the taste isn't what we thought it was,” said Witherspoon. “All I would say is that people should be mindful, especially if [people] realize that it's not just getting thrown away.”

Living on campus with a meal plan, Kurdelak is also aware of the complexity in preventing plate waste. “I try to avoid it,” said Kurdelak. “I don't try to get more than I will eat. You never know if something will agree with you or not but I don’t want to throw away my leftovers.”

When the Pantry gets leftover food, it helps reduce that leftover 26% of preventable food waste. This ensures that Bon Appétit makes use of everything that goes into making a meal. Much more goes into food than the food itself.

“When food is thrown away, all of the energy it took to produce, transport, package and prepare that food also ends up in the trash,” said Jensen. “Food that breaks down in landfills emits methane, which is a greenhouse gas 20 times more environmentally detrimental than carbon dioxide.”

Demonstrations such as Weigh the Waste prompt students to think about their role in limiting food thrown in the trash. That food, energy and effort could be beneficial to another if it hadn’t first been added to an individual's plate.

To reduce the waste of resources and negative effects on the environment, Bon Appétit 

will continue their food preservation efforts while always looking for innovations in the 

kitchen to raise food use efficiency.