Blog 3

Dear Restaurant Businesses,

    World hunger is a major problem but if we take a look at America it is no surprise that there is a ton of food waste in America. In the United States each year about 63 million tons of food is wasted. A big part of food waste is restaurants creating 11.4 million tons of foo wast each year. A typical American restaurant throws away approximately 85% of the food that isn’t used and only a small percent of that food is either contacted or recycled. Restaurants are literally throwing away food while some people are starving. However there are many simple things that restaurant can do to help prevent and reduce food waste. One simple and easy way is instead of just throwing away everything in one trash can have separate containers that sort your trash for example one for recycle, compost
and a regular trash. Composting your food scraps instead of throwing them away helps the earth because it can go right back into the soil and enriches it. Food waste is organic and is an important renewable energy resource. Plastic bottles, cans, cardboard and paper although it is not food it can still be reused or recycle and helps the earth. Another big way to prevent food waste is to donate it or give it away to the people who are hungry such as the homeless. A lot of restaurants do not donate because they either are too lazy or do not want to get sued or be held responsible in case someone gets sick. But you can hire someone to take the food and if the food was good enough to sell they can donate it as long as its not rotting or gone bad it is still good to feed those in need, there has also been no cases of this incident. Lawyers aren’t interested in seeing people who are just trying to feed the needy, and if it is not edible then just compost it. There is many little things that can be done to the ingredients in the kitchen as well to prevent such as frequently checking inventory and keep an eye on expiration dates. If the portions are too big and are leaving large leftovers then change the menu and put smaller portion sizes and get smaller plates to make it look like the plate is full. Make sure all the perishable food such as fruits and vegetables are stored properly because they go bad faster and also make sure all your other food is stored properly to make sure you preserve its shelf life for as long as possible.  Make sure that you as a restaurant owner do your research and train and educate your staff as well. If you promote less food waste and have a “green restaurant” people will appreciate your business more and show people how to look at the environment and the importance of making less food waste and it will hopefully encourage people to do the same.