Exactly how big is the American restaurant industries food waste problem? To break it down, according to an article on Business Insider written by Courtney Verrill, “A 2014 study by the Food Waste Reduction Alliance found that 84.3% of unused food in American restaurants ends up being disposed of, while 14.3% is recycled, and only 1.4% is donated.” For me I found these percentages to be a shocking amount of food being wasted. Food waste has been a growing problem for some time now and I had personally thought that restaurants would being doing more beneficial things with the food going un-eaten at their restaurants. With only 1.4% of the food being donated, compared to the 84.3% being disposed of, these two numbers are drastically different and with the right mindset and “want” to stop food waste, these percentages should be opposite.

Though this study above is representing most American restaurants, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t restaurants making changes and joining campaigns to end food waste. One restaurant such as Blue Hill has partnered with a food waste organization called Feedback that runs several different campaigns around the world to help end food waste. For a deeper look into Feedback as an organization my previous blog post will give you some more information on other organization and I list more organizations aiming to make a change with food waste; click here. Specifically, Blue Hill has participated in the flagship campaign call Feeding The 5000 which feeds 5,000 people by using food waste produce. Blue Hill has also become a popular restaurant in New York due to the menu being made up of meals that are made with products that would become food waste. Head chef Sean Telo states, “We’re not serving waste, we’re serving what would become waste.” For more information on the restaurant and how it helps end food waste, click here.

Helping to end food waste starts with those who contribute the most to food waste. With a single restaurant being able to produce around 25,000 to 75,000 pounds of food waste in one year, I think that organizations such as Feedback help make it easy and fun for restaurants and the community to come together and better help make a change. Food waste is a global problem, not just a problem in America so don’t let food waste make you feel like this is all your fault, because it’s not. With all this talk about food waste and the statistics of the harm it has caused, it can overwhelm you and me and easily make you feel like you are the only contributor to food waste. But know that, about 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted globally each year, and 40% of that comes from restaurants.

So the best thing for you to do is get involved and become knowledgeable of how you can help because those participating in these organizations to help end food waste are people like you and me.

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