Becoming A Part Of Food Recovery From Your Restaurant

Posted on: 3 November 2015

In America, about 36 million tons of food was wasted in 2012. This equates to approximately $165 billion worth of food going to the garbage that may have been used to feed all of the one in six Americans who do not have enough to eat. If you own or run a restaurant, you are likely to see much of this waste, as it is estimated that full-service restaurants see up to 3.11 percent of total food used going to waste each day. It is even worse in fast-food restaurants as this percentage can jump to about 9.55 percent. This leads to a possible yearly waste of about 150,000 lbs of wasted food per restaurant.   

However, food recovery can happen at your establishment to help feed those who are less fortunate. Here are some reasons that you can become a part of a food recovery program (such as New Horizon Foods) that helps to feed others.

The waste not plated

Approximately 4 to 10 percent of the food that is wasted in your restaurant probably happens before the food is even plated. This comes from trimmings, incorrectly plated food or other mistakes in serving. These are often thrown out but could, in fact, be used for serving to others as the food itself has not spoiled. Other prepared food that could be recovery includes the surplus that has been prepared but was not required for use. 

Considering that serving sizes have increased from 20 years ago anywhere from 23 percent to even up to 100 percent in some cases, this is a lot of food to go to waste. These can be given to shelters, soup kitchens or other volunteer organizations that focus on meeting food needs of hungry Americans.

Saving your money

Not only is helping to feed others a great way to feel good about yourself and your contribution to the growth and stability of the community, it can also help you to save money. In fact, making a business inventory donation to a charitable organization can make you eligible for a tax deduction depending on the size of your business. Finding new ways to make use of the trimmings and peelings during food preparation might also be able to save you money on purchasing more stock for food preparation. 

To get the food where it needs to go, there are online donations markets that you can post to, which will then alert nearby food service programs via text messaging or emails so that pickup can be arranged. This saves you the cost of having to dispose of the food yourself while feeding others and reducing your business' contribution to carbon emissions from excess garbage.

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