“If you’re in the back of the line, chances are, there will not be enough food for you.”
That was the announcement made over the loudspeaker at the Sustainable Solutions Expo today. Huh??
Now, conferences are often culprits when it comes to food waste. Organizers seem to provide an abundance, and because meals are usually served buffet style, donation of that excess isn’t allowed (for health code reasons).
At today’s event, held in Raleigh’s beautiful new convention center, there was no 5 to 10 percent “padding,” or extra, in case people took seconds or unexpected guests arrived. In fact, there was negative padding.
And they really ran out, announcing over the loudspeaker that they had struck a deal with the hotel across the street to offer complimentary lunch to those with conference badges.
I’m all for reducing waste, but this was taking things a bit too far (and I actually got a lunch). A exhibitor familiar with food service practices speculated that the hosts, AASHE, being a sustainable bunch, may have told the conference center not to prepare extra to avoid waste.
Then I asked a conference worker what the story was. There were far more guests than the host had paid for. Now that’s one way to prevent waste!
Has anyone out there ever been at a conference or catered event where they ran out of food?
Comments
7 responses to “Running On Empty”
I was at a conference this past weekend in Baltimore where a couple corporate “hospitality suites” ran out of food (those crab cakes went FAST), as well as some of the smaller conference sponsored sessions. At the large events there was a major surplus.
Oh dear…how embarassing!
I think it would be much better to just make plans for the extra leftovers.
I was at this event as well, and we all found it strange that the caterers ran out of food on the last meal of the conference, when all the other meals had been provided successfully, especially considering that it was the last meal being provided, and many people had already left for the airport. We decided that it probably had to do with the fact that this was the very first BIG conference that the center had hosted since it opened in September.
Jonathan, wish I’d known you were there, so we could meet!
Xarissa, if only I’d known you were there! It was kind of a last-minute thing…and I was just there on Tuesday. The next conference I’m at I’ll tweet a head’s up.
The more I learn about this lunch, the stranger it seems.
Katherine, those crab cakes always go like…hot cakes.
In a previous life I was a conference and wedding coordinator in the hotel/resort world and it was always a challenge to find that balance and anticipate how much will really be needed vs. wasted.
Yes it would make so much sense for the hospitality industry to be part of a food waste solution such as implementing commercial composting services/facilities in every region. But businesses need to see a dollar incentive before they see the warm-fuzzy-help-the-planet incentive. It’s frustrating that not enough people are making the connection that there are plenty $$ incentives for helping the planet. Guess that’s where we come in! 🙂 Thanks for this blog.
I hear you, momentofchoice. Hopefully businesses will start to realize that being green can also save money.
At the same conference yesterday, I heard one such dollar incentive to do the right thing. In Seattle, it costs $140 per ton to send trash to the landfill. Composting costs $40-$60 per ton.
While you’ll have to pay 40 cents more per trash bag for compostable ones, you can then realize those incredible per ton savings.
I used to coordinate events at a large performing arts institution here in NYC and whenever I ordered our catering from our corporate caterer, I had to grossly underestimate the # of attendees because they provided way too much food every time. Every event was like a gamble – I just hoped there would be enough food. I was under-ordering to save our budget, not really just to avoid the food waste (because the staff would eat the rest usually). It was incredibly frustrating that the corporate caterer (aramark) wouldn’t work with us to provide realistic information about servings and ordering. That might have been part of the problem at your conference, too.