Many of you have concluded a conference and thought, ‘What a waste.’ But you probably weren’t referring to the food.
Last week I was walking through a hotel conference center after lunch and was amazed by what I saw: About 50 excess boxed lunches.
It was nearly 2 p.m. and a hotel staffer had started stacking the boxes on a cart. I asked him what they do with these extras and he said they just throw them away.
Twice, he mentioned that I should help myself (which I did, taking one for the next day’s lunch), so he clearly knew the “orders” he was following were a bit ridiculous.
He also said that the hotel used to donate the food to a soup kitchen, “But some law was passed,” so now they don’t. Rrrrrrrrright. I think they have that backwards.
First, what a waste of food. Each box contained a 
sandwich, pasta salad, chips, cookie and an apple. The food was all packaged, so donation would have been easy–although you might hear some complaints that the sandwiches and pasta salad needed to be kept colder. But that’s an easy fix.
Sure, the food wasn’t that great. But that doesn’t explain all those untouched boxes. Either some freak storm kept a quarter of attendees from showing or the conference organizers planned for excess. It was a sunny day.
Sadly, that planned excess is standard in a hospitality industry where having displays that aren’t full at the end of a meal is deemed ‘inhospitable.’
Second, that’s a lot of packaging for one lunch. Why does the box need to be a foot tall?!
4 Comments
That is a huge amount of food to waste.
I was not aware of this superficial show of abundance:
displays that aren’t full at the end of a meal is deemed ‘inhospitable.’
That’s interesting, as if being hospitable means that food is showily displayed and available should one feel hungry. Kind of like my Mom’s and mine(but I’m improving)tendency to overstock the fridge instead of stretching what’s already there, a mindset that developed in response to The Depression.
Definitely, the employees there and the conference attendees would have lots of leverage if they opened their eyes and asked the hotel kitchen as to their plans with the extra food.
Big Questions to ask, That I ask:
Why are we humans so apathetic to waste/ injustices going on?
Why would someone FEAR taking a risk by bringing this example to the attention of somebody in charge?
It could have easily been donated to a soup kitche/homeless shelter through a couple of phone calls and a little time shifting.
have you see this article on Tim Ferriss’s blog?
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/07/21/push-vs-pull-processes/
I know he uses car manufacturing, not food as an example, but a good theory.
Multiply that by all of the thousands of conferences going on each day all over the country. They might not all waste food but many must an that all adds up. One aspect of all of the waste going on is that the extra food, that is thrown away, represents increased demand for food in general. This keeps the price of food higher than it should be.
Hi Everyone,
I am in the business of composting, specifically conferences. It seems to me that conferences are the events that have “fallen through the cracks” when it comes to food waste. I approach many conference centers and events planners. The response (usually due to lack of education) is: “oh, we don’t have a budget for recycling.”
To the event planners and conference centers that I have worked with, it has become a no brainer, but getting through to all the people involved can be quite a challenge!
First and foremost, I try to educate the chefs and kitchen staff to plan the meal and use only what is needed. I have found whole pineapples, whole onions or other fruit and veggies with only a slice or so taken out. The great thing about what I do is take these underutilized organics, turn it into a compost product, then offer a list of not- for-profit community garden or planting projects to the conference center or event planner (whoever has hired me)to donate the resulting compost to.
By the way, I’m in awe of how many sets of silverware I get in each conference project I do. I wonder how much their silverware budget is!