Detroit Restaurants Combat Food Waste

First some stats: It’s estimated that every person in The United States wastes one pound of food per day. One-third of all food produced globally is sent to landfills. This organic trash breaks down releasing methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon.

The state of Michigan aims to become carbon neutral by 2050. Here’s what’s banned in Michigan landfills — you’ll see that food isn’t one of the items listed.

Enter Danielle Todd. Todd is Executive Director of Make Food Not Waste (MFNW). Based in Detroit, MFNW works to reduce food waste by using education, advocacy, and food upcycling. Todd teamed up with The PLEDGE, an international certification program that equips the food industry to know where waste is happening, and implement changes to reduce that waste. Then she invited local restaurants to get on board.

Writer Kelli Finger connected with Todd recently to learn more about how Todd is working hard to move the entire state forward in its carbon neutral goal, including giving the food industry an assist:

Kelli Finger: What’s your background?
Danielle Todd: I started my career in business and over time moved into environmental work. In 2016, I was looking for a way to have my work have a bigger impact and I came across Project Drawdown’s research on climate change solutions.

At the time, food waste reduction was the third best solution to climate change. Now it’s number one. I didn’t realize there was such a strong tie between food waste and climate. I was really excited to come across this research because food was such a big part of my family’s culture and it seemed like a natural fit to go into this work.

KF: Where did the idea for The PLEDGE come from?
DT: When Make Food Not Waste started, we focused on reducing food waste in the home, since that’s the biggest source of waste in the system. Restaurants come in a close second. The PLEDGE is a certification program that started internationally. We are the first nonprofit to introduce it in the U.S. The focus of The PLEDGE is preventing food waste from happening altogether.

KF: What’s involved in The PLEDGE?
DT: The PLEDGE is based on research that shows where in foodservice food waste might occur. It mostly involves making changes to your operations so you don’t need to donate or compost as much food.

KF: How are restaurants reducing food waste?
DT: The PLEDGE has staff go through how they source, store, prepare, and plate food. Internal communication among staff and with customers is also examined.

Those who have taken The PLEDGE have seen a three to five percent drop in food costs. They learn what big and small changes to make to lessen the amount of food they send to landfills. Ultimately, simple changes to operations add up!

KF: Where does the excess food go?
DT: Each kitchen that has food to donate is set up with a food rescue partner who can come pick it up and deliver it to a local food pantry.

KF: What challenges do those who’ve taken the pledge face?
DT: The biggest challenge is staffing. Coming out of the pandemic, restaurants have still not been able to fully staff up. That means the staff they do have are working extra hours. Changing habits does take time and time isn’t something that a lot of food service workers can spare right now.

KF: How are you measuring progress?
DT: As the restaurant moves through the program, they document what they’re doing and upload it to an online portal that’s available to MFNW. Each month we have a group call to go over where everyone is. It’s a chance for the restaurants to talk to each other, too, and get some ideas. Right now, we have 12 [Detroit] restaurants working through The PLEDGE together.

KF: How might other restaurants get involved?
DT: Restaurants who want to join the PLEDGE can either give us a call at (313) 241-4125 or reach out to The Pledge On Food Waste. You’ll be matched with an organization like MFNW who can help you along the way. Then it’s just a matter of registering and getting started.