practice applications

TOPICS OF PROFESSIONAL INTEREST

Reducing Foodservice Waste: Going Green

Can Save Green

ts the beginning of a new year, and

if one of your resolutions is to green
your institutional foodservice and
recycle and reduce your water usage
and garbage hauling fees, there are
good ways to do it, and youve got lots
of company. And by going green, your
foodservice can save some green as
well.
In April 1997, a Journal article,
The Greening of a School District
(1), detailed the efforts of Nadine
Mann, PhD, RD, director of operations of East Baton Rouge Parish
School System in East Baton Rouge,
LA, to institute a recycling program
and reduce waste in the school cafeterias within her school district. The
green movement has continued to
gather momentum since this article
was published and the message
hasnt changed. The very first thing
any foodservice director should look
at is sourcing. Can we redo packaging
that would impact what goes in the
dumpster? That, to me, is the highest
priority, and its certainly made the
biggest impact for us. For example,
they found they could significantly reduce the volume of waste by changing
from milk cartons to plastic pouches
that the children pierce with straws.
Despite concerns from parents and
staff, Mann reports that the pouches
are a huge success; since the switch,
there have been fewer milk spills, the
volume of garbage is reduced, and because the milk feels colder in students hands, and they can see how
much milk they drink, less milk is
This article was written by Jim
McCaffree, a freelance writer in
Los Angeles, CA. McCaffree is a
former editor of the Journal and
currently works for a direct mail
agency that works with
nonprofits. McCaffree is also a
writer of short films.
doi: 10.1016/j.jada.2008.11.038

wasted, thereby reducing the schools

food waste as well.
School cafeterias, however, are not
the only institutions trying to go green.
Many correctional facilities are also
instituting recycling programs.
Barbara Wakeen, MA, RD, owner
of Correctional Nutrition Consultants
in North Canton, OH, reports that
one of her clients, in addition to recycling cardboard and cans, contracts
with a company that will pick up its
milk cartons. They also are trying to
use quick-decomposing containers
when packaging up bag meals and
snacks. Even shoes are being recycled
for use in tennis courts. One correctional facility has even used recycling
to better the life of its inmates. They
shred paper waste and bale cardboard from food boxes for sale to the
local recycling foundation; the money
they make is placed into their indigent welfare fund.
FOOD WASTE
The second thing to look at is what is
going out of the kitchen every day,
says Mann.
Offer vs Serve
One way to reduce food waste, many
operators have found, is by providing
choices to diners, whether they are
students, prisoners, or residents in a
long-term care facility. This concept is
known as offer versus serve; instead
of serving every diner the same meal,
meal components are offered, and the
diner can choose which items they
will take.
In fact, under US Department of
Agriculture regulations (2), a student
can decide to take all of the food components offered or some of the components, and the meal will be considered reimbursable by the federal
government. So if you can teach your
student body how to take the foods
that they want for their meal and

2009 by the American Dietetic Association

then to eat those foods, says Teresa

Nece, MS, RD, chair of the School
Nutrition Services dietetic practice
group, private consultant, and former
director of food and nutrition management for the Des Moines, IA,
school district, then youve made a
great impact in reducing what goes on
the plate and then is thrown away.
Mann concurs. When I started, it
used to be mandatory that everything
had to be put on the plate, and let me
tell you, we really fed the garbage
can.
Lee Tincher, MS, RD, president of
HM Composite, a consultation service
to the long-term health care industry,
says, The use of buffets, salad bars,
wait service, and family style dining
in long-term care facilities can reduce
the plate waste. Research bears this
out. According to a study published in
the Journal, researchers analyzed a
waste stream for 7 days. They determined that health care tray service
generated more service food waste by
weight for all three meals than either
family-style service or wait-staff service, and residents eating in the dining room with family-style service
disposed of significantly less service
food waste than those receiving the
other two service styles (3).
Tincher is an advocate of a movement called Culture Change. While
not specifically an environmental
movement, its mission, to transform
the culture of nursing homes by building relationship-centered communities that affirm the dignity, autonomy, and value of each individual who
lives and works there, (4) can impact
the amount of food waste generated.
The goals of Culture Change are to
allow residents more autonomy in
choosing their food, Tincher says. It
is also referred to as person-directed
dining. Food waste is reduced by improving communication systems between the dietary department and
the resident or nursing staff. Waste is
created when we serve the wrong

Journal of the AMERICAN DIETETIC ASSOCIATION

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TOPICS OF PROFESSIONAL INTEREST

foods to a resident and then must
make another tray or substitute food
item. Tincher adds that more dietary
departments are implementing computerized tray tickets to manage the
information and help provide the
foods a resident will eat.
Composting
Wakeen says that many of her client
facilities have gardens and farms that
grow food, which they then prepare
for inmates. Also, Wakeen says, several sites recycle kitchen waste (fruit
and vegetable peelings and trimmings) for their worm farm. The
worms break down the waste and release nutrients back into the soil.
Other correctional facilities recycle
all of their food waste, which is picked
up by recycling companies that then
convert it to compost.
CONSERVING WATER
Because of the droughts that have hit
much of the United States recently,
water expenses have risen dramatically, and saving water has taken on

new urgency, especially in school

cafeterias, which use a great deal of
water to wash dishes, flatware, and
trays.
In fact, a recent Chicago Tribune
article showed how universities in
drought-stricken states in the Southeast have eliminated the use of trays
in their cafeterias. The article reports
that, for example, Georgia Tech, with
18,000 students, has saved 3,000 gallons of water per day; the University
of Florida, with 50,000 students, estimates it will save 470,000 gallons annually (5).
Mann says that East Baton Rouge
switched to disposable ware about 10
years ago. It made a huge impact in
the water usage of the district. Not
only that, she says, it made a significant impact on the electricity that
was used because the cafeterias no
longer have to operate a dishwashing
machine. The downside, though, is
that styrofoam is not eco-friendly
and not easily recyclable, but they
couldnt afford to go with paper
plates, which Mann estimates cost
twice as much as styrofoam. We
didnt have a recycling outlet for paper anyway, and with us being a large
district91 schoolsthe fact that we
would have to hold these items to be
recycled, whether they would be styrofoam or paper plates, is almost impossible because of odors and problems with sanitation . . . we have high
humidity and heat and we cannot
have our garbage held. Im not pleased
with that from a recycling standpoint,
but thats just the way it is.
CHALLENGES IN GOING GREEN
While institutions with foodservice
have made great strides in reducing
waste and recycling, going green is
not without its challenges.
Recycling can often mean increased
labor. For instance, when Mann instituted cardboard recycling in East Baton Rouge, she says she encountered
resistance from the custodial staff.
However, she says, it is now standard
operating procedure in East Baton
Rouge schools. However, Hurricane
Katrina has hindered East Baton
Rouges recycling efforts. We took in
over 10,000 students when Katrina
hit in 2005. As a result, Mann says,
improving recycling has gone to the
back burner.
One of Wakeens clients, a manager

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February 2009 Volume 109 Number 2

of jail services, says that two challenges

her facility faces are the necessity of
continuously training new inmate
workers and getting the foodservice
staff to buy in to a recycling program;
otherwise, this dietitian says, they
will not adequately train and monitor
inmate workers. Beyond convincing
workers to buy in to a recycling program, the same dietitian reports that
the cost for hauling organic debris is
higher than trash hauling, which
makes reducing plate waste important.
When asked about educating parents on reducing waste, Mann says
that 95% of elementary students eat
their meals at school, and high school
students in her district either eat
school lunches or go off campus. As
for parents reducing the waste in
their kids lunches by using reusable
containers, I dont see the parents
having the time to do that.
However, Nece says, I think theres
always room to continue to educate
parents on not only what comes home
from school but how to in turn reduce
waste in their home. One of the biggest issues, I think, is continuing to
educate the community. Because you
can only make so many changes without making sure that everyone is a
part of improving what is happening
with the environment.
References
1. Hahn N. The greening of a school district.
J Am Diet Assoc. 1997;97:371.
2. Food and Nutrition Service, US Department
of Agriculture. Offer vs. serve resource guide.
Food and Nutrition Service Web site. http://
www.fns.usda.gov/TN/Resources/offer_v_serve.
html. Accessed October 5, 2008.
3. Hackes B, Shanklin C, Kim T, Su A. Tray
service generates more food waste in dining
areas of a continuing-care retirement community. J Am Diet Assoc. 1997;97:879-882.
4. California Culture Change. Mission statement. California Culture Change Web site.
http://www.calculturechange.org. Accessed
October 5, 2008.
5. Raby J, Holy food fight: US colleges saying
nay to cafeteria trays. Chicago Tribune Web
site. http://mobile.chicagotribune.com/detail.
jsp?key173795&full1. Accessed August
25, 2008.