TL;DR:

Why Solving Food Waste Isn’t a Clickbait Strategy

Daniel Tosh, an American comedian, has this one bit that I absolutely love where by the time he finishes his joke he has lost all but one member of his audience, but that one person who gets it nearly dies laughing. Tosh starts his joke with some quick punchy hook that pretty much everyone in the audience can relate with, and then keeps the joke going, with more and more detail, on increasingly erratic tangents and unexpected twists, until finally he is so far out in left field that nearly everyone is left behind. It’s the opposite of what most comedians go for, and he admits it’s probably not the best strategy for his career, but you can tell he’s having a blast and that’s what counts.

Unlike Tosh, we don’t have the luxury of treating food waste as a joke any longer. Millions of Americans live without consistent access to healthy food, while across town or across the street restaurants and other retail producers toss out BILLIONS of dollars’ worth of perfectly good food, simply because they weren’t able to sell it by end of day.  Meanwhile, unprecedented climate chaos caused by greenhouse gas emissions - 46% of which are related in some way to our food system - threatens all life on our planet, and virtually no one is looking to reforming the food system as a solution.

The problem isn’t that we can’t solve these challenges. The problem is that not enough people at the top care enough to change the status quo, and the folks at the bottom feel powerless to change anything.  Food banks for the most part aren’t going to touch this type of food because they are at their core a warehousing operation not a central kitchen, and this type of food rescue requires a different approach that ensures safe handling and careful attention to food temperatures from donation to delivery.

We now have a proven plan for rescuing what amounts to 25% of total food waste BEFORE it goes bad, but we can’t just create yet another parallel food banking system for restaurants. There simply aren’t enough grant resources to deal with this challenge as a top-down approach. It’s going to take a different kind of strategy, as well as a concerted effort by folks who care enough to really understand what we’re dealing with to have a hope of educating people about the logistical nuances of hot-hold food rescue so they understand the need and will support the cause.

That deep dive is, and has been for most of the past decade, my focus.

I’ve gotten some feedback that the articles I’ve started writing on my Substack platform since last November are too long, and that I should instead make more punchy clickbait blurbs to “avoid losing my readers’ short attention spans.” While I appreciate the advice, the fact is that they don’t understand my goal in writing these articles. I’m not trying to “grow an audience” or promote myself for profit. I have no interest in becoming an influencer, seeking external validation, or selling products to my adoring fans. I will do all of those things if that’s what it takes to solve food waste and hunger, but it’s not why I’m putting myself out there.

My goal is simple: I’m here to light the path forward to a more resilient food system, and to inspire community leaders like you to step up and join the fight to end food waste in your own communities. I want to show readers that we already have the power to create real change right where we live, that we don’t need to wait for the government, or big business, or even charities to save us, that to create lasting impact we just need a solid plan to follow.

And I’m here to share that plan with you, in hope that you will “run with the ball” and score some major points by taking a leadership role in energizing YOUR communities to solve these food waste challenges right where you live and work.

I’m delighted to share with you the latest news on the innovative food rescue initiative I’ve been implementing in Colorado. Recent discussions of collaboration with new (to me) partners like the Food Bank of the Rockies, Care and Share, Food to Power, Nourish Colorado and other organizations are happening, and folks are excited to learn about new ways to rescue food previously thought to be un-rescuable.

Colorado is already leading the charge for a more sustainable food system with a robust statewide network of stakeholders addressing challenges along the entire food system, from seed to loading dock, supported by Colorado State University and state and federal leadership. Now many of us are in discussions about ways to increase our scope of impact even further. By incorporating proven strategies for food waste rescue and diversion that supports our restaurant partners’ needs as well as those of the communities they serve, we are poised to implement a distributed, grassroots strategy that supports local communities to acquire their own blast chillers and other equipment to safely freeze hot-hold restaurant food for storage and transport throughout the community.

Many people think that food rescue is something that only large organizations like food banks can do, but that’s not true. In fact, food rescue can be done by virtually any group with passion, tools, and strategies to make a difference. And that’s what I’m here to tell you about: a grassroots food rescue strategy that doesn’t require a lot of money to implement and that can take advantage of collaborations with donors, volunteers, and organizations with underutilized commercial kitchens to keep food out of landfills. Now, not later.

The strategy is simple.  Partnering with organizations like churches, Kiwanis Clubs, and community centers to access existing commercial kitchens in their communities, food rescue groups can easily add a blast chiller to the kitchen that enables them to safely freeze hot hold donated food within the safety window needed to avoid foodborne contamination. Then, volunteers can use inexpensive catering “hot boxes” to collect prepared meals from donors, and bring them to the kitchen to process through the blast chiller before storing in a freezer for later distribution. Once the food is cooled it can be sent to a community partner for distribution, either in hotel pans or repackaged as meals and donated directly to families to reheat at home.

And here’s the best part – this grassroots strategy can be implemented for a one-time cost under $20,000. That’s an incredibly cost-effective solution for acquiring equipment that empowers communities to rescue meals from landfills and feed hungry people, day after day and week after week, for years. Imagine the impact we could have if ski resorts, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and hotels with buffets all contributed as donors. We can’t expect these businesses to shoulder the load however, which is why the role of local nonprofits and communities to step up as facilitation organizations is essential to making this plan a reality.

Don’t just take my word for it. Here are some facts and figures to support this strategy:

• According to the Rockefeller Foundation, food waste and spoilage are recognized globally as urgent problems, yet they are solvable and even preventable. Solving food spoilage would feed 1 billion more people by 2050.

• In the US, 63 million tons of food goes to waste every year, which represents $218 billion spent on growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. And reducing this food waste could avoid nearly 18 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

• Cutting global food waste in half by 2030 is one of the UN’s top priorities. The UN estimates that if we stopped wasting all that food, we’d save enough to feed 2 billion people. That’s more than twice the number of undernourished people across the globe.

Developing small scale programs like this solves another challenge as well: scalability. An organization large enough to coordinate food rescue in a city the size of Denver would need to be massive and have tons of moving parts, and the costs of running such a program would be immense. There are arguments for this strategy, but the truth is that no existing organization has the capacity to expand into this role and creating one from scratch would cost millions of dollars. 

By instead developing food rescue capabilities at the community level and increasing the locations that can process the donated food organically, we can start rescuing food NOW. Even better, we can avoid organizational bloat, and keep control of the rescued food within the served community. That’s a REAL win for those of us who would rather see empowered communities over yet another top-down handout program.   

The options for implementation are nearly limitless. Here are a few examples of how this strategy can work in different contexts:

Example 1: Food pantries in Summit, Grand, Routt and/or Eagle County collaborate with area ski resorts to get hot hold food off the mountain safely after the slopes close and distribute it through the community. This serves both to support the resorts’ Zero Waste programs and community needs, while taking the responsibility for disposal off the resorts’ hands and helping to reduce their bottom line as well as their waste footprint.

A refrigerated truck with a blast chiller mounted inside can go from resort to resort picking up donated food after the slopes close for the day, and can cycle up to 12 hotel pans at a time through the chiller while picking up more. Hot boxes can hold donated food at service temperature while waiting for their turn to “chill out”. Cost: ~$10k for the chiller, ~$2k for hot boxes, ~$50k – or less - for the truck, and ~$30k for a driver for one year.

Bonus: If each resort steps up and acquires the needed blast chiller onsite and adds the cycle to their closing SOP a volunteer would have only to swing by for collections, which would simplify the process further.  ThreeSquare Food Bank in Las Vegas Nevada figured this out a few years ago when they partnered with the MGM GRand Resorts’ property, The Venetian Hotel.

Example 2: A local food rescue group (in truth literally any 501c3 nonprofit can do this, so if you’re in a Boys and Girls club or other org and don’t think you qualify take note) identifies a partner church or other location with an underutilized commercial kitchen, and arranges to install a blast chiller there as a collection point for donated food from community restaurants and other sources. Volunteers use catering hot boxes to collect the food and keep it hot until it can be cycled through the chiller in the evenings when the kitchen is closed to other uses, and the food is then taken to a food pantry or community center to serve to community members. Cost: ~$10k for the chiller, ~$2k for hot boxes, ~$5k for installation and maintenance.

Example 3: This one is for my fellow entrepreneurs!  A restaurant, hotel, school, ballpark, or other large scale food producer installs their own blast chiller, or a local group fundraises for one and installs it at the site. The business can then use it to reduce food waste internally, and save money while contributing to food donations. They can even use the blast chiller to create a new revenue stream by repackaging end of day meals for sale at local stores. Cost: ~$10k for the chiller, ~$2k for hot boxes, ~$5k for installation and maintenance. Advantage: potential income from selling repackaged meals and reducing costs from wasted food internally.

As you can see, this strategy isn’t that difficult to implement. The equipment is easily sourced, the process is simple, and between reducing food waste and filling hungry bellies the rewards are massive. If we wait for the “powers that be” to fix this problem the chances are that it will never happen, so it’s up to us to step up.  So, my fellow advocates, what are you waiting for?  I invite you to take the tools I’m sharing and start a grassroots food rescue initiative in your own community. Together, we can make a real difference in reducing food waste and feeding those in need.

TL;DR:  I had a blast writing this article. Truthfully I’ve tried publishing videos, podcasts and other options, and once I find some editing help you may see more of my ruggedly good looking face, but this will always be my favorite way to communicate. So, I’ll keep writing long form articles, and trusting that the people who like my content will read to the end. I know not everyone will, but I also know that if I can get to that one person in the back corner who “gets the joke” - and who wants to step up and be part of the solution by starting their own grassroots food rescue operation – we all win.  Once the strategy is used successfully in a few areas my hope is that this will catch on like fire, and we can start talking about those bigger initiatives to support even more impact. All it takes is one big domino to fall! 

If you want to support the cause please consider sponsoring my efforts with a subscription to my Substack, which will help me to get the help I need to further expand my impact.  I am also available for public speaking opportunities at conventions and other venues to help raise awareness of and support for food justice initiatives, and for consultations - including grant writing support - to help your group to dial in a food rescue operation in your area. If any of the above examples resonate or you want to explore options for your situation, feel free to reach out with questions to sdobbs411@yahoo.com. 

Let’s make a difference together - one meal at a time!