Recently I've catered some events that require food for hundreds, if not thousands, of people. The math to produce adequate amounts for that many people gets a little fuzzy. So I'm sort of posing a question to the three or four people out there that may read this blog.
What is a fair and equitable way to "dispose of" leftovers?
I know the most obvious answer is to not have any. So much easier said than done and sort of a catch-22. You see, if we run out it looks like we haven't prepared for the event and we get criticized for that, but if we have too much then people accuse us of being wasteful. Now don't get me wrong we don't have thousands of pounds of food that we're discarding, still in today's market the dramatic increase in food prices really make any waste economically and socially questionable. It is up to we, who produce the food, to try and control this (over) production. So how? It is a question I pose to any who read this blog. I'm interested in the suggstions of others because I don't think there is a right answer. So blog away!
7 comments:
get some farm animals, goats..to eat the vegetables
or donate to farms, or process for fertilizing, for a compost pile. have garbage cans for compost, divide like plastic, paper, but label- no meats, just vegetable matter and grains.
i am not sure what to do with the leftover meat, donate to a dog pound?
at the same time you could advertise your support for pet adoption, peta, save the earth issues..eco catering
i am glad you posted this, i am always appalled and really surprised by risd catering and the waste, even after speaches about earth eco friendly solutions..
recycled paper plates, coffee stirers...etc
I think the compost idea is good. We already work with a pig farmer to reduce some of the waste from daily production at one of our dining facilities. If you have any more ideas or suggestions please post them on the blog. If we all keep thinking maybe we'll be able to find an equitable solution.
Chickens also consume leftovers, including meat, cheese, pies, desserts, whatever. We use our chickens as a top-level to our compost.
I recall that one of the most fun things about working as a line cook was finding a way to incorporate leftover foods from the night before like excess mashed potatoes or extra crostini into staff lunches.
i don't think that you should use catering leftovers to feed dining staff or risd students, but i do think that the kind of inventiveness that you need to have in order to recycle food like that would make a great student/dining outreach. Maybe like second life lessons, but for food.
Cooking is one of those things where you can always learn something new, why not share that with the students? I mean, students also have plenty of leftovers that they don't know what to do with other than throw in the microwave...
Tangentially, cooking is also something that lends itself to being 'open source.' It might be interesting to see what would happen if you made all the risd dining recipes 'open source' and see if people suggest improvements. Or, given that people would know how to produce the same food that risd dining does, how that would change their dining experience?
For example, both thomas keller and alice waters taught me that they could give away all the secrets and that i would still crave eating at their restaurants. Well, it's just an idea, anyway.
Give them to Dennis Congdon, the painting department head, he has goats.
Pierre,
I don't know about your city, but here in Jackson, MS--so you KNOW it can be done ANYWHERE!--there's a nonprofit that breathes new life into leftover food. They're called The Gleaners, and they do amazing stuff in our community with leftovers.
There's a nifty article in the local paper to explain what these folks do, so you can be on the lookout for a similar org: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/index.php/print_view/32624
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