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8 ways onsite operations can take on food waste and sustainability

With an eye on National Stop Food Waste Day on Apr. 28, we collected some articles Food Management published on food waste and sustainability issues over the past year. Here’s a roundup.

Mike Buzalka, Executive Features Editor

April 26, 2021

7 Slides
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Food waste has been a growing issue across the foodservice community for a number of years, combining concerns about the environment, consumer attitudes, the reliability of the food supply channel, operational finances and, not least, ethics. Food Management has been tracking the trend all along, incorporating it, as well as related sustainability issues, into multiple stories about individual operations. We’ve also published several contributed viewpoint articles from experts about the topic, giving additional perspectives to the conversation.

What seems to emerge generally from our coverage of how onsite dining operators are addressing food waste is that it is an issue of growing concern with implications both for customer relations and for bottom-line finances. Customers—especially in colleges—are now demanding more attention be paid to the environmental impact of unconsumed food waste. Meanwhile, dining programs, often under greater fiscal pressures because of COVID-related cost increases and revenue decreases, see food waste less as an acceptable debit on the balance sheet and more as a controllable cost that can—and should—be addressed with more efficient procurement, production and service procedures.

About the Author

Mike Buzalka

Executive Features Editor, Food Management

Mike Buzalka is executive features editor for Food Management and contributing editor to Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News. On Food Management, Mike has lead responsibility for compiling the annual Top 50 Contract Management Companies as well as the K-12, College, Hospital and Senior Dining Power Players listings. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English Literature from John Carroll University. Before joining Food Management in 1998, he served as for eight years as assistant editor and then editor of Foodservice Distributor magazine. Mike’s personal interests range from local sports such as the Cleveland Indians and Browns to classic and modern literature, history and politics.

Mike Buzalka’s areas of expertise include operations, innovation and technology topics in onsite foodservice industry markets like K-12 Schools, Higher Education, Healthcare and Business & Industry.

Mike Buzalka’s experience:

Executive Features Editor, Food Management magazine (2010-present)

Contributing Editor, Restaurant Hospitality, Supermarket News and Nation’s Restaurant News (2016-present)

Associate Editor, Food Management magazine (1998-2010)

Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1997-1998)

Assistant Editor, Foodservice Distributor magazine (1989-1997)

 

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