May 26, 2021
In 2019, the annual food waste produced by the food service industry in Louisiana was 160,00 tons, most of which went straight into landfills. In 2018, the New Orleans metropolitan area was ranked second highest for senior food insecurity in all of the U.S. metropolitan areas. There is a clear disparity between the consumption of food versus the waste of food products.
While there are a myriad of socio-economic factors that go into hunger and food access, redirecting food waste is a tangible practice local businesses can adopt to combat food waste and in turn aid the hungry population:
RescueRunner is a volunteer-based service in New Orleans that picks up extra food and prepared meals from anyone in the food service industry and delivers them to local shelters, soup kitchens, and food pantries
Composting redirects food from landfills into the environment. Local composting and recovery services can be found here: http://www.nolafoodpolicy.org/resources-2/food-waste-and-recovery-resources
Simple in-house tips for reducing waste include: inspect food orders for quality, eliminate tray dining, donate scraps to local farmers for feed, maintain appropriate storage conditions to avoid spoiling, and use specials to get rid of extra ingredients
Restaurant guide to food waste actions:
https://refed.com/downloads/Restaurant_Guide_Web.pdf
Find your local food bank:
https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank
Sources:
https://www.vianolavie.org/2019/12/16/hungry-for-change-a-look-into-the-new-orleans-food-crisis/
https://blog.trycake.com/29-tips-for-tackling-food-waste-in-your-restaurant
https://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2019/overall/louisiana