Wasting food is also snatching food

This article is an extension of the previous one ‘Food for thought: 11 steps to stop wastage of food at our workplaces’ which highlights the unpredictable nature of wasting food; it can vary due to a number of reasons. That’s what makes it challenging and hence engaging. This article is to understand the reasons why people end up wasting food.

Make saving food your fetish

It needs a substantial amount of study to understand why and how people waste food. You could be deluded if you thought of following a standard and approved method and applying it everywhere; food is wasted for a number of reasons. Observe the pattern based on the following variables in your respective facilities.

Days

Observe the pattern of waste on Fridays and Mondays. When your employees are rushing home, or busy meeting friends for their Friday parties, the pattern can be different than on Mondays, when they come back to work.

Nature of work

Wastage might also depend on the nature of work. Employees who work in shifts might throw a different pattern than those who work on normal shifts. People who work in BPOs, or hospitals might have a different pattern. Unless you observe the pattern, you cannot chalk out the problem map more accurately.

Position of the facility

Similarly the geographical positioning of your facility may give different patterns, e.g. office located on the outskirts as opposed to those located at the heart of the city.

Weather

During change of seasons, when there is imbalance (dosha) in wind or air (vayu), bile or fire (pitta) and water or phlegm (kapha), nature of wastage can be different. So the strategy has to be different then.

When the weather of the office is heavy!

Even after having two strudels, when Max wanted to have one more with the excuse of‘making 'it an uneven three’ do you remember what Captain von Trapp told him in the famous film The Sound of Music (1965)? ‘Still eating, Max? Must be unhappy.’

People normally eat more, waste more when the stress level is high, therefore, during periods of appraisals, the pattern could be different. What I am trying to say here is that there cannot always be a fixed method for preventing wastage of food.

What may not work

Do not make your employees’ lives miserable because you are on a mission

This is very important. The reason is very simple. While the belief ‘food is the first love’ is true, it is also true that people eat to distress. Your employees are stressed because of a number of reasons, so please don’t make their lives miserable when they are eating.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing may not work; the treasure team is there in your organisation: no one knows your organisation, or your facility the way you do. So find the team from within your organisation or facility. Be alert and keep on observing till you crack. Remember the ways are just hiding somewhere; they are just some efforts away. There is no standard method for saving food. You try and apply a recommended method which is successful in some country or in some organisation, the results might fail you! However, if it works, then there's nothing like it, please go ahead and follow! Remember, every organisation has its culture, its own characteristics, and therefore, its own pattern of wasting food, and within the same organisation, different facilities could show different patterns of waste.

What may work

Sit with the employees to find out the number and gaps. If you really make saving food your fetish, go talk to your employees, try and get the numbers, e.g. how many prefer dal, chawal, sabji, how many want burgers, and so on. With a finite number of footfalls and menu, this may not be difficult. Give them what they want, and if required change your menu. This could also help.

Here are some cost-effective suggestions

Choose one day in a month when you could observe no food wastage day. On that day, ask everyone who has lunch from the canteen to bring an empty lunch box or any packet where they can carry their excess food. This is to ensure that you go light on the litters on that day. If this doesn’t work, keep trying. But when it does, don’t forget to celebrate.

From the day it works, you could suggest this to the ones you know waste food. Here is what they can do with the excess food they carry home. They can

·         give it to persons who they know are starving in their respective localities

·         eat it for later, it’s just like you do with excess food you bring from the restaurants

 Introduce foodie buddy

Suggest people who love to eat to sit with those who waste food. The foodies would love to have that extra chapatti, or that extra bite from their friends’ plate!

I am sure most of you would have already done this. Try newer ways; please do not give up this noble cause and this pressing need. Problem of recycling can be solved if the effort to save food becomes inclusive.

Keep on trying my friends, because wasting food is also snatching food. Never be fed up, you will find your ways for sure!

Image credit: magnonsmeanderings.blogspot.com
©Supratik Sen