11 steps to stop wastage of food at our workplaces

Food for thought

Without even getting into numbers and statistics, one can figure out the huge amounts of food that go wasted every day at our respective workplaces. I had been thinking of sharing ways to prevent wastage of food. I finally decided to share upon seeing a message on LinkedIn which went somewhat like this: Don’t waste food, I can afford it, you can afford it, but the nation can’t afford it. It’s a very powerful message indeed.

Come let’s find out ways in which we can prevent wastage of food! It is an engaging work indeed! Please understand that these eleven steps are more relevant in the APAC region, where people’s index on collectivism is higher than individualism [Individualism (IDV) vs. Collectivism]*.  

1. Do not blame the employees. In fact, do not blame anyone, it doesn’t help. If I am blaming my employees who waste food on a regular basis, it only means I am accepting this as a phenomenon. Your employees are sweet and harmless; however, they are unconscious. The strategy would be to make them conscious. 
2. If you are really serious to put this behind you, first make a list of people who waste out of habit and those who waste because of the system! System? Yes. Your vendors give a specific amount of veg/egg noodles for Rs.25. If I am not able to eat the whole amount, there will be a wastage of food for sure. Similarly, for chapatti thali, allow people to choose the number of chapattis they want to have; those who cannot have four chapattis invariably waste.  
3. Form a team which is engaged in finding out from which career level, foods are getting wasted the most, the results could be interesting, and organize intermittent training on the importance of saving food. If required, build this into your induction module.
4. Introduce a buffet instead of a banquet, if possible. 
5. Encourage employees to use condiments and tissue papers diligently. 
6. Develop a packaging system that allows the wasted food (not rotten) to be channeled to those who starve for a whole square meal. Don’t think twice as to how you can give somebody’s wasted food to someone else, that you are abusing poverty....no, you are not because food is food, and if those eager mouths get healthy food from you on a regular basis, what more can you ask for! 
7. Please do not penalize anyone for wasting food... this is ineffective and generates negative feeling and eventually leads onto a lose-lose scenario. 
8. Introduce black tea/coffee with separate sugar and milk. Diabetic patients are obliged to take tea/coffee with milk and sugar because, in most offices, beverages are not served separately, and most of them, take just a sip or two and throw the rest of it in the nearest litter. You can’t blame them, can you because their malady doesn’t allow them to have the full cup, but they do so because all they want is a sip. So please train the vendors to check on the quantity required. This can also happen for people without sugar; introduce half-cup tea or coffee. 
9. Train the vendors and the employees separately and note down their concerns. Please note down their concerns because you are determined to save food, so it is your business to have all kinds of information concerning food and its wastage. 
10. Allow employees to share one meal. This can be really handy... I have seen vendors not allowing people to share one meal because of obvious reasons. 
11. There could be some who waste food simply because they don’t like the taste. Educate the vendors to accommodate people’s tastes, those who like spicy food and those who do not. In Hyderabad, I had difficulties in requesting the vendors not to put red chilly in omelets, and whenever they did I had to gulp it down with regrets. The onus is on both sides, please educate the vendors to ask simple questions like ‘with or without red chilly’. There needs to be a repository of questions that need to be asked to employees who come to eat.

It is a fascinating and challenging process to save food and your only incentive is that you are saving your nation from wasting food every day! However, this needs research and an engaging team committed to innovating newer and doable ways to not let foods go down the drain.

These eleven steps are not sacrosanct, I am sure you and your research team can find out better and more innovative ways to do something our nation can ill afford. The sole objective of this article is to say that a) it is possible to let the litters go light and b) blaming your employees will not help. Train all the stakeholders to go up the ladder, from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, and in this effort, never give up, never be fed up!

All the best!

Note *Individualism (IDV) vs. collectivism: "The degree to which individuals are integrated into groups". In individualistic societies, stress is put on personal achievements and individual rights. People are expected to stand up for themselves and their immediate family and to choose their own affiliations. In contrast, in collectivist societies, individuals act predominantly as members of a lifelong and cohesive group or organization (note: "The word collectivism in this sense has no political meaning: it refers to the group, not to the state"). People have large extended families, which are used as a protection in exchange for unquestioning loyalty. [Source: Geert Hofstede’s Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind]

Image credit: 

Data: Global Food Losses and Food Waste, FAO 2011 | bit.ly/gflfw Graphic @lulupinney#graphicswithacause

P.S

The reason I say research is important is because of inputs that you will get about wastage of food. In many offices, I have seen that genuine wastes get merged with recyclable waste.

We have wasted (this much) food today is good, but it doesn’t quantify the waste. Innovate a method which enables you to say, we have wasted 32 chapattis, 2.5 kilos of rice, 13 boiled eggs, 9 pieces of chicken...and so on. Where is the team which can do that? This might ring a bell somewhere, those foods could have gone to stomachs that are starving?

I have also seen people wasting chapattis because of their size. In some offices, the size is too big. There are people who systematically take one or two bites and then throw them away. In some offices, the type of chapattis is the reason; they are not soft. That’s why research is needed.

To cope with this, two/three types of sizes can be introduced with interesting names, viz. cute chapatti, jumbo chapatti, mumbo chapatti.. or soft chapatti, super-soft chapatti; who knows, this can help in avoiding wastage.

Whatever you do, be prepared to fail...this is very important. Every day try new ways, and every day you might see the litters are failing you..don’t give up...please..because you are on a mission here...you are not just satisfied with the salary you get at the end of every month, but you are working for a much larger cause... surely you will one day find your feather-light litters dancing in ecstasy, and the nation (world) replete and smiling. Remember wasting food is in a way snatching food...don’t let this happen..so pull in your socks and get, set and go!

©Supratik Sen