Winnow is proud to be taking part in Stop Food Waste Day 2018. We have been working with Compass Group UK & Ireland since 2013, and this year will launch exciting programs aimed at tackling ‘plate waste’. In tandem we are also celebrating the brilliant chefs championing Winnow worldwide who are having a real impact in the fight against food waste.
Launched by Compass Group USA in 2017, Stop Food Waste Day is an annual event with the aim of raising awareness around the issue of food waste and encouraging the industry, and the wider public, to reduce the amount of food thrown away.
Our partnership with Compass Group UK & Ireland is now delivering at scale with over 250 sites having adopted the system and sites are seeing great results. Across staff restaurants, schools, universities, defence sites and hospitals, on average food waste is cut in half.
As part of Stop Food Waste Day we are excited to announce an innovative partnership with Compass and environmental charity Hubbub, aiming to tackle plate waste. Working with two high profile businesses in Canary Wharf, the project aims to help customers reduce their ‘plate waste’. Each campaign has been built by gaining insight from customers, measuring existing levels of plate waste and learning about the cultural drivers within the organisations.
By combining Hubbub’s creative expertise (check out some of their ground-breaking work engaging consumer here) and Winnow’s cutting edge digital tools to measure food waste, we hope to gain a deeper understanding to help reduce plate waste. The project will include a number of activities:
- introducing tips and nudges on how to reduce food waste into all restaurants
- Recruiting student “Waste Warriors” at the University of Sussex to implement a food waste reduction initiative decided on by the students
- Opening a voting system by which staff vote for their favourite charity; people are incentivised by the amount raised for charity correlating with the reduction in plate waste
- Encouraging customers at a client site to become ‘food waste ambassadors’ and trial kitchen gadgets to reduce food waste in their homes
- Installing a large collection of presents filled with prizes inside a client restaurant which can be obtained through a tangible reduction in plate waste.
Chris Garside, Managing Director – Compass Group UK & Ireland, said: “We are proud to lead the way in tackling food waste. Our commitment to reducing food waste is a key priority for us and the Stop Food Waste Day spreads an important message both within our organisation, at client sites and amongst the general public.”
Winnow is also working with chefs across Compass Group in the UK, as well as several international markets to reduce waste. We caught up with Thom Barker, executive head chef at The University of Bournemouth where food waste has been cut by 50%.
Thom said, “We’ve identified that overproduction is the main reason why we were wasting food. Based on that, we learned how to work with a tight production level to make sure we were cooking the right amount of food. I can’t be everywhere all the time, and technology is much more accurate than humans. Winnow’s smart scales captures all of the food waste within the building and has helped me gain more control over my kitchen.”
Winnow’s CEO and co-founder Marc Zornes says, “Chefs like Thom are an inspiration to us at Winnow. Globally thousands of chefs are beginning to have a real impact on the problem of food waste and kitchens using Winnow are now saving over 10 million meals from the bin every year.”
We believe that chefs have an essential role to play in the fight against food waste. Not only in their kitchens, but also for consumers where their influence shapes our behaviour and food culture. We are proud to take part in this year’s Stop Food Waste Day, and would encourage everyone to visit www.stopfoodwasteday.com and take the pledge to make every day Stop Food Waste Day.
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