How Can We Professionally Address Food Waste Among Employees? Seeking Advice

We at our company provide food to all our employees. Unfortunately, some employees are wasting food by taking more than they need, which results in insufficient food for those who have lunch later. Should we consider sending an email to all employees regarding this issue? Please advise on the professional way to remind employees about the importance of saving food.

Thanks & regards,
Varsha

Please don't directly think of an email. Firstly, gather all employees together and tell them the facts of what is happening. I believe that a verbal discussion will bring about fast change instead of a written email, and people will definitely support this cause. If they do not listen verbally, then only resort to written communication.

Regards,
Arun J.

You can mention all the losses associated with food waste. This way, everyone can understand the problem, and it will definitely be reduced.

Regards,
Thiru

You can explain the wastage of food to the employees, but it will only yield limited results. Instead, you can deploy one person to serve the food to the employees, allowing for better control over food wastage. Furthermore, if an employee requests additional food, the serving staff can politely inform them that they can return for seconds, thirds, or even fourths after finishing their initial meal.

Please consider displaying posters in the Dining Hall reminding everyone to minimize food waste.

Thank you.

Please put up some posters with a good message about saving food in the kitchen. This will provide valuable information about food preservation.

Thank you.

Displaying posters is a good idea in the canteen, especially where the food is laid out. Write some nice, interesting messages adding a touch of humor. This will work better than having verbal discussions or sending out mailers.

Regards,
Gia

Dear Varsha,

Addressing Food Waste in the Workplace

Self-motivation and desire will only bring about behavioral changes in workers. They need to be educated. You can plan a weekly campaign titled "Save Food, Save Life." This could be scheduled 15 minutes prior to the lunch break. Show them some videos, such as "Starvation in South Africa" and "Nutritional Food for the Body," before lunch. Additionally, show some pictures of their own plates with leftover food to instill a sense of responsibility. Choose some of their own members to speak on the subject rather than senior management. Displaying pictures during the campaign is a bright idea.

Understanding Psychological Factors

Some more reasons for the practice could be psychological. They may believe they will not get food later, so they dump their plates. It may take longer to refill the container or serving bowl. Please ensure that there is an adequate food supply regularly available in the canteen, as it could be their occasional experience. This is something we have observed even in wedding buffets in many places.

Regards,
[Your Name]

Strategies for Reducing Food Waste

You can display some posters related to food saving. Also, establish a canteen committee and hold meetings at least once a month for improvements. During these meetings, communicate with the committee members about food waste matters. The committee members will also address food wastage messages during their morning meeting on the shop floor.

Regards,
S B Ramesh

Further to the suggestions from the members—like posters in the dining areas, verbal discussions, etc.—each of which will definitely have a positive effect towards avoiding food wastage—there could be another way of handling it. Since you are located in a Tier-3 city, there would be quite a few orphanages/old-age homes close to your premises. You could tie up with any/some of them to give away the excess food from your canteen—many such institutions accept it, since they know this would be a continuous/daily affair, and they will save money at their end [the logistics can be worked out].

Share the Plan with Employees

Now for the critical part—share with all the employees that the company is planning for such a tie-up and whoever wastes food would only be ensuring that kids/elders would be hit by their wastage. Human psychology being what it is, people, in general, think twice when kids/elders are affected by their actions—much more than they would care about colleagues or those at the same/similar level [age-wise or socially].

Any kitchen usually cooks a few more plates than actually needed—that extra food could go to the institutions—even if all the employees turn into good boys/girls .

Addressing CSR Objectives

This would, in a way, also address your official CSR objectives/obligations—given that the new CSR regulations are being brought in by the Govt. of India in the next Budget.

Regards,
TS

Make a board in the canteen with three columns and 31 rows. The first column should display the date, the second column should indicate the amount of food wasted, and the third column should show the same food that can be served to the number of hungry orphans.

Sum up the data every month and display it in the canteen.

Put an audio system in the canteen playing spiritual songs.

Create boards with phrases like "Annam parabrahma swaroopam" (Food is God). Additionally, put up as many inspiring posters as you can.

Regards,
SRK

Dear Varsha, You can display the amount of food wasted and also equate the food wasted to the amount that can actually be consumed by other employees. The display must translate the food wasted in terms of its monetary equivalent. Ensure that the Welfare Committee prepares a bar chart containing information on:

a. Food wasted translated into the number of employees who could actually consume the food had it not been wasted.

b. The monetary equivalent of the food wasted.

If you operate in shifts, do this on a three-shift basis and then compare the number of employees in each shift versus food wasted and display this information. This gives insight into the amount of food wasted per person per shift.

Continue to do this shift after shift every day, and I am sure you will definitely find an improvement in attitude.

You can also use Fixed Point Photographs that display the food wasted in the previous shift. The swarming of flies on wasted food and the possible health hazards owing to this can also be presented.

Anything that is visual and fact-based will bring about a lot of improvement. Have Welfare Committee members in each shift and ask them to present the data on the canteen notice board. You will observe a significant change in a month's time.

All the very best,

Regards,
M.V. Kannan

Adding to Gia, TS, and SRK, please provide daily statistics in the dining hall regarding food wastage and the comparative percentage of decrease/increase in wastage on a daily basis.

Regards,
Satpute

First, if you are providing unlimited food, then stop it by portioning the food items per plate. If they want extra, they can buy more. Secondly, if they eat too much, they will not be able to work as they might go to sleep or become lazy. Portion control is the best way to control wastage and will also help in production forecasting. I have worked in big canteens for almost 25 years.

Whatever suggestions are given by others are also good. Slowly implement them and create posters with real photographs where human beings are fighting for food daily. Looking at these photos, their conscience will warn them.

All the best. When you achieve your target, inform us at [Email Removed For Privacy Reasons].

Regards,
Gautam Shastry

I appreciate Gautam's suggestion, and now fixed quantity disposable plates are also available, which can be helpful. Pre-filled plates can be served to workers, and they can take a second serving as per their requirement. This way, they will not be able to dump their plate, and wastage can be minimized.