Waste in the entity's meals

Popular meals, meetings, volunteer gatherings, celebrations or various leisure activities. Entities and associations usually organize numerous community meals throughout the year designed to build and strengthen bonds between people. Around a table is where relationships grow best. However, we must think about what happens outside of it, when the meal is over . How much waste has been generated? Is there food that has been wasted?

Organizations that want to reduce their environmental impact have to think about many things, and meals are not an unimportant factor. Responsible consumption must be promoted and planning must be done to optimize resources. This will involve making small changes in organization, purchasing, materials used, etc.

This resource addresses all these issues, and does so by taking as a reference the guides ' Reduce food waste in the entity's meals ' and ' Reduce waste in the entity's meals ' from the Barcelona Youth Associations Resource Center (CRAJ) .

Meals and environmental footprint

In many cases, the preparation of community meals - for camps, parties, meetings, assemblies or conferences - is one of the areas where organizations generate the greatest environmental impact. On the one hand, the production of the food consumed in itself has a very large effect, and wasting it involves a great loss of resources, not to mention its management when it becomes waste. On the other hand, there is the use of disposable plates, glasses and cutlery, as well as bottles, packaging and other materials. But, in addition to the environmental consequences, these dimensions have an economic impact on the organization.

For all this reason, adopting sustainability criteria in the organization of meals is one of the actions with the greatest potential to reduce the environmental impact of association activities.

Planning

As is evident, the best waste is the one that is not produced . For this reason, it is necessary to plan the activity with this dimension in mind, adjusting the quantities , and avoiding unnecessary purchases.

For this reason, it is necessary to start by knowing the exact people who will come . This can be achieved by registering and requesting confirmation of attendance. Based on this number, an adapted menu can be prepared and a shopping list can be drawn up that fits it. It will always be better, also, to think of this menu according to seasonal and local products, and prioritize buying in bulk when possible , in order to avoid unnecessary packaging.  

Tools and materials

A significant portion of food waste comes from packaging and single-use products , and, for this reason, reducing them is the most obvious and direct strategy to greatly reduce the environmental impact of these activities.

This means using reusable tableware - the same as yours, of course -, serving water in jugs instead of bottles, buying food in bulk or in large formats and transporting it in lunch boxes or containers - if applicable.

Serving and setting the table

The time when the table is set and the plates with the meals are placed also influences the amount of food that ends up in the trash. It has to do, above all, with the way the people attending consume. It will always be more advisable to adjust the portions that are served and offer the possibility of repeating, as well as presenting the foods progressively and announcing them in advance , also informing about their ingredients.

The leftovers

Once the meal is over, comes what is perhaps the most obvious part of responsible food management, and that is that it is common, despite planning, for there to be surpluses. In this case, the solution should never be to discard them. The first option should always be to offer participants the opportunity to take away the leftover food , or, if possible, reuse it for future activities , always following food safety measures. In this sense, there is also the option of sharing the food with other groups or community initiatives.

Finally, if there are any leftovers that are not suitable for consumption, they can be composted . If the entity has a vegetable garden or nursery , it can take advantage of it itself. If not, it can take it to an entity or association dedicated to these issues.

Waste management

Despite the preparation, however, it is possible that waste will still be generated. In this case, it will be necessary to separate it properly so that it can be recycled  or recovered. For this reason, it is advisable to explain to the participants how to correctly separate each fraction so that they can help in the task of waste management, having previously installed selective collection points accessible throughout the activity.