The Waste Less - Give More Project 1

THE
WASTE LESS - GIVE MORE
PROJECT

A PROPOSAL TO INCREASE SUSTAINABILITY, DECREASE FOOD WASTE, AND

GIVE BACK TO THE COMMUNITY AT
SANTA CLARA UNIVERSITY’S BON APPPÉTIT CATERING COMPANY.

Prepared for: Cheryl Hartzheim 


Prepared by: Andrew Hernandez

February 27, 2018

IN COOPERATION
WITH:

Waste No Food
The Waste Less - Give More Project 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary 3

Problem/Necessity 4

Project Description 6

Cost Analysis 7

Assessment Strategy 8

Conclusion 9

Appendix 10

Works Cited 11
The Waste Less - Give More Project 3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

As Bon Appétit1 aims towards focusing more deeply on our mission 2 every year, we discover
more sustainable and efficient ways of sourcing, producing, and distributing our food. One
area of major concern, specifically regarding our Santa Clara University branch, is the large
amount of food we throw away after our events.

By recording our food processing at 20 different events on the SCU campus, I have
calculated that we throw away about 1/3 of all our food. Our dedication to healthy and
sustainable ingredients becomes insignificant when we compare the amount of food we make
to the amount we throw away. This results in diminishing returns, but more importantly, it
contributes to the global plight of food waste. Every year, consumers in rich countries waste
almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan
Africa (230 million tonnes).
The Top 2 Goals For 2018:
1. Decrease the amount of food we throw away by 75%.
2. Give 7,800 pounds of food to charity by the end of the year.
3. Increase awareness on the SCU campus for sustainable food practices, measurable by the
amount of non-perishable food donated by the student body.

Our first step towards fixing our food waste problem is to work with Waste No Food3, a
nonprofit that will connect our organization with nearby charities who want the food we
would otherwise throw away. Through recording the exact amount of food we use for every
one of our events, sending the desired leftovers to local charities, and promoting this
movement around campus, we will achieve a higher level of sustainability.
The 4 Steps To Reaching Our Goals:
1. Use Waste No Food’s network to donate leftover food to local charities.
2. Hire 3 new employees to record food waste and distribute the desired leftovers to local
charities.
3. Place fliers around campus to explain how and why people should practice sustainability.
4. Offer the incentive of a free/custom SCU sweatshirt to students who donate 10 non
perishable foods in a year.

1Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company offering full food-service

management to corporations, universities, museums, and specialty venues.
2Bon Appétit’s
mission is to be the premier onsite restaurant company known for its culinary expertise
and commitment to socially responsible practices.
3 Waste No Food is a registered nonprofit that provides a web-based "marketplace" allowing excess food
to be donated from the food service industry to qualified charities that work with the needy.
The Waste Less - Give More Project 4

PROBLEM/NECESSITY

Problem:
The most significant problem within our company is the lack of attention given towards food
waste. Our sporting events, for example, are purposefully overstocked with hotdogs,
burgers, sandwiches, and pretzels so that we do
not run out of food during games. While it may
be impossible to calculate the exact amount of
food needed for each event, our current
approach is flawed in that it lacks a focus on
sustainability; and we become an unethical and
unsustainable organization when we throw all
of our unsold food in the trash.

From my calculations through recording our

food waste during 20 different Bon Appétit
events, I estimate that we throw away about 1/3 of all our food; that is nearly the average
amount of overall food wasted in the U.S. each year. By doing so, we are contributing to a
national epidemic. If we proclaim that our mission involves sustainability, we need to change
this aspect of our company and find a more ethical approach to distributing our food.

Necessity:
Since our mission includes commitment to socially responsible practices, we need to
decrease our food waste by about 75% and convince the student body at SCU that sustainable
food practices should be incorporated into their daily lives.

Waste No Food’s network will provide us with an efficient way to offer our leftover food to
nearby charities. Their simple process only requires us to record the amount and type of food
we did not sell after events, and any charities signed that have signed up with Waste No
Food will be able to claim the food. This will decrease the amount of food we throw away,
while feeding the hungry at no detrimental cost.

The students at SCU are important pieces to reaching our goal. According to estimates by
NPR, the average college student generates 142 pounds of food waste a year. Multiplying the
average amount of food waste per year by 5,500 (the number of undergraduates attending
SCU), we estimate that our student body accounts for 781,000 pounds of food waste per year.
Before we attain a culture of sustainable awareness on the SCU campus, we must educate
and incentivize the students to join our cause. Waste No Food will serve as the platform to
launch our campaign of informing and inspiring SCU’s students to live more sustainably.
The Waste Less - Give More Project 5

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
How We Will Stick:
Convincing the student body to join our cause will require that we use ideas from Chip and
Dan Heath’s 2008 book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die. If an idea is
sticky, it will be internalized by the reader and put into action. I will outline 3 of the most
important principles that we can use as a way to spread and implement our mission amongst
the SCU students.

In order for our idea to stick in the minds of students at SCU, we will use Mr. Heath’s ideas
of spreading an Emotional, Credible, and Simple message.

Emotional: We will put up fliers around campus with distressing pictures of

malnourished children and adults to make the students stop and look over our
flier.

Credible: Under the images, the flier will list statistics that will inform readers
on the severity of hunger in America and the contribution college students have
to this problem.

Simple: The flier will incentivize the students to waste lest food with a simple
phrase, “Waste Less- Give More,” and a straightforward proposition: students
who donate at least 10 non-perishable foods to Bon Appétit in a school year will
receive a free/custom SCU sweatshirt.

By combining the emotional shock of starving children, the credible statistics about the food
waste epidemic, and the simple slogan and incentive to waste less food, the push towards a
sustainable culture will stick in the minds of the students.
The Waste Less - Give More Project 6

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Proposed Change:
Instead of throwing away the leftovers after our events, we will assign an employee to record
the type and amount of food that was not sold. The employee will post the leftovers to the
Waste No Food network when the event begins shutting down, and by the time they are
finished closing, which takes 45 minutes to 1 hour, the nearby charities will already have
seen and responded to the post. Designated employees will then deliver the leftovers to the
nearby charities and drop off the food that would have otherwise been thrown away. We
should be able to deliver around 300 pounds of food per week because I have observed an
average of 350 pounds of ready to eat food thrown away. Our ability to reach this goal will
result in 7,800 pounds of salvaged food per year.

We will also post and hand out a total of 200 fliers around campus that will tell students
about sustainable practices and the detrimental effects wasting food has on the environment
and the community. Students will be incentivized not to spend their meal points frivolously
with the offer of a free/custom made sweatshirt when they donate 10 nonperishable foods to
Bon Appétit.

Who Are We Helping?

There are several groups we are positively affecting with this
project. The first is the group of people at the charities that
will receive our leftover food. The second is the the planet:
by donating 75% of the food we usually throw away, we will
greatly decrease our ecological footprint. The third is our
organization: by accounting for the amount of food we
send over to charities, we will accumulate better
estimates on how much food is actually needed for
every event. This will help us minimize
overstocking events and ultimately earn us a lager
profit. The Path Act 4 will raise even more our profit
by returning about 50 cents for every pound we give
to charity. Given that we donate about 300 pounds per
week during a 52 week year, that results in a return of
$3,900 per year.

4The PATH Act made the enhanced deduction for the donation of food inventory permanent for both
corporate and noncorporate taxpayers, increased the charitable percentage limitation and clarified
carryover and coordination rules.
 The Waste Less - Give More Project 7

COST ANALYSIS

COST ANALYSIS
Costs
Description Fractional Cost Total Cost
Posters put up around the SCU campus to
inform students and faculty about the
importance of sustainiable food practices. $ 0.25 per poster $ 50.00 200 posters
Payroll increase from hiring 3 new employees
to work a combined 24 hours per week, 46
weeks per year. $ 12.00 per hour $ 1,104.00 per year
Custom SCU sweatshirt for students who
donate at least 10 non-perishable foods to Bon
Appétit a year. $ 10.00 per sweatshirt $ 4,000.00 per year

Total Start Up Cost: $ 5,154.00 per year

Savings
Description Fractional Amount Total Amount
Savings from adjusting the amount of food
served at events. $ 100.00 per week $ 5,200.00 per year

Tax deduction from The Path Act. $ 150.00 per week $ 3,900.00 per year

Total Savings $ 9,100.00 per year

Value of Donated Food

Description Fractional Amount Total Amount
Value of food donated to local charities
through Waste No Food. $ 375.00 per week $ 19,500.00 per year

Total Value of Donated Food $ 19,500.00 per year

The Cost Analysis above focuses on the costs necessary to begin and implement the project, as well
as the money being saved through our campaign, along with the value of the social impact we are
contributing. This project requires very little funds compared to the amount we will save in serving
adjustments for events and reimbursements through The Path Act.
- We estimate that 400 out of our 2,600 freshman and sophomores will donate at least 10 non-perishable
items to Bon Appetite, resulting is a yearly expense of $4,000.
- The Path Act will reimburse us an average of $0.50 per pound that we donate to charity. We plan to
donate a total of 7,800 pounds in a year, resulting in a savings of $3,900.
- We are setting a cautionary limit on the amount of food we adjust for events. We plan to adjust $100
throughout different events a week, resulting in a savings of $5,200 per year.
- We value our food at the averaged price of $2.50 per pound. We plan to donate 7,8000 pounds,
therefore the value of the food donated to different charities through Waste No Food is $19,500.
The Waste Less - Give More Project 8

ASSESSMENT STRATEGY

Short-Term Intended Outcomes:

1) Adjust the amount of food provided at Bon Appétit events by an average of $100 per
week.

2) Donate an average of 300 pounds of food to local charities every week through the
Waste No Food application.

3) Increase awareness on the SCU campus by distributing 200 fliers about sustainable
food practices and incentivizing students to donate non-perishables to our company.

Long-Term Intended Outcomes:

1) Supply Waste No Food charities with 7,800 pounds of food in a year.

2) Reduce our food waste by 75% by the end of the year.

Ensuring Intended Outcomes:

1) Hire 3 new employees to work specifically on recording our food waste, connecting
with charities through Waste No Food, and delivering desired leftovers to local
charities.

2) Meet with the 3 new employees every other week for 30 minutes - 1 hour to discuss
the progress of our campaign.

3) Run monthly surveys on the SCU student body asking about the influence Bon Appétit
has had on their personal views of sustainability.

4) Hold monthly meetings to analyze the data of leftovers after events and make
adjustments to the amount of food provided at future events.
The Waste Less - Give More Project 9

CONCLUSION

Bon Appétit has the opportunity to maximize efficiency and increase social
awareness by utilizing the vast network that Waste No Food provides. Through
cooperation with this app and its charities, we will see a 75% decrease in the
amount of food we waste and an increase in ethical understanding amongst our
employees and the student body at Santa Clara University. We will learn to
calculate the amount of food we need at certain events with more precision and
help those who are hungry and homeless along the way. Along with the
foundation Waste No Food will provide, our on campus campaign designed to
connect and inform students on the problems of food waste will result in a shift
towards prioritizing sustainable and ethical food practices.
The Waste Less - Give More Project 10

APPENDIX

TO: Bon Appétit Employees

FROM: Andrew Hernandez
DATE: February 27, 2018
SUBJECT: The Waste Less - Give More Project

Bon Appétit’s emphasis on sustainability and fresh ingredients has pushed us to continue
improving aspects of our organization to more deeply engrain our company in our mission. I
want to thank each and every one of you for your committed efforts towards our mission and
your dedication as great employees to this organization.

The next step begins today!



As of today, we are taking on a new mission that will help us conserve food and send
leftovers to different charities. I am proud to announce that we will be working with Waste
No More, a nonprofit that connects restaurants to different charities nearby. When we are
beginning to close down catered events, a designated employee will take inventory of all the
extra food we have not sold. This employee will then post the food to the Waste No More
app, and charities in the nearby area will be notified and respond if they want the food.
We will be hiring a few more employees who will take the inventory and drive the food to
the charities every day. Feel free to refer any friends you think would fit the job well.

Along with this huge step towards wasting less and giving more, we are campaigning to raise
awareness amongst the student body. We are starting off by posting fliers around campus
with information about the importance of sustainability and incentives to pursue
sustainability your own lives.

We are looking for a few of our employees to come together and become managers of our
Waste Less - Give More sustainability movement. Please contact me if you have any ideas
about:
1. How to spread more awareness amongst the student body.
2. Any philanthropy events aimed towards feeding the homeless.
3. Any ideas on how to further improve efficiency and sustainability with
our company.
This is a great opportunity for anyone looking to move up and gain higher responsibility in
this company. We are open to all suggestions and look forward to the great things to come!
The Waste Less - Give More Project 11

WORKS CITED

http://www.bamco.com

http://www.bamco.com/about/#panel-our-standards

http://www.foodaidfoundation.org/world-hunger-statistics.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/02/27/389284061/when-food-is-too-good-to-
waste-college-kids-pick-up-the-scraps

http://www.wastenofood.org/about-us

http://rsmus.com/what-we-do/industries/consumer-products/retail/know-the-rules-for-tax-
deductions-on-charitable-donations-of-inventory.html

http://www.fao.org/save-food/resources/keyfindings/en/
The Waste Less - Give More Project 12