Project Goals

1. To determine what foods were creating the most kitchen and plate waste in their facility.
2. To reduce the money they were spending both on purchasing food and disposing of food that is not eaten, by developing a better knowledge of their waste.
3. To develop strategies in the kitchen and with the residents in order to reduce food waste.

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1. Conduct an on-site visit at the facility to see and understand how their operation works.
2. Understand what their personal goals are. The Department of Corrections was focused on pre-consumer waste because during Covid, residents were taking their food back to their cells to eat.
3. Create customized worksheets for their kitchen. Here, data was collected on a simple “pen-and-paper” food waste tracker.
4. The facility would then take daily measurements and then at the end of the week, these data sheets were sent to our student intern to input into an excel spreadsheet. This helped with data accuracy, labor shortages at the facility, and with adjusting data inconsistencies.
5. After 6 weeks, we met with the facility again to show them their report. 

The Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center Kitchen waste was measured from 10/4/2021 to 12/2/2021

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We worked with the Southern Maine women’s Reentry Center in Wyndham for two months to track kitchen waste for the approximately 100 meals served each day. We helped identify what parts of the kitchen were producing the most fixable waste.

Ryan Fitzmaurice with Windham DOC

“If you’re interested in reducing your restaurant’s food waste and related costs and would like to see how we can help, please email us at foodrescuemaine@maine.edu,” explains Fitzmaurice. “It’s a smart way to save money, help feed your community, and protect Maine’s natural resources – all at the same time!” – Ryan Fitzmaurice, Mitchell Center Student Intern

Data Tracking System Used by Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center.

The following graphs are templates (with randomized data) of the insights that you could have after a six week tracking program!

Food Waste Tracking Data Template

Food Waste Tracking Data Template

Food Waste Tracking Data Template

The post Pilot 1: Southern Maine Women’s Reentry Center appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

After finishing our pilot with the reentry facility in Windham, we patterned with the DOC again to track food waste at the Maine State Prison and Bolduc Correctional Facility. Instead of one facility with 50 residents, we jumped to two tracking and measuring food waste for two facilities with a total of around 830 residents.

Project Goals

1. To determine what foods were creating the most kitchen and plate waste in their facility.
2. To reduce the money they were spending both on purchasing food and disposing of food that is not eaten, by developing a better knowledge of their waste.
3. To develop strategies in the kitchen and with the residents in order to reduce food waste.
4. To expand our work in the Windham Women’s Reentry Center and improve our tracker’s usability for larger facilities.

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1. Conducted an on-site visit at the facility to see and understand how their operation works.
2. Understand what their personal goals are. The Department of Corrections was focused on pre-consumer waste because during Covid, residents were taking their food back to their cells to eat.
3. Create a customized worksheet for their kitchen. Because of the difference in size of these two locations, the Maine State Prison decided to track their data through an online spreadsheet, while the Bolduc Correctional Facility opted for a more traditional “pen-and-paper” method.
4. The facility then took Dailey measurements and sent the data sheet to our student intern at the end of the week. Our student intern then inputted the data into an excel spreadsheet. This helped with data accuracy, labor shortages at the facility, and with adjusting data inconsistencies.
5. After 6 weeks, we met with the facility again to show them their report. 

Maine State Prison Kitchen Waste was measured from 1/23/2022 to 4/1/2022, while Plate Waste was measured from 3/20/2022 to 3/29/2022.

Bolduc Correctional Facility Kitchen and Plate Waste was measured from 1/23/2022 to 3/23/2022

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Using our tracking system, we identified potential annual food waste reduction of 20% along with cost savings of nearly $200,000 through lower food purchasing and disposal costs. We have adapted the tracking system for hospitals, schools, and restaurants interested in reducing food waste. Several culinary directors within the DOC have also made their own food menu that incorporates an option to reuse leftovers, which will reduce their waste even further.

The post Pilot 2: Maine State Prison and Bolduc Correctional Facility appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

We partnered with the Maine Department of Corrections to conduct a food waste tracking and measuring study at the Mountain View Correctional Facility in Charleston, Maine. This study completed out 2022/23 pilot with the four major MDOC facilities (including Maine State Prison, Bolduc, and the Women’s Reentry Center).

The Mountain View food waste study began on 11/7/22 and was completed on 12/10/2022.

Project Goals 

1. To reduce food waste costs and volume.
2. To identify food waste causes and recommend solutions.
3. To identify an effective (fast, easy, and useful) food service food waste tracking system.

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• Total Plate Waste was reduced by 18% over the course of the study
• The largest contribution to Plate Waste costs was uneaten fruits and vegetables (35% of total Plate Waste cost).
• Plate Waste (vs. Kitchen Waste) was the largest contributor to total food waste at roughly 73%. So, interventions targeting Plate Waste like food quality or resident choice would be more effective than altering kitchen practices.
• Pre-planned daily menus require new food production resulting in the disposal of leftover food. Reusing 50% of overproduced food would save MDOC between $40,000 and $88,935 per year. MDO will alter menus to allow for creative use of leftovers (ex: soups, hash, salads, pasta, casseroles) further reducing food waste and costs.

The post Pilot 3: Mountain View Correctional Facility & Maine Department of Corrections Overview appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

The Maine Home Food Waste Challenge was a four-week online household food waste reduction “competition” which launched on January 9th, 2023. Maine residents and communities statewide were asked to track, measure, and reduce their weekly food waste in order to save money and help prevent climate change. Using social media, newspapers, TV, and community outreach, we signed up 84 participants from all over the state.

Project Goals

1. To develop basic Maine household food waste data.
2. To reduce household food waste costs and volume.
3. To increase food waste education for Maine residents.
4. To develop a simple, fast, and easy system for tracking & measuring household food waste.

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1. Completed literature research and conducted peer network interviews to understand household food waste tracking and measuring (“challenge”) program best practices.
2. Launched the first annual Maine Home Food Waste Challenge to start with the new year.
3. Created a Food Rescue MAINE web sign-up form for the Challenge to register participants and collect key demographic and food waste behavior and attitude data.
4. Provided Challenge participants with instructions and a Printable daily food waste data tracking sheet to help track household food waste data.
5. Posted weekly Challenge “Leaderboards” for participants to track their progress and receive awards (e.g. lowest food waste, highest reduction, longest streak).
6. After four weeks, Challenge category winners were selected and posted on Leaderboard.
7. A post-challenge survey and focus groups were used to collect Challenge feedback

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• The average participant’s household food waste reduction was nearly 20%.
• The highest total household food waste reduction was 83%.
• The number of participants with the longest “streaks” – Week 4 (19) and Week 3 (5) = 28% of total participants.
• “To help mitigate climate change” was the largest motivation for participation (+50%).
• Bar Harbor (14%) and Waterville (7%) had the highest participation by zip code.
• A majority of participants were over the age of 60 (61.9%).
• The largest participation by income was $100,000+ (31.8%).

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• Maine Home Food Waste Challenge 2023 Overview
• Maine Home Food Waste Challenge 2023 Final Analysis
• Maine Home Food Waste Challenge 2023 Landing Site – Learn how you can do the Challenge on your own!

2023 Maine Home Food Waste Challenge Week 4 Leaderboard.

The post Pilot 4: Annual Maine Home Food Waste Challenge 2023 appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

We partnered with Northern Light Health to conduct a two-month-long study to track, measure, and reduce food waste at their Blue Hill Hospital Facility. We worked closely with the Food Service Director and her team to conduct this study. The food waste study began on 11/7/2022 and was completed on 1/10/2023.

Goals

1. To reduce food waste volume and costs.
2. To gain the triple bottom line benefits of food waste reduction – save money, benefit people (customers, employees, and community) and to mitigate climate change.

Results

• Kitchen Waste represents the majority of food waste costs (67.1%).
• Outdated and Spoiled Food (vs. Over Production) was the largest category of Kitchen Waste at 41% of all food waste weight and 45.2% of food waste costs.
• Composting service was put in place to recycle any inedible food waste.
• Food waste reduction activities identified:
  • Work with new food distributors to eliminate unwanted order substitutions.
  • Organize prepared food (wraps, sandwiches, salads) production to track more closely with actual daily sales.
  • Introduce a “lite eater” portion size option for patients to reduce plate waste.
  • Promote sales of day-old wraps, sandwiches, and salads to staff members and/or members of the community.
  • Set up community food donation options to avoid disposal of good, edible foods.

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Northern Light Health_ Blue Hill Study (1)

This figure shows the breakdown of the specific types of food waste costs. Kitchen Waste categories include both OS (Outdated/Spoiled) food and OP (Over Produced) food. PW represents Patient Plate Food Waste.

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