Earth Day began in 1970 as a response to visible damage. Lake Erie was on fire and it couldn't be ignored.
Over time, the day has taken on a different tone and has been co-opted by corporations looking to shift ownership of hauling environmental damage to consumers.
It would be easy to write a post today reminding you to recycle and eat less meat. But, we operate kitchens at scale. We can't hide from the fact that food is one of the most resource-intensive systems.
We are using this Earth Day to hold ourselves accountable and report out our progress and our imperfections.
Early in our company history, we were burdened by the increasing environmental and social impact of our growing business. It became necessary to face this head on and we began tracking and problem solving.
We looked at the entire lifecycle from the ingredients we sourced, food we prepared, meals we served and the waste at every stage in the process. By measuring it, we could see our biggest issues. Excess food.
That started our donation program.
It started simple and then we built systems around it. We partnered with Copia year ago and with their help, surplus food moves into local nonprofit networks the same day. Everyday after lunch, leftovers are packaged, labeled and weighted. This happens automatically at every client as part of our service.
Over the past year, that system resulted in more than 119,000 pounds of food donated and nearly 100,000 meals shared with local communities.
As this program matured, we looked at our internal systems to find ways to reduce waste earlier in the process.
Workplace food programs run in conditions that change daily. Attendance swings by double digits. Meetings shift. Teams travel. A menu that performs one week underperforms the next. There is no fixed demand curve.
That variability is where waste is created.
Reducing it requires visibility. Item-level consumption. Timing of runouts. Participation patterns. A clear view of how a population actually eats, not how it was expected to.
And then it requires adjustment, continuous adjustment.
There are days where production overshoots. Days where it undershoots. Days where the data shows you something after the fact that you would have handled differently in the moment.
We aim for zero food-waste kitchens. This means food scraps are composted and all leftovers are donated. We're not perfect and perfection isn't our goal.
We aim for consistent measurement, clear feedback loops, and operators who can respond in real time without compromising the quality people expect from their daily meal.
We're using this Earth Day to recheck our systems and ask whether they are moving in the right direction.
In our case, the answer is measurable progress and visible gaps. This is the truth of running a complex food business.
If you’re evaluating your own workplace food program, start with a simple question: what happens to the food that isn’t eaten, and how consistently is that outcome tracked?
From there, the work becomes operational.
More on how we structure that system, and where it’s going next, on our sustainability page.