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Hospitals throughout the U.S. generate around 288,401 tons of food waste each year, according to Practice Greenhealth.
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At Providence, we understand the importance of reducing food waste as we work toward being carbon negative by 2030.
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Learn how we buy and serve healthy and sustainable food, decrease food waste and packaging, compost and donate extra food, track our progress, and educate others.
Reducing health care food waste during the holidays
The most common material in U.S. landfills is food waste. According to Practice Greenhealth, more than one-third of the food we produce in the U.S. is never eaten, and hospitals alone generate almost 300,000 tons of food waste each year.
The environmental stewardship team at Providence is deeply committed to caring for people and the planet. Every day, we work toward being carbon negative by 2030 and diverting more than 50% of our waste from landfills and hazardous streams. Our WE ACT framework provides our caregivers and staff with tools and resources to help protect the environment. Each letter in WE ACT represents an area where we’re making progress: Waste, Energy and water, Agriculture and food, Chemicals, and Transportation.
To feed patients, families, caregivers and staff, we partner with Morrison Healthcare, a food and nutrition services company. Executive Chef Aaron R. Horton leads sustainability measures in all our kitchens. Horton grew up with a mom who loved to cook. She passed away when Horton was young, and Horton took over cooking for his family.
“There’s something special about getting the opportunity to serve food to people who need it to heal,” he says.
Preparing food is a sacred act. But producing, transporting, preparing, handling and discarding food also costs money and contributes to carbon dioxide emissions. As food decomposes in landfills, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.
“We, as chefs, hold ourselves to a higher standard when it comes to health care,” Horton says. “Most restaurants have a seven-day holding time for all their food, whereas in health care, it’s three days. If you overproduce, you’ve got three days to figure out what to do with it, or you’ll have to throw it away. It’s a constant puzzle. And so, especially during the holidays, when we have parties and caterings for different departments, it’s important that we make sure we give them exactly what they need and no more.”
Food goals at Providence
At Providence, we’re keenly aware of the effect wasted food has on the environment, particularly during the holiday season. Here are goals we keep in mind when feeding everyone who is served food in bed or walks through our cafeterias’ doors.
Serve healthy, sustainable meals
Certain foods have a lower carbon impact, particularly plant-forward meals made in energy- and water-efficient kitchens.
“There are certain foods that are going to create more carbon emissions than others, and beef is one of them,” Horton says. “We‘re finding ways to reduce the amount of beef in our menus and promote less carbon-intensive recipes using chicken or pork, and offering more plant-forward options.”
Reduce food waste
There are many opportunities to reduce food waste. We pay close attention to how much food we actually need. During preparation and after meals, we compost whenever possible.
“We’ve built a pretty robust composting program where we put food-waste cans directly into the dish room,” Horton says. “All of the food waste comes off the plate and into those cans, and then we send that out to get composted.”
Decrease waste from food packaging and dishware
We aim to create “good, better, best” guidelines for waste reduction and provide recommendations on best practices. One such example is polystyrene foam, which we’ve essentially eliminated throughout Providence, Horton says.
“We’re in the process of reducing the total amount of single-use plastics by eliminating plastic stirrers and tasting spoons, and we moved to bulk dispensers for many of our condiments instead of using single-serve packaging, Horton says.”
Buy more local and sustainable foods
We also strive to purchase more local and sustainable fresh foods and beverages.
“We want to find foods that are local so we don’t have to truck them across the country,” Horton says. “But when it comes to healthcare, we maintain very high purchasing standards, making sure that we purchase from vendors that are vetted for quality and safety.”
Local partnerships and collaborations help. For example, Horton now works closely with Western Montana Growers Cooperative, which works with local farms to ensure food safety. Because of this alliance, Horton was able to procure carrots grown just up the hill from St. Patrick Hospital and get them on patients’ plates the next morning.
Donate extra food and support community gardens
In California, law SB1383 requires hospitals to donate surplus food to organizations that help people who are food-insecure. We’re looking at ways to increase the amount of food we donate and are seeking more partnership opportunities with community gardens and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture).
Track progress with data
We’re dedicated to measuring and tracking our carbon-reduction improvements through initiatives like Providence’s WE ACT Scorecard.
Waste Not 2.0, Morrison’s food waste reduction tool, is used throughout Providence kitchens. Using a tablet, kitchen staff track food waste and note whether it’s dry, wet or mixed. We also identify whether it’s green waste (food scraps, such as vegetable peels or bones) or red waste (food thrown away due to overproduction or mistakes, such as burning).
“Over time, we can start seeing trends,” Horton says. “If I see on Wednesdays that our red waste is always higher, then maybe that menu special needs to be reworked or maybe we're overproducing. But because the hospital census ebbs and flows, it has to be managed.”
Educate and engage caregivers and staff
We’re also working towards creating a coordinated education strategy for each hospital, with opportunities for recognition. To that end, Horton regularly checks in with kitchen staff.
“I always say, ‘hey, hey, hey, log waste every day,’” he says. “We use the tool not as a way to get anybody in trouble, but to educate. If we can all see that we are wasting too much rice, we can start making less rice.”
How health care facilities can reduce food waste during the holidays
Our chefs engage in careful meal planning. We try to make only what’s needed, and we encourage staff and patients to take only what they’ll eat. When possible, we compost and donate extra food. And we always strive to educate.
One of the best things everyone can do when eating in our hospitals is to eat in the cafeterias or ask for reusable utensils and dishes.
“Don’t take it to go,” Horton says. “Put it on a plate that gets washed. I understand that not having to come back downstairs to drop dishes off is easier, especially when you’re busy. But if we all got a reusable plate and brought it back to the dish room, the amount of waste reduction would be staggering.”
At home, Horton regularly gets creative with leftovers and encourages others to do the same.
“Reuse as much leftover food as possible,” he says. “For the last 10 years, I’ve been organizing Friendsgiving Day. We take all our Thanksgiving leftovers over to a friend’s house and eat them. Get creative with it. I make this dish called “Thanks Benedict,” which is basically stuffing, turkey and gravy, kind of like an Eggs Benedict.”
Every small action adds up, and when caregivers, staff and patients work together, we can make the holiday season greener and healthier for everyone.
“It’s fascinating how all of our work is so very ‘single player,’” Horton says. “We do our thing, we try to help out as much as we can, and we don’t realize that there are so many people doing the same thing in their unique way, all adding to this giant project.”
Contributing caregiver
Aaron R. Horton is an executive chef at Morrison Healthcare and leads the regional sustainability support team.
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This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical care. Always follow your health care professional’s instructions.
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