Food waste at Starbucks

[Jackie Anderson]

Hey food recovery folks!

I loved being a part of the community in Austin for food waste because it was so developed and easy to find a home for waste.  Now that I am located in the DFW area, I am finding some grey areas I was hoping you could help with.

I close a few nights a week at Starbucks and see the insane waste we generate every day. We donate our pastries to a local organization that picks them up twice a week, but we have about 15-20 sandwiches that go to waste each night. This is at 1 store alone....imagine how much that is from the millions on every corner! Starbucks employees say they can't donate them, but that is because there isn't a proper understanding of the Good Samaritan Act.

Do you have any tips for moving forward with a food recovery plan? Especially for locations in the heart of suburbs where in need organizations are slim. 

I appreciate any advice or words of caution each of you throw my way, and thank you in advance for your time!

with gratitude,
Jackie Anderson

www.urbanacresmarket.com
www.teysha.is
www.gondwanaecotours.com
817.251.8225

please excuse errors & shortness, sent from mobile

[Joseph de Leon]

Hi Jackie,

We encounter this often at Keep Austin Fed. Many people who live in the suburbs commute in town. If the stores were willing to hold the food overnight, a volunteer might be able to come by in the morning on the way to work and drop off at a recipient near the office.

Another option could be to get other workers on board, so that at the end of the shift, someone could drop it off at a drop site that stays open late. Some places will open the doors just to receive food after hours.

Lastly, reach out to organizations that would receive the food and ask if any of their staff or volunteers would be willing to come pick it up when it's mutually convenient.

Be aware that surplus bread is ubiquitous, and some places already have way too much. Also, some recipients will not accept donations of food that do not contain ingredients and some kind of date on the packaging.

Another potential barrier is what kind of container to use when transporting the food. Plastic garbage bags are convenient, but the waste stream they create is problematic, plus it squishes all the contents together into a mess. It also feels undignified to me to feed people out of a garbage bag, but that's just a personal bias -- the important thing is that the food is getting to people who appreciate it and often a garbage bag is the only way to make that happen.

We use a plastic crate swap -- the donor and volunteers each keep a few on hand. The donor fills up the crate and the volunteer brings an empty to trade out for the full one. In addition to the expense, other problems with the crate swap system include keeping the bins clean, unloading at the drop site (unless the recipient also has crates to swap, which means even more expense and equipment management), and losing bins to volunteers who fall away.

Best wishes for all you're doing and please keep us informed of your successes and challenges!

Thank you,
Joseph de Leon
512-294-4584

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