Stop Food Waste Day 2019

As the world’s largest foodservice company, Compass Group is uniquely positioned to enrich the lives of its guests, support the health of the community and sustain the vitality of the food system. In 2017, Compass Group wanted to change the way people viewed food waste by creating the global day of action, Stop Food Waste Day™. Stop Food Waste Day™ aimed to raise awareness on the food waste crisis and empower employees and guests to reduce waste in both professional and home kitchens with straight-forward solutions.

In 2019, the global conversation went well beyond the kitchen and into the public sector, adopted by local governments. Across North America, cities from Philadelphia to Portland proclaimed April 24th, 2019 Stop Food Waste Day™ and used their platform to call citizens to action, urging them to take the pledge to reduce food waste. 

Together with influential companies and celebrity chefs, Compass rallied millions of consumers to accelerate the fight against food waste with a commitment to make every day Stop Food Waste Day™.  Compass Group’s network of global partners–including Google and HSBC— plus influencers like humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Chef José Andrés, Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio and restaurateur Danny Meyer helped mobilize the movement to drive results.

“As a chef, every bit of food wasted represents a meal that we didn’t serve to someone in need. Wasted food is a wasted opportunity, as well as the land, water, energy, and love that goes into growing and distributing our food,” says Andrés.

Globally, millions of zero-food-waste meals were served on Stop Food Waste Day 2019 throughout Compass cafés in hospitals, schools, arenas, corporations, museums, and senior living communities in 36 countries.  Live cooking demonstrations, and interactive educational campaigns inspired millions more to join the conversation. The results at a glance:

• Social Media: 89 million participants used #stopfoodwasteday in 100 countries
• Publication Numbers: 227 million digital views from media coverage
• Cities Taking Action: Coast-to-Coast mayors proclaimed April 24, 2019, Stop Food Waste Day including Charlotte, Denver, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, and Toronto.

“Our goal is to raise awareness of the massive food waste issue and provide solutions to reduce it,” says Amy Keister, Compass Group SVP of Sustainability. “With our reach, our partners and human nature to do the right thing, we can dramatically reduce food waste and create positive impact in the global food system,” says CEO Dominic Blakemore, Compass Group PLC.

With 2020 on the horizon, Stop Food Waste Day™ targets to accelerate this fight against food waste through multiple new avenues in the coming year. With events like Stop Food Waste NYC occurring in Fall 2019, Stop Food Waste Day™ hopes to mobilize this movement to ignite real and sustainable change within the food waste community.

For more information, please contact us!