Restaurants operate on thin profit margins, dictated by how efficiently they can prep and plan what they cook and sell before the end of the day. Sometimes management over- or underestimates the popularity of an item, or a sudden rush can throw off planning. But sometimes it's simply an issue of management not listening to employees, resulting in situations like the one a Little Caesars worker shared on Reddit.
What's happening?
In a subreddit dedicated to the pizza chain, they revealed a photo of a garbage bag full of the restaurant's puffs, tossed at the end of the night after they went unsold.
The issue, according to the employee, was that they warned their manager against making the item. "I tried telling our closing manager that we didn't need anymore puffs, and they made our sheet-out person make five more trays," they wrote. "We didn't use any of them, and the bag ripped when I tried to take it out."
Other employees said they'd had similar experiences at their restaurants. "My location does the same thing!! We end up with SOO MUCH WASTE at the end of the day," one person wrote.
Another person added, "Should do donations like my last store."
Why is food waste important?
A restaurant cooking food that goes to waste is, at its core, a poor business decision. According to the National Restaurant Association, for every $1 invested in food waste reduction, restaurants reap $8 in savings.
According to Move for Hunger, restaurants waste 11.4 million tons of food every year in the United States alone. That means lost dollars, wasted resources, and higher costs for consumers.
There are options for restaurants to donate their unsold food, but they must meet certain safety standards that can create logistical and legal roadblocks. In this case, the employee noted that they couldn't store the puffs in the walk-in and that their manager did not allow leftovers to be taken home. However, there is also the option to compost food to keep it from going to a landfill, where it takes up space and releases planet-warming gases in the decomposition process.
Is Little Caesars doing anything about this?
Little Caesars operates a 40-year-old charitable program called Love Kitchen, which has served nearly 4 million people through mobile pizza trucks that go to shelters, soup kitchens, and disaster areas. It also serves veterans and first responders.
Based on the comments on Reddit, some franchise locations partner with companies that donate to shelters or work with food redistribution apps such as Too Good to Go. But a blanket plan does not seem to be in effect across the company.
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Definitely 👍 What's being done about food waste more broadly?
More and more businesses are working to cut down on food waste through a variety of programs. This includes Kroger, which partnered with Flashfood to handle the sale of groceries that would otherwise go to waste. Trader Joe's also worked to get food and meals delivered to those in need rather than let its stock spoil after a refrigeration outage.
Some people work on the individual level, including an anonymous restaurant worker who turned 325.67 pounds of food into 300 meals for the homeless instead of letting it end up in a dumpster.
You can cut down on your own food waste by planning your meals, maximizing your leftovers, and composting as much organic matter as possible.
Join our free newsletter for easy tips to save more and waste less, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
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