Food waste campaign in the municipal kitchens

The food services of the municipality of Ilmajoki consist of 10 producing kitchens, where 3,600 lunch meals are prepared daily. 1,200 meals are packed and delivered as hot meals to 15 serving kitchens every day. The total amount of employees is 47.
As a part of the sustainable development theme year 2017 of the municipality, the food services carried out a food waste campaign during the autumn 2017. The campaign began with a staff training given by the Thermopolis Ltd (Energy Agency of South Ostrobothnia) and Lakeuden Etappi (The regional waste management company). In addition the employees got education from the head of the municipal food services.
The campaign included two weeks (6 weeks in-between) when the bio and food waste was weighed and the amounts were monitored. The aim of the campaign was to improve the food waste prevention actions in the kitchens and to advise the customers to avoid food waste.
After the weighing weeks and information they provided, the food services have been planning improvements that have been implemented during the year 2018.
The project is economically profitable as the municipality saves money through reducing food waste among the municipal kitchens. Sectoral dimensions where the municipality paid attention are: i) better planning, ii) better monitoring, iii) careful preparing, iv) careful storing, v) professional serving, vi) understanding of the customer behavior.