City of Orlando Marches Up the Food Recovery Hierarchy

The city of Orlando, Fla. has a goal of zero waste to landfill by 2040, and its deploying strategies that are moving the municipality up the food recovery hierarchy.

Thanks to a technical assistance grant from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Orlando has been amplifying its food waste prevention messaging and food rescue. 

The NRDC Food Matters program works with cities "to achieve meaningful reductions in food waste through comprehensive policies and programs," according to its website. The group has been collaborating with several agencies and stakeholders across the United States to "drive dramatic, system-wide waste reduction," with efforts in Baltimore, Denver, Nashville and New York City. 

Brittany McPeak, sustainability project coordinator, city of Orlando, recently spoke with Waste360 about the municipality's food prevention methods which include conducting food waste audits of city programs, strategic placement of advertisements in public spaces, social media content and more. Orlando also recently piloted creating a food rescue network in Central Florida in coordination with six neighborhood centers.

Waste360: What did food waste prevention in Orlando previously look like before the implementation of this goal and food waste initiatives? 

McPeak: Before the prevention messaging campaigns were rolled out, the city focused on diversion efforts through commercial composting, resident drop-off sites and backyard composting. The NRDC Food Matters grant helped us develop more upstream solutions for food waste rather than just downstream management.  

Waste360: How does a metrics approach help the city with creating new strategies for food prevention? 

McPeak: Metrics help track our success and identify opportunities for growth. They are used across our office’s seven sustainability focus areas to guide decisions. Metrics from the first cycle of the grant have been instrumental in creating prevention messaging campaigns and to pinpoint new areas of focus. 

Waste360: What did the waste audits find? 

McPeak: Audits of neighborhood centers’ After School Nutrition Programs found that students were wasting an average of 1.6 pounds of food per day from cold meals. Most of this food was packaged, unopened and able to be donated. Extrapolated across the City, this would be 45,481 pounds of food waste monthly. Through interviews with neighborhood center managers, we expect hot meals to decrease the amount of food waste.  

Waste360: Please tell me about the pilot with the food rescue. How does it work and how much food has it saved? 

McPeak: After the neighborhood center audits, we conducted a one-month-long pilot with an app-based food rescue company at six neighborhood centers. Almost 1,800 pounds of food was rescued and donated to local non-profits. Reusable cooler bags were used to help create a more circular zero waste system that helps reduce the amount of single-use plastic products used in the food recovery network. 

Waste360: What KPIs are being used for conducting the food rescue assessment? 

McPeak: We have not completed the assessment but have held the initial convening. The next step is mapping and evaluating priorities and challenges. KPIs will be developed in this stage. Diversity was a priority to ensure there were small and large entities at the table. A top priority identified was the need for matching or networking between donors and recipients. Top challenges included the cost of packaging food and transportation and staff capacity to pick up food.

Brittany McPeak will speak more about the city of Orlando's efforts at the Food Recovery Forum at WasteExpo May 9-12 in Las Vegas during "Movin’ On Up . . . The Food Recovery Hierarchy."