King's Bruton has achieved a food waste reduction of 30%...

Led by our Chartwells Head Chef, Simon Sturmey, the catering team has been running a project to reduce food waste in the kitchen. Simon has conducted detailed analysis of the whole catering process from menu design, ingredient selection, through to production, service and consumption. This has been underpinned by rigorous data collection, so that we could clearly benchmark our start point, set a target and log evidence of progress made. An initial target of 30% has already be achieved and we are now working towards a stretch target of 50% waste reduction. With the pupils fully on board, we are confident this can be achieved. The food waste reduction not only make us more environmentally sound, all the savings made go straight back into improving our already outstanding catering offer. We are very fortunate to have Simon and his exceptional team of chefs, to not only produce exceptional food, but also continuously innovate to ensure we do so in an environmentally sound manner.

Louis Tuson MBE - Bursar

Food Wastage is a huge problem globally with the UK producing 9.5 million tonnes of food waste every year, 6.4 million tonnes of which are still edible. 9.5 million tonnes of food waste equates to £19 Billion a year.

At Chartwells, we are committed to reduce our food waste by 50% by 2030. So in September, Simon, our Head Chef and myself set our team at King's Bruton a challenge to reduce our food waste by 30% before Christmas. This was such an ambitious target, but the team came together and found ways to reduce our production waste in many different ways from portion sizes, recording data from previous meals, to using sustainable recipes where we can on our menus. We were delighted, when in early December, we had achieved our goal. A 30% reduction in food waste is equal to £20,000, so hitting our target was a huge achievement for us and I'm very proud of my team for working tirelessly to achieve this goal. Plate waste is our biggest factor of food waste at King's, last academic year we recorded 6,347kg of plate waste, equating to over £25,000.

What's Next?

Well for us its about spreading the word and creating awareness to help reduce our plate waste and work on our next challenge to increase our reduction by 50% before  the end of 2024. I believe that producing awareness, and for everyone to be engaged, is the best way to achieve this, so we have just started to roll out a monthly food waste update poster to each of the Houses to provide awareness to the pupils which we hope will help reduce our plate waste. So please look out for this and help us reduce our waste as much as possible.

John Robinson - Catering Manager, Chartwells

With food usage currently accounting for 30% of Climate Change emissions, the Eco Committee has always had a specific focus on food waste. Last year, the Committee spread great awareness on food waste during our Sustainability Week and this led us to having a lunch with the smallest food waste yet. The King's food waste mission has only accelerated this year as a result of our catering team setting and achieving the ambitious target of reducing food waste to 30%. The Eco Committee is excited to continue to work alongside our fantastic catering team in reducing our carbon emissions from food. 

Harriet - L6^th Form, Eco Committee

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