THANK GOD IT’S FRIDAY!
On Friday the 13th of July was the Feed the Planet day at Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2018 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Friday the 13th is not the bad luck day but the day when Worldchefs, in partnership with Electrolux Professional and AIESEC, have decided to educate YOU to eat & live in a better world because the planet is not expandable and we need to act now to eat & live in a better world! Chris Koetke, its Chairman, Rochelle Schaetzl from Nestlé Professional, Frances Simpson Allen from the World Food Program, Rick Chee, from the Food Air Foundation, Ruth Osborne & Christopher Ekman, Holly Elmore from Elemental Impact, Ingrid Yllmark and Ekaterina Trofimova from Electrolux, have joined forces to teach you a lesson!
The planet is not expandable and we need to react and act now to eat & live in a better world!
The only thing to remember though is: WE CAN’T DO IT WITHOUT YOU!
But Feed the Planet, What is it & What are we proposing?
Feed the Planet is a Worldchefs initiative designed to inspire sustainable food consumption among communities and professionals. In addition, Feed the Planet supports people in need through emergency relief, food poverty alleviation, and education. Founded in 2012, Feed the Planet is powered in partnership with Electrolux and AIESEC, an international, apolitical, independent and not-for-profit organization, run by students and recent graduates eager to build positive social change.
The Worldchefs Sustainability Education for Culinary Professionals course is a Feed the Planet initiative that teaches chefs how to think and act sustainably, to lead positive change for the planet, and improve profitability in the kitchen; the course is a cost-free Worldchefs member benefit.
We had the pleasure to welcome Holly Elmore, from Elemental Impact (Ei)at the Worldchefs Congress & Expo 2018 who actively participated with Chris Koetke, its Chairman to provide YOU the sustainability course’s waste & recycling curriculum.The RiA Blog article, Sustainability: a matter of thinking critically & solving problems in an adaptive manner, gives an overview of the course during its development stage.
After he opened the Feed the Planet session with a brief initiative overview, Chef Koetke introduced Paul Newnham with the SDG2 Advocacy Hub and Feed the Planet Day Host. The SDG2 Advocacy Hub coordinates global campaigning and advocacy to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2: To end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030, or simply zero hunger.
In his opening remarks, Paul introduced The Chefs’ Manifesto, a written declaration co-created by over 130 chefs from 38 countries through online outreach and a series of workshops. The Global Goals for Sustainable Development (also referred to as SDG), the seventeen goals decided upon in 2015 by world leaders for a better world, was the foundation for developing a manifesto action plan.
The Chefs’ Manifesto Action Plan includes the following eight areas the chefs were passionate about tackling:
1. Ingredients grown with respect for the earth and its oceans.
2. Protection of biodiversity & improved animal welfare.
3. Investment in livelihoods.
4. Value natural resources & reduce waste.
5. Celebration of local & seasonal food.
6. A focus on plant-based ingredients.
7. Education on food safety& healthy diets.
8. Nutritious food that is accessible & affordable for all.
Once complete with his The Chefs’ Manifesto presentation, Paul moved into his Feed the Planet Host role with an introduction to Rochelle Schaetzl, Nestle Professional Business Capability Development Manager, for her Ensuring a Sustainable Future for the Culinary Profession segment. Rochelle opened with challenges facing the hospitality industry ranging from the lowest paid workers to the highest employee turnover to recent chef suicides.
Within her presentation, Rochelle shared integrated Worldchefs programs designed to build a sustainable future for the culinary profession. The various programs attract | recruit future chefs and develop | retain existing chefs. In 2017, the International Chefs Days was a tremendous success with over 4,700 chefs from 55 countries educating 37,800 children globally on the culinary profession. Other successful programs include the Worldchefs Academy, YoGuTa, Nutripro and Worldchefs Partnership.
Global Food Waste & Hunger Crisis
Following Rochelle, United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Digital Engagement and Partnerships Lead Frances Simpson Allen gave an empowering presentation on The UN World Food Programme: Saving Lives, Changing Lives. Frances grounded the crisis with the following global facts:
We produce enough food to feed approximately 9 billion people each year.
Of the 4 billion metric tons of food we produce each year, one third is wasted, costing the global economy nearly $750 billion annually.
1 in 9 people goes to bed hungry every night.
- Open your fridge and grab any ingredients that are close to their “use by date.”
- Create a meal using those ingredients (and any others you may need to create your dish.)
- Share your video or pictures using #RecipeForDisaster and nominate three friends to create their own by tagging them.
- Make a donation to WFP and help us reach our target of Zero Hunger by 2030.
If it was a country, food waste would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter after China (#1) and the United States (#2).
The Worldchefs Food Waste Challenge consists of two sub-challenges: 1> educational introduced by Ingrid and 2> operational introduced by Chef Koetke. Within the operational Challenge are seven initial steps:
- Sign up for the Challenge on the Worldchefs websitec
- Kick-off day for BOH (back-of-the-house) Food Waste Challenge – marks the beginning of the operational Challenge with a webinar that explains the steps within the Challenge along with pointers on how to accomplish the steps.
- Measurement with the toolkit – participants commit to weighing the kitchen (BOH) food waste for three months and develop a baseline of food waste generated in kitchen operations. Worldchefs will provide a tracking tool for creating the food waste baseline.
- Submissions commitment – sign-up for the operational Challenge on the Worldchefs website.
- Webinar check-in with an inspirational presentation – the food waste reduction portion of the Challenge begins. Each participant commits to reducing BOH food waste by a chosen percentage over a six-month period. Worldchefs will provide guidance on percentages and tools to help address BOH food waste.
- Submission of BOH food waste reduction results – at the midway point (three months) Worldchefs will host a webinar check-in with an inspirational and educational presentation.
- FOH (front-of-the-house) Food Waste Challenge kick-off – participants renew their BOH food waste reduction commitment for another six-month challenge and embark on a FOH challenge, following similar parameters to the BOH challenge.