COMPASS GROUP USA INSPIRES ACTION ON SIXTH ANNUAL STOP FOOD WASTE DAY

Events Planned in Communities Nationwide and Launch of New "Stop Food Waste Day" Digital Cookbook Makes it Easy for Professional Chefs and Home Cooks to Use Ingredients That Most Commonly Go To Waste

CHARLOTTE, N.C., April 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- With one third of all food produced globally wasted every year, Compass Group, the world's largest food and support services company, is taking action and hosting its sixth annual Stop Food Waste Day celebration. Today, Compass Group USA associates will partner with clients and suppliers to raise awareness of the issue and inspire others to create change – all a part of its efforts to halve food waste across its global operations by 2030.

Held on the last Wednesday of Earth Month, Stop Food Waste Day activities are designed to encourage individuals and organizations to adopt small changes that can make a big difference in reducing food waste and protecting the environment.

"While Stop Food Waste Day started as an initiative to reduce food waste in our own kitchens, it has quickly grown to be a movement that brings together consumers, businesses, non-profit organizations, and government entities, all focused on reducing food waste on a global scale," said Amy Keister, Global Director of Sustainability, Compass Group. "When we waste food, we also waste all the energy and water it takes to grow, harvest, transport, and package it, compounding the environmental impacts of a decision to throw food away rather than find delicious ways to reuse it. As an industry, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to lead by example, raise awareness of this issue, take action and inspire others to do the same."

Through a variety of live cooking demonstrations and fun, educational workshops in its dining locations across the country, Compass Group chefs and culinary experts will share valuable tips and ideas so everyone can play a part in reducing the amount of food that goes to waste – an easy way to reduce carbon impact. Some of the featured Stop Food Waste Day events and celebrations, include:

• On Stop Food Waste Day, Chartwells Higher Ed will host "Grate-Ful," a nationwide event designed to show gratitude for the planet, reduce food waste, and advance sustainability. Activities will take place simultaneously across all 300 campuses encouraging students and staff to dine from plant-based menus, participate in activities that combat food waste, and pack donation bags to prevent food insecurity.
• At Alvarado Independent School District in Texas, Chartwells K12 will celebrate Stop Food Waste Day with a Discovery Kitchen chef cooking demonstration featuring a recipe for Broccoli Slaw to teach students how to cook using the whole broccoli. The team will also host Waste Warrior Trivia in the cafeteria with seed packets given to students as prizes and organize classroom lessons and nutrition education for students in the elementary, middle and high schools.
• In the café at a large financial company in New York City, the Restaurant Associates team is planning a "Game of Not Thrown" where its chefs will compete in a Waste Warrior showdown to see who can make the best dish with the least amount of waste. Several hundred participants also had the opportunity to learn from industry experts on April 20 when Restaurant Associates hosted a virtual panel discussion focused on food waste initiatives and strategies to address the issue in the entire food supply chain.
• At a number of Unidine senior living locations, special menus for Stop Food Waste Day will feature meals that range from using an entire chicken in meals throughout the day from soup to appetizer to entrée. Others will highlight zero waste recipes including a no waste pineapple cream cake or a no waste garden vegetable soup.

Introducing the Stop Food Waste Day Cookbook
To further raise awareness of Stop Food Waste Day globally, Compass Group published a new digital Stop Food Waste Day Cookbook that features recipes from 45 Compass chefs representing more than 30 countries. Designed for home cooks and to inspire chefs around the world, the cookbook includes a range of delicious appetizers, main courses and desserts and makes it easy to create meals that give a second life to ingredients that most commonly go to waste in home kitchens, including stale bread, bruised fruit and vegetables, and discarded fruit and vegetable peels.

The new cookbook also includes a list of 10 tips from Compass' culinary teams intended to inspire everyone to adjust their daily food habits and maximize the potential of the food they buy, benefitting not only the environment but household budgets, too. The digital Stop Food Waste Day cookbook is available on the Stop Food Waste Day website, which also includes information on how individuals, families and businesses can get involved in the annual #stopfoodwasteday movement.

Stop Food Waste Day is an international day of action aimed at reducing food waste. Launched in 2017 by Compass Group USA, every year on the last Wednesday of April, suppliers, clients, colleagues and customers globally work together to raise awareness and inspire change around the critical issue of food waste. Visit the Stop Food Waste Day website for more information: https://www.stopfoodwasteday.com

About Compass Group
Compass Group is redefining the food and support services landscape with innovation and passion through the lens of what's next. Serving premier healthcare systems, respected educational institutions, world-renowned cultural centers, popular sporting and entertainment venues, and Fortune 500 organizations the world over, Compass Group always finds a way to deliver excellence in nearly any vertical. Whether it's serving school meals students love, high-end concessions in stadiums, or innovative, nutritionally balanced meals for seniors, Compass is an industry leader. Ranked No. 1 by industry peers on Fortune's 2021 list of World's Most Admired Companies, Compass has also earned a spot on Forbes' list of the Best Employers for Diversity, Best Employers for New Grads and Best Employers for Women in 2021. Compass Group is among the Top 50 Companies Changing the World according to Fortune.

Media Contact:
Lisa Claybon, VP of Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE Compass Group