As the holiday season approaches, many families look forward to spending time together and enjoying traditions like Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. It’s easy to be thankful for a warm meal and home when you’re able to enjoy them. According to the USDA, in the year 2021 nearly 34 million people across the United States lived in food insecure households. According to Feeding America, “food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life.” Unfortunately, 12.5% of those food insecure households are households with children.

With inflation rising and food costs causing some families to worry if they’ll be able to afford holiday meals, everyone should take a moment to reflect and consider ways you can help those who may be going without. ISS and its North American subsidiary ISS Guckenheimer are helping curb food waste and get food to those who truly need it year-round through its food operations across the globe.

One of the first lines of defense in making kitchens more sustainable is minimizing excess food production. ISS chefs achieve this through different strategies that meet the needs of specific clients, real estate portfolios, and operational sites. ISS believes that investing in innovative technologies is one way to help optimize this process to make a greater impact.

Winnow is an artificial intelligence tool that allows commercial kitchens and dining solutions the ability to monitor food waste. As consumers dispose of leftover food, Winnow collects that information by taking pictures and weighing food waste bins. The tool then analyzes the collected data to determine what food is being over produced and not consumed. In turn, ISS food teams can take that information and apply it to their food programs to directly reduce waste.

Since ISS implemented Winnow at numerous client sites, the company has reduced food waste by more than 158,000 pounds — approximately 179,350 meals and 680,100 pounds of CO2 — and saved clients nearly $300,000.

For more information about Winnow and how ISS has made it an important element in food waste management, click here.

In addition to reducing food waste at the source by not over producing, composting is another effective strategy for diverting waste from the landfill. When organic waste goes to landfills — often in plastic bags — it generates methane, a greenhouse gas and major contributor to climate change. When these materials are instead composted, they create a valuable organic material that can be used to grow fresh food. According to the EPA, using organic compost reduces the need for chemical fertilizers.

ISS partners with local municipalities to help contribute organic food waste like vegetable scraps to composting sites rather than sending them to the landfill. These municipalities often provide the compost to residents for free or use it in community gardens and parks. Not only does this reduce waste at individual sites, but it also contributes to healthier communities in which ISS placemakers live and work.