The giving nature of the holiday season began with a bang last Tuesday as restaurants across the U.S. donated food to the needy, setting what should be a precedent heading into the new year.

The one-day event, known as “Giving Tuesday,” showed the extent of the role restaurants can play in their respective communities by donating leftovers to hunger alleviation organizations. However, these efforts are often short-lived; by Wednesday, many restaurants were back to tossing leftovers in the trash.

To minimize hunger and better their public images, some restaurants should extend the annual giving throughout the entire holiday season, and restaurants that can sustain such programs should consider continuing their humanitarian efforts for the full year.

By throwing food out, restaurants waste 133 billion pounds, or $162 billion dollars worth annually, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Research Service. About 40 percent of food grown in the U.S. ends up in landfills, and, according to the Business for Social Responsibility for the Food Waste Alliance, food establishments account for 20 percent of this waste.

In Syracuse, the poverty rate is among the highest in the nation. While local soup kitchens and food pantries are working to combat hunger, they can’t do it alone.

Some community food providers and restaurants have consistent leftover donation programs in place, including the Carrier Dome, Chipotle on Marshall Street and Pastabilities downtown, which is one of the only restaurants that runs an extensive leftover program.

In the meantime, restaurants including Panda West and Varsity Pizza said that they do not donate leftovers at all. A representative at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que said the restaurant had a program in place, but recently dropped it due to logistical reasons.

The costs associated with preservation and transportation, in addition to the fear of any potential lawsuits, are what may prevent these restaurants and others like them from donating food. However, businesses can reduce costs, accrue tax deductions on dated leftovers and combat hunger to ultimately better their public image.

According to a 2013 Social Impact Study, 89 percent of U.S. consumers would switch to brands associated with a cause, given comparable price and quality. If a campaign were initiated across Syracuse, restaurants could leave a note on their menus signifying that they are part of a greater purpose. Consumers would then be more inclined to eat at those restaurants because of the positive association between social efforts and businesses.

In regard to the legal side of donating food, federal laws, including the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, protect good faith food donors from civil and criminal liability, should the product later cause harm to its recipient.

To aid in the shift toward food sustainability, local businesses should take note of organizations like the Food Recovery Network (FRN), which operates on the Syracuse University and State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry campuses. In its second year, the program collects leftovers from SU dining halls, the People’s Place cafe in Hendricks Chapel and SUNY-ESF’s Trailhead Cafe and donates them to local shelters and pantries several times per week.

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, an assistant professor of food studies in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, said students involved in FRN are “in something very tangible for all students.”

“To go and donate food that would be wasted to the community and looking at broader food implications is great,” she said.

Heightened collaboration between local, off-campus food establishments and organizations like FRN would be transformative for the Syracuse community in addressing hunger, but would also prove beneficial for businesses.

More needs to be done to combat hunger and food waste. Neighborhood restaurants should work together to create food sustainability and charitable campaigns to alleviate hunger. Syracuse poverty rates might not see change — that’s another issue — but feeding those in need with what would otherwise be harmful waste makes sense both morally and economically.

Hunger never stops and neither should philanthropy.

Matthew Gutierrez is a freshman journalism and entrepreneurial management dual major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached atmguti100@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @MatthewGut21.

Published on December 6, 2015 at 11:58 pm