“Food” for Thought: The Future of Waste-Free Events
06.13.23
Emma Hardy
Associate Producer, InVision Communications
“Food” for Thought: The Future of Waste-Free Events
An Employee Perspective
“Are you going to finish that?” This seems like a standard question to most, but to me it represents a life-long passion.
The first lesson I remember my mother engraving into my mind was the art of repurposing leftovers. Whether they are to be eaten the next day with an egg on top, or given to a homeless person, food should not be wasted. As I grew up in New York City, I caught myself living in the middle of an ugly truth: the imbalance between the underserved and overserved. According to Feeding America, 34 million people face hunger each year while 130 billion meals are thrown away to rot in landfills, ultimately equating to a loss of $408 billion per year and leaving it to pollute our air.
After graduating college, I got a job as a Production Assistant at InVision Communications. InVision produces events and strategic communications programs for major companies and organizations worldwide. We’re also known as a company that gives back to our community, through our work and culture. Our mantra is “Be Great. Do Good. Have Fun.” We do a number of annual pro-bono events for nonprofits from the east to the west coast. In addition, one of our founders, Rod Mickels, has his own nonprofit organization in Africa called The Giving Exchange. I was fortunate enough to go one year and came back to America with not only a full journal of local delicious recipes, but also a desire to do more good with what we can control.
In the office, it didn’t take long for my coworkers to hop on board with my food-waste management initiatives. They called me “The Garbage,” because at the end of the day the fridge would have Tupperwares labeled “For the Garbage.” They knew their unfinished food would not go to waste if it were in my hands as I would take different routes on my evening commute home to stop by homeless parts of the city.
As I’ve grown with InVision, I’ve seen there are opportunities to improve the way we manage food waste onsite. We have the responsibility to feed dozens of crew members and thousands of attendees at these large-scale events. We should now take responsibility to manage the food waste at the end of the day. My heart aches when I witness the trays of leftovers being dumped into the trash out of sight, but not out of my mind. Since I was exposed to this, I’ve always been curious to find a solution, and I knew InVision’s values would align with my own.
One evening after work I decided to take myself on a decompressing walk. I did not know it at the time, but this walk healed the waste-related heartache I had. Guy Raz, from How I Built This, was interviewing a woman named Jasmine-Crowe Houston who developed her own food-waste solution app called Goodr. This is a tech-led service that provides end-to-end solutions for businesses to repurpose food waste and support local communities. I stopped my walk all together, and immediately booked a call with a Goodr representative for the next morning.
After that call with Goodr I was sky high, already manifesting how this could be implemented throughout the future of events. I could not wait to share this with our company, but I needed to pitch it to the founders and leadership committee first. They all ate up this potential partnership, with no leftovers behind!
Three weeks later we were onsite working with Goodr to repurpose our own food waste during our internal offsite event. Being able to bring these two companies together, both who revolve their work and purpose around my own similar passionate values, left me feeling extremely inspired. Coworkers were coming up to me asking, “How can I bring this partnership to my next programs?”
By marrying Goodr solutions with our client solutions, could have tremendous potential to help improve and evelope the future of events. After a long day onsite, we could all rest our heads knowing that the leftover food is being repurposed and not ending up in a landfill ultimately damaging the environment.
At this point in my career, I can proudly say that I am able to incorporate my passion with my work at InVision Communications. The next time you’re finishing dinner – at home, out with friends, or among thousands of people at a conference – ask yourself, “Are you going to finish that?”
Contact your InVision account representative or info@iv.com to learn more.