Charity launches modern doggy bag
Food charity Everybody Eats has launched a scheme to encourage diners to ask for goodie boxes for leftover restaurant meals and donate $5 in the process.
Everybody Eats general manager Nick Loosely said New Zealand had a huge food waste problem, with about a third of the food produced ending up in bins.
The goodie box was a way to reduce food waste from restaurant meals, Loosely said.
In the past, restaurant-goers had embraced taking leftovers home, however, in the last two decades that behaviour had changed, he said.
‘‘Some of the reason [for this change] is perceived food safety concerns from restaurants, though the food safety legislation doesn’t prevent people from taking food home.’’
A recent survey by Love Food, Hate Waste found that 87 per cent of respondents wanted to be offered a doggy bag if they couldn’t finish their meal, but only 5 per cent of them had ever been brave enough to ask for one.
‘‘So now we have a lot of plate wastage.
‘‘We are throwing away a lot of really good food that is procured by chefs, prepared by chefs. Some of the top chefs in the country are having their food ordered and then thrown in the bin, and we think that is really bad.’’
To participate in the scheme, restaurants will have to buy the specially designed boxes from Innocent Packaging. When a customer had too much food, they could be offered a goodie box.
Customers can make an instant $5 donation with Apple or Google Pay by scanning a QR code on the box.
‘‘The donation is completely optional. We are not asking people to necessarily pay to take the food they have already paid for home,’’ Loosley said.
‘‘Kiwis enjoy some of the best food in the world, so for many of us, the idea of having nothing to eat is a very foreign one. Yet, it’s a reality for 1 in 5 Kiwis according to the Government.’’
When customers took food home there was less waste for restaurants to pay to get rid of, Loosley said.
The goodie box initiative was being championed by chef Al Brown.
Brown encouraged other restaurants to join the scheme.
‘‘As a guy who’s in the kitchen every day, I know how much energy goes into great restaurant food, so it really pains me to see so much of it left behind.
‘‘Especially when every day, thousands of Kiwis out there go hungry,’’ Brown said.
Almost 40 restaurants nationwide had signed up to the goodie box scheme ahead of its launch. Loosley said other businesses had been in touch since to find out more.
Any money donated would go to providing restaurant quality meals for vulnerable people, he said.
Everybody Eats has prepared over 50,000 meals from food that would otherwise go to waste since its launch in 2017.
The food is on offer on a ‘‘pay-as-you-can’’ basis, and open to everyone, with the goal of helping to feed those who are homeless, or suffering from food poverty.
Everybody Eats operates from four pop-up restaurants across Auckland, Papamoa and Wellington.