Food waste reduction in school canteens: Evidence from an Italian case

Accepted Manuscript Food waste reduction in school canteens: Evidence from an Italian case

Alexandra Lagorio, Roberto Pinto, Ruggero Golini PII:

S0959-6526(18)32050-X

DOI:

10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.077

Reference:

JCLP 13531

To appear in:

Journal of Cleaner Production

Received Date:

06 March 2017

Accepted Date:

09 July 2018

Please cite this article as: Alexandra Lagorio, Roberto Pinto, Ruggero Golini, Food waste reduction in school canteens: Evidence from an Italian case, Journal of Cleaner Production (2018), doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.077

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ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Food waste reduction in school canteens: Evidence from an Italian case Alexandra Lagorio, Ph.D (corresponding author) CELS - Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, Via Pasubio, 7, 24044, Dalmine (BG) Town/City: Bergamo Country: Italy [email protected] Roberto Pinto, Ph.D CELS - Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, Via Pasubio, 7, 24044, Dalmine (BG) Town/City: Bergamo Country: Italy [email protected] Ruggero Golini, Ph.D Department: Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, Via Pasubio, 7, 24044, Dalmine (BG) Town/City: Bergamo Country: Italy [email protected]

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Food waste reduction in school canteens: Evidence from an Italian case Authors: blind for review Abstract The issue of food waste is increasingly attracting scientific and public interest due to the magnitude of the problem (in terms of quantity and global reach) and the growing attention to healthy and sustainable food production and consumption. As a consequence, an increasing number of initiatives aim to reduce the food discarded in each stage of the supply chain, from production and storage down to cooking and consumption. Still, food waste remains an unsolved issue, and many initiatives struggle to move from the design stage to full-scale implementation. This research paper focuses on a successful food waste reduction project in a school canteen in northern Italy. The case study illustrated in this paper demonstrates how it is possible to implement an effective initiative to reduce food waste with limited investment by leveraging the involvement of stakeholders. Keywords: food waste, waste reduction, school canteens, stakeholder management 1.

Introduction

In recent years, the problem of food waste has become an important topic worldwide and has claimed the attention of policy makers, associations, industries, and academics. Indeed, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 1.3 billion tonnes of food are lost or wasted annually, about one third of all food produced (FAO, 2011). The magnitude of these losses has stimulated organisations and institutions around the world to address the problem. The European Union has proposed a directive aimed at reducing food waste (European Commission, 2015) and launched a platform on Food Losses and Food Waste (European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety, 2016) to identify solutions to prevent food waste, share best practices, and evaluate progress over time. The United States, especially through the Department of Agriculture (USDA), promotes the dissemination of best practices to reduce food waste at home, school, and work (U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions) with the aim of reducing food loss and waste by 50 percent by the year 2030 (ReFed, 2016). The list of notable initiatives in the United States includes the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA, 2015), jointly promoted by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Food Marketing Institute, and the National Restaurant Association, which represent food and beverage companies, food retailers, and the foodservice industry, respectively. Further, the Joint Ambition project by Unilever and Hubbub aims at tackling the issue of food waste at the levels of consumers, businesses, and policies (Unilever, 2013). These initiatives address food waste at different stages of the supply chain and for different reasons. Accordingly, these types of waste are referred to with different terms. In this paper, we adopt the following definitions from the literature: The term “food waste” denotes “wholesome edible material intended for human consumption, arising at any point in the food supply chain that is instead discarded, lost, degraded or consumed by pests” (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations & United Nations Environment Programme, 1981) or, more generally, “any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed (including composted, crops ploughed in/not harvested, anaerobic digestion, bio-energy production, co-generation, incineration, disposal to sewer, landfill or discarded to sea)”(FUSIONS, 2014). The term “food supply chain” in these definitions refers to all

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT phases of the food lifecycle, from harvesting through transport and storage to consumption or waste (Parfitt et al., 2010). The majority of food waste in Europe originates from private households (42%), followed by the manufacturing sector (39%), food services and catering (14%), and the retail/wholesale sector (5%) (BIOIS, European Commission, 2010). In the initial stages of the food supply chain, it is possible to process and reuse food waste as cattle food (Wen et al., 2016), fertilizer (Kim et al., 2012), or biomass for energy production (Browne and Murphy, 2013). In the final stages of the food supply chain, on the other hand, many initiatives tend to focus on influencing people's behaviour in the processes of cooking, consumption, and waste management (Lundie and Peters, 2005) or increasing their awareness of healthier diets, which are correlated with waste reduction (Tagtow et al., 2015). Other strategies address private citizens with sensitising initiatives and waste sorting regulations (Secondi et al., 2015). Initiatives that aim to increase customer satisfaction in food consuming processes have proven particularly effective (Ferreira et al., 2013). Food waste reduction initiatives implemented by large retailers and their suppliers have also proven effective, including applying lean stock policies (Haijema & Minner, 2016), increasing food shelf life (Eriksson et al., 2016), and using packages that preserve food better and longer (Beitzen-Heineke et al., 2017; Brancoli et al., 2017). There are also several initiatives that involve private citizens directly; for example, a study in Shanghai showed that ad hoc training provided to groups of citizens supported by members of the local waste management company and the municipality effectively reduced food waste (Xu et al., 2016). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the United States crafted some guidelines and a toolkit to raise awareness among citizens on the theme of “reduce, reuse, recycle” and to help them put some effective measures into daily practice (e.g., meal planning, not buying too much food, taking advantage of discounts etc.) to prevent food waste (U.S. EPA, 2016). Moreover, many start-ups and platforms that allow citizens to exchange leftovers (e.g., Foodsharing, LeftoverSwap) were born during the growth of the sharing economy (Falcone & Imbert, 2017; Morone, Falcone, Imbert, & Morone, 2018). From the perspective of restaurants and canteens, food waste can be reduced through meal planning and leftover reuse schemes, usually with the support of an intermediate service provider (Caputo et al., 2017). However, in this sector, there are many restrictions regarding compliance with sanitation standards. These regulations, although necessary to protect public health, often present a barrier to food waste reduction initiatives. Additional studies are needed to understand how these barriers can be overcome while remaining in accordance with sanitation standards. Among these different streams, the research focuses on public school canteens, in which it is important to both reduce food waste and increase the awareness of students and parents with regard to healthy eating and sustainable practices. In addition, public institutions have a key role in the creation of an effective circular national economy, as suggested by European Union guidelines (European Commission, 2011). This paper aims to use a successful case study in Italy to illustrate an effective and reliable strategy to reduce food waste in public school canteens that can be implemented with relatively little investment but a high level of stakeholder involvement.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT The next section presents a theoretical background on food waste in school canteens. Section 3 illustrates the methodology used in this study, while section 4 presents the case study and section 5 discusses it. Finally, the conclusion provides key insights for organisations willing to implement similar projects and for future research directions in the field. 2.

Theoretical background

In the scant scientific literature on food waste in canteens, some studies have addressed this problem by illustrating different strategies of food waste reduction. Besides the initiatives of food-waste prevention and re-use presented in the introduction, other studies have focused on food waste recycling—for example, for feeding animals or composting (Hanson et al., 2016)—or recovery—for example, transforming food into energy through biofuels or biogas (Ratanatamskul and Saleart, 2016; Othuman Mydin et al., 2014). In addition, disposing of unavoidable food waste in engineered landfills with gas utilisation systems in place is the last possible option (Papargyropoulou et al., 2014) when no solution exists to use the food for human consumption (Figure 1).

Source Reduction Feed Hungry People Feed Animals Industrial Uses Composting Landfill Figure 1 – Food recovery hierarchy (Source: Adapted from United States EPA) Other studies such as Jungbluth et al. (2016) and Tóth et al. (2017) analysed the supply chain of canteen operators and catering services. Indeed, it is not just final consumers who produce waste: During preparation and storage, a great amount of food can be wasted, mainly due to inadequate staff training. A greater awareness of food preparation and preservation techniques could result in a 10% reduction of food waste (Tóth et al., 2017). Even the earlier stages of the food lifecycle (i.e., selection of raw materials and suppliers, preparation, and storage) may influence the quality of food, the choice of which food to eat, and, consequently, the amount of waste (Jungbluth et al., 2016). Several studies suggest two types of solutions: a reduction in the size of the portions served and greater attention to the composition and presentation of menus and dishes from the perspective of content and appearance (Martins et al., 2014; Rodriguez-Tadeo et al., 2014). Silvennoinen et al. (2015) performed a study on different Swedish companies operating in the catering sector and providing canteen service in schools. This study, in addition to the previously described solutions, suggested reducing self-service and buffet solutions and giving greater attention to educating schoolchildren on healthier diets. On this last point, Byker (2014) analysed the meal leftovers in an American school cafeteria and found that that food waste actually

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT increased after the introduction of a new regulation requiring greater amounts of healthy foods. Therefore, it is necessary to teach students the importance of a healthy diet rather than just introduce healthier food. In Italy, the location of this paper’s case study, as in many other countries, there are strict regulations on both the size of the portions and the composition of the menu in school canteens (Ministero della salute, 2010). These regulations were created to provide adequate, proper, and sustainable meals (with a particular focus on serving seasonal and locally produced food). However, as already noted, these regulations often constrain the implementation of food waste solutions. To fill this gap, Falasconi et al. (2015) proposed reducing the portions of snacks consumed during class breaks, while Bonomi et al. (2016) proposed re-using cooked, unserved food to help indigent families through collaboration between a set of stakeholders: students, families, teachers, public authorities, non-governmental organisations (NGO), and operators of the canteens. To support these initiatives, Italy enacted a special law in 20031 that allowed non-profit associations to participate in the redistribution of food to needy families without the bureaucratic obligations of restaurants and canteen operators concerning food storage (e.g., HACCP certifications), as the food is dispatched immediately. Table 1 summarises the main solutions suggested for food waste reduction in school canteens.

Authors

Suggested food waste reduction strategy

Bonomi et al., 2016

 

Re-use unsold and/or unused food for charity Leverage stakeholders network, including school, municipality, and supermarket Byker et al., 2014  Reduce portion sizes  Encourage nourishing food choices Falasconi et al., 2015  Fewer packaged sweet and salty snacks  Greater attention to menu composition  Less rigid procurement specifications  Train catering staff to better present food Jungbluth et al., 2016  Applied measures to improve all canteen operations and supply chain  Greater attention to menu composition Martins et al., 2014  Reduce portion sizes  Train catering staff to better present food Rodriguez-Tadeo et al., 2014  Reduce portion sizes  Train catering staff to better present food Silvennoinen et al., 2015  Minimise buffet service  Reduce portion sizes  Greater attention to menu composition  Educational aspect Tóth et al., 2017  Increase training of catering staff Table 1 – Main food waste reduction strategies in school canteens 3.

Research Method

To illustrate an effective and reliable strategy to reduce food waste in school canteens, this paper presents a case study that, while being singular, is very informative for organisations willing to undertake similar endeavours. The case chosen is the so called “Buon Samaritano” project, started in September 2014 and still in operation in Brusaporto, a small town 1

Italian Law 155/2003 “Disciplina della Distribuzione dei prodotti alimentari a fini di solidarietà sociale”, also known as “Legge del Buon Samaritano”.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT in northern Italy. Promoted by the municipality of a local school, it represents a zero-cost food waste solution for the municipality, as it achieved effective and satisfactory results in a very short time (about nine months after the beginning of the project) and involved all the stakeholders in the area. The case attracted the attention of local and regional media and has become a flagship project for many other schools. Given the multitude of stakeholders involved, the various phases of the project, and the tight relationship between the school and the local territory, a single longitudinal case study was determined to be the right approach to investigate the phenomenon in its real-life context, leveraging multiple sources of evidence to understand its key success factors (Yin, 1994, Eisenhardt, 1989). The single case study research method allows for more in-depth data collection and is particularly appropriate for exploratory studies in new research areas, such as food waste management, where the experiences of participants and context of actions are critical (Bhattacherjee, 2012). Like other methodologies, the analysis of a single case study has limitations. In particular, a single case study is less generalisable, and it is more difficult to verify its external validity than other methodologies, such as multiple case studies. However, these limitations are also positive factors because this methodology “sacrifices generalizability in favour of more in-depth analysis” (Lopes et al., 2017). The case study of this paper occurs in a town of 5,000 inhabitants in Italy, a country with national laws that are tightly aligned with European laws and guidelines. Hence, the case could be generalisable to similar towns across Europe, in which 19% of the population lives in very small towns with population densities between 300 and 1,500 inhabitants/km2 (ESPON, 2013). However, the case could also be theoretically replicated in neighbourhoods of larger cities. The case study guidelines proposed by Eisenhardt (1989) have been adopted for this research. Given the nature of this study, which is concerned with the exploration of uncovered areas of research (thus laying a potential base for future theory development) rather than with the construction of a theory, a single in-depth case study was performed (Voss, 2002). First, the ultimate goal of the analysis was defined as follows: understanding how an effective food waste reduction strategy was implemented with minimal investment (time and money) and involving all the stakeholders. Second, participants in the case study research were selected. Several retrospective interviews were conducted with the individuals who originated and managed the project, in particular with the municipal Councillor of Social Policies and the municipal Councillor of Education, to identify how the project developed over time. The interviews – each involving both councillors – were conducted in May 2015, May 2016, and January 2017, and each interview lasted about two and a half hours. The other necessary information was obtained through the analysis of data, reports, and minutes of the meetings related to the project from September 2014 to February 2017. Additional data included speeches of and interviews with various stakeholders involved in the project gathered from secondary sources and especially the proceedings of the National SIMeVeP conference "The Food that Does Not Nourish Any", held on October 28, 2016 in Bergamo, the province’s main city close to Brusaporto. Next, additional quantitative data (e.g., amount of wasted food before and after implementation of the waste containment strategy) and qualitative evidence from secondary sources (i.e., presentations, documents, news, conferences extracts) were collected to triangulate the information and enhance the validity and reliability of the findings (Yin, 1994). Finally, we identified the challenges encountered at each stage of the project, the relationships with the internal and external context, and the approaches used to solve the challenges. All these elements are explained in detail in the following section.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

4.

The case study description

This paper presents and discusses the “Buon Samaritano” project that was implemented at a school canteen in the municipality of Brusaporto, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants in the north of Italy. The canteen serves primary and secondary students an average of 800 meals per week, with peaks of about 280 meals per day. The “Buon Samaritano” project was initiated in September 2014 in response to a report by teachers concerned about the huge amount of food leftovers at the school canteen. Later, the issue was discussed by the School Canteen Commission, composed of two teachers, the municipal Councillor of the Education, a member of the company providing the canteen catering service, and some parents of the students. The School Canteen Commission used to meet on a quarterly basis to discuss management issues related to the canteen, but following the teachers’ report, the Commission started to meet every month. In addition, it was decided that each day a member of the Commission would be in the school canteen on a rotating basis to check the food quality and the behaviour of children in the cafeteria. After these first actions, the Committee understood that the aim of the reduction of food waste was twofold: making the students eat better and raising awareness among children and families of the issue of food waste. To this end, the local health department (Azienda Sanitaria Locale, ASL) became involved to implement actions aimed at recovering the uneaten food. According to the revised national guidelines of the Italian Ministry of Health (Ministero della Salute, 2010) and the Lombardy regional law (Regione Lombardia, 2010), it was not possible to produce smaller portions of food. Given this constraint, the School Canteen Commission started studying the best alternate ways to reduce food waste. Following the same logic of the Food Recovery Hierarchy (Figure 1), the second-best solution was to transform food that was prepared but not consumed into a resource for indigent families through the help of charitable and social associations. Thus, the School Canteen Commission, along with the municipal Councillor of Social Policies and a member of the local health department, decided to organise a meeting with a nearby municipality that was already testing a pilot project to redistribute school canteen leftovers. Such a pilot project, that never reached the implementation stage, was suffering from the difficulty in aligning the interests of the catering company (which was interested on efficiency and cost reduction) and the non-profit organisation (which was interested in regular food provisions). The meeting made clear to the members of the Committee and representatives of the Municipality of Brusaporto that it was necessary to create a working group involving the local health authorities, the parents’ representatives, the company providing the catering service, and the non-profit organisations operating in the area that were already dealing with food distribution to needy families. The first action that the local health department suggested was to monitor the quantity and type of edible food gone wasted. The food waste at the school canteen was monitored at the end of every lunch period for about two weeks in November 2014. With the active collaboration of teachers, the students weighed the leftover food directly in the refectory to grasp the extent of the waste. School teachers also monitored snack consumption (type and quantity) in each class during lessons breaks in the midmorning. The results of the monitoring are summarised in Table 2. The need to implement corrective actions was evident given that 17.5 kg of food were thrown away each day, corresponding to 153 portions, or about 30 meals consisting of a first dish, main course, side dish, bread, and fruit (one meal comprises 5 portions).

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Food discarded (portions)

Food discarded (kg)

First dishes

351

72

Main courses

363

28

Side dishes (vegetables)

631

63

Bread

328

16

Fruit

160

31

Total wasted food

1833

210

Average food waste per day

153

17.5

Table 2 – Results of food waste monitoring (12 days, 10-21 November 2014) Then, the main stakeholders (i.e., representatives of the municipality, the local health authorities, the parents’ committee, and the non-profit organisation) proposed a solution which was later adopted. The solution proposed serving half-portion meals with the possibility of being served the other half. In this way, the unserved food remained in trays without being touched. This solution enabled reducing the number of portions served while respecting national and regional laws on the amount of food to be served in school canteen. Moreover, it ensured that children, on a visual level, did not feel forced to finish a large amount of food. The leftover food from the plates (i.e., already served and not consumed) was discarded, and after lunch, canteen catering operators and non-profit volunteers organised food boxes for needy families using the unserved food. Before implementing the pilot project, meetings were held with the entire teaching staff to illustrate the hypothesised solution. The monitoring results and the proposed solution were then presented to the parents of the students: The major concern of the parents' committee was guaranteeing quality service for the children without increasing the cost of the canteen service. Students’ parents were reassured that the contractor would not make additional profits on the meal (parents were worried about paying for a whole meal and only being served half the portion). To avoid misunderstandings and create awareness of the extent of the problem of food waste in the school canteen, several information meetings were organised in January 2015 to better explain the project. Later, it was necessary to draft two new agreements between the local health department, the catering company, and the parents. At this stage, the catering company had several meetings with local health authorities to ensure that the meals coming out of the canteen and being distributed to needy families complied with sanitation laws. The support of the local health department was decisive at this stage in solving bureaucratic and administrative matters and guaranteeing unchanged cost for families. In this phase of the project, the local health department also trained the volunteers of the partner association on the distribution of the food recovered from the canteen. Needy families were selected by the voluntary association based on guidance provided by the municipality’s Department for Social Policies. In addition, a protocol on food withdrawal and delivery was crafted: The volunteers had to sign a document when they withdrew a box, and a recipient family member had to sign a document when the box was delivered.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Moreover, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the municipality, the catering company, and the non-profit organisation to ensure that the expectations and obligations of each party were correctly established and understood. The withdrawal and distribution operation currently occurs immediately at the end of the canteen service, between 2 and 2:30 PM. The boxes, purchased by the non-profit organisation, are filled with food and distributed to the needy families within 24 hours; the families return the cleaned containers at the time of delivery of the next meal. With the supervision of the Councillor for Social Policies of the municipality, the non-profit organisation identified families to whom to deliver the food. The most critical point at this stage was to ensure that the families understood that the food was prepared but never served, rather than being leftovers from students’ dishes. Each family had to sign an agreement and commit to following all the rules (e.g., returning the food boxes washed and cleaned, ensuring the presence of a family member at the time of delivery). The pilot project of serving half portions started in March 2015. In April of the same year, the project ramped-up to a full-scale operation with the distribution of the food leftovers to the needy families. Seven families, with a total of twenty-seven people, were chosen to be supported by the “Buon Samaritano” project. There are currently eight volunteers divided into teams of two distributing meals. Thus, every day, two people from the charity association deliver the food portions, previously packaged and chilled by the canteen catering operators, to the needy families involved in the project. The distribution of the meals follows a specific order to help the largest number of families. Each family receives one food box each day for a week and then must wait one week, for a total of 12 deliveries per family per month. The service is not guaranteed, since sometimes there are no leftovers, and other times, only bread, fruit, and vegetables are left. Every week, between 130 and 210 portions of food are recovered and redistributed. In the second year of the project, the non-profit organisation suggested to install a chiller in the canteen to ensure that the food could be immediately refrigerated and distributed beyond 24 hours. The chiller was bought and installed by the company providing the canteen catering service as a part of the agreement with the municipality. It should be noted that the cost of the chiller was marginal, and the municipality could have provided for it. The non-profit organisation started monitoring the feedback of the families, who have never reported mistakes or problems, while local health authorities recorded the number of kilograms of food wasted in a two-week pilot testing. Monitoring throughout the year was conducted by the Canteen Committee. Over the last year, monitoring was performed by weighing the food left in the dishes. Two more families were also added to the network over the last year (nine families, thirty people). Given the success of the initiative, the local health department asked the municipality to participate in public debates and meetings to explain the program to other schools and municipalities. Moreover, the municipality collaborated with the researchers involved in this paper in exchange for international dissemination of the project. Table 3 summarises the phases of the “Buon Samaritano” project.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT Phase

Period

Actions

Stakeholders involved

1

From June 2014 to September 2014



  

2

From September 2014 to January 2015

3

From February 2015 to April 2015

School Canteen Commission meetings

    

Meeting with nearby town municipality Monitoring wasted food Solution proposed by the stakeholders involved Meeting with teaching staff Meeting with students’ parents



Agreement protocols drawn up by the local health department with the company managing the school canteen service The local health department formed the association's volunteers Shared protocol on withdrawal of food between non-profit association and indigent families Memorandum of Understanding signed between the municipality, the contracting company managing the canteen service, and the non-profit organisation Pilot project starts Project fully operational

  

 From April  2015 to June 2015 5 Form  Purchase of the chiller September  Monitoring 2015 to June 2016 6 From  Two more families added to the project September  Public debates 2016 to  Operation and monitoring today Table 3 – Main phases of the project 4

5.

            

School Parents Municipal Councillor of the Education Canteen catering company School Parents Municipal Councillors of the Education and of Social Policies Canteen catering company Local health authorities School Parents Municipal Councillor of the Education and of Social Policies Canteen catering company Local health authorities Non-profit organisation and volunteers Needy families

Same as Phase 3 Same as Phase 3

Same as Phase 3

Discussion

The case study described in the previous section addressed the problem of food waste in a school canteen with a zerocost solution for the municipality. Some contingent factors contributed to the success of the “Buon Samaritano” project. For instance, the presence of the International Exposition in 2015 in Milan (only 90 Km away from Brusaporto) entitled “Feeding the Planet, Energy of Life” gave momentum to the debate around food and to the project. Another factor was that the contract between the municipality and the catering company was about to expire and had to be renewed. This favoured the possibility of renegotiating the terms and introducing new practices (e.g., half portions) and probably triggered the decision to provide the chiller for free. Finally, many of the subjects involved knew each other, and positive experiences from past collaborations increased their initial level of trust. Still, we do not think that these factors determined the success of the project; rather, the collaboration between the municipality and the stakeholders and the

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT way the project was managed with an open view of the existing regulations provides the lessons to be learned from this case. First, this project incorporated two solutions from the literature: monitoring the snacks consumed by schoolchildren, along with the attempt to educate children on healthier snack options (Falasconi et al., 2015), and the decision to use prepared and uneaten food to help needy families (Bonomi et al., 2016). Moreover, Table 3 clearly demonstrates the gradual involvement of all stakeholders in the project, which is a key success factor highlighted in the literature (Xu et al., 2016; Bonomi et al., 2016). It is first necessary to identify the stakeholders, which include those with at least one of the following characteristics: power, legitimacy, urgency, or interest (Mitchell et al., 1997). The same variables can be used to organise the stakeholders on a power/interest matrix (Figure 2). The guidelines proposed by Newcombe (2003) for effective stakeholder involvement (i.e., monitoring stakeholders in sector A of the matrix; keeping the stakeholders in sector B informed; keep the stakeholders in sector C satisfied; and giving a key role to the stakeholders in sector D) were applied by the “Buon Samaritano” project managers (i.e., municipality representatives). The majority of the stakeholders lay in the high power-high interest part of the matrix, thus highlighting the criticality of the project and the need to work towards a satisfactory agreement for all parties. The catering company, which was interested in renewing the contract, was a high interest-low power stakeholder. As such, the catering company was kept informed, thus limiting its influence over the project. Instead, the parents were involved in the project, as they had limited interest (so long as their children received the right amount of healthy food at a fair price), but high power as they could easily have stopped the initiative. Needy families had low power and medium interest. In fact, the variability in the portions delivered (sometimes there are no leftovers and therefore no deliveries) does not provide the families with a stable solution for their meals. In addition, the idea of eating leftovers was not very appealing. Hence, some effort was required to engage these stakeholders in the project. This shows that the project mainly focused on food waste reduction rather than providing concrete help to needy families, who had little voice in the project; it was therefore important that these stakeholders were represented by the non-profit organisation. Finally, the local health authority ensured that relevant regulations were respected and therefore lay in the high-power and low-interest part of the matrix. In Italy, as in many other European countries, food regulations developed for years with the sole objective of ensuring the safety and availability of food to consumers. With the creation of the European Union, such regulations become even more complex in an attempt to bring all the member nations to the same level. This created a complex system of regulation that constrains the behaviour of organisations dealing with food production and distribution. While created for the greater good, such regulations also hamper the development of food waste initiatives, given their “borderline” nature (e.g., restrictions on food near the expiration date, food that is repackaged after display, etc.). Hence, trying to implement a food waste project with a “compliance approach”—i.e., trying to fully respect all regulations—in most of the cases turns out to be impossible or very costly. Without drastic changes to the regulations, such as those that recently occurred in France,2 our case suggests going beyond the keep satisfied strategy suggested by Newcombe (2003)—a strategy that denotes giving the high-power lowinterest stakeholders what they want, which is usually not much, given their low interest. Moreover, it is not advisable to involve these stakeholders in the project team, as they might not be interested in contributing or, with their power,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-bysupermarkets 2

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT could steer the project in the direction they desire. However, contrary to this suggestion, the local health authority was involved in the project to help safely navigate the border of the regulations and find acceptable compromises; this move turned out to be a key success factor of the project.

Level of interest Low

Low

A:

High

B: 

Needy families



Canteen catering company

  

School Local health authority Non-profit organisation

Power D: High

C: 

Parents committee

Figure 2 – “Buon Samaritano” project stakeholders matrix from the project manager point of view (municipality representatives) (Newcombe, 2003) Next, it is important to understand the attitude (i.e., positive, neutral, negative) of the stakeholders towards the project (Bourne, 2005) and determine their needs to ensure that no key stakeholder has a negative attitude towards the project. A detailed analysis of the case study evidenced that eight different stakeholders were involved in the project with both main and secondary goals, as reported in Table 4. Stakeholder Municipality School

Non-profit organisation

Main Goal Raise awareness among children and families of the issue of food waste Find solutions to ensure that children eat better

Increase the number of people helped

Secondary Goals Waste reduction Help needy families Raise awareness among children and families of:  food waste and healthy food  helping needy families

Raise public awareness on the issue of food waste Parents Guarantee enough healthy food for the Increase the sense of responsibility of children the children regarding healthy food, food waste and solidarity towards the needy families Local health authorities Ensure compliance with food safety Reduce waste by using the alreadycooked food Needy families Have several guaranteed meals (or Keep in touch with social workers and food portions) during the week volunteer associations Catering company Continue to offer the canteen service to Implement social and environmental the school without an increase in costs sustainability policies to improve its reputation Table 4 – Main and secondary objectives of the stakeholders involved in the project

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT The analysis of these goals helped manage expectations, avoid misunderstandings, and find compromises among the various requests of the stakeholders. For instance, the project manager could leverage common goals to create a sense of connection and engagement among the stakeholders or alter the project in a way that did not hurt key stakeholders. Our case, however, extends this concept by suggesting that the problem is not only changing stakeholders’ attitudes, but ensuring their commitment and involvement, especially in what concerns the key stakeholders. Similar projects were not implemented in two neighbouring towns even though the same food waste problem was noticed and discussed around the same time. The lack of implementation was due, in one case, to a lack of willingness from the school and, in the other case, to the lack of a non-profit organisation in the area able or willing to manage the distribution service. In addition, the corresponding project of the town that supported the Brusaporto administration in the early stages of “Buon Samaritano” was discontinued because the school was no longer able to support the project. In all these cases, the municipality was not able to keep the key stakeholders involved, and the project could not continue. In contrast, Brusaporto realised that food waste projects, while technically simple and inexpensive, require the involved stakeholders to be not only positive in attitude, but also involved and engaged. Hence, the role of the municipality can be not only that of a facilitator, but also that of an orchestrator of the resources provided by the stakeholders. 6.

Conclusion

The case study presented in this paper shows the different phases of the implementation of a food waste reduction strategy that included multiple stakeholders in a school canteen of a small-size town. This project aimed to educate students and their families on a more appropriate food culture and better environmental behaviours. The project also had a concrete social outcome: directly supporting needy families. In this way, without any additional investment or producing waste and in a short time period, the school canteen currently serves both students and indigent families. While the project may seem almost trivial when looked from outside, our observations show that the development process, from idea to implementation, was actually quite articulated and complex, and the successful outcome is clearly related to how the stakeholders and, more broadly, the project ecosystem were well understood and managed by the municipality. In particular, we observed that it is possible to implement an almost zero-cost solution to food waste in school canteens. However, to achieve an effective solution, it is critical to involve all the stakeholders in the project. In these kinds of projects, stakeholders must not be seen as potential obstacles, but as providers of resources that must be listened to, motivated, and engaged. The best example of this is the local health authority that, rather than a source of constraints, was perceived and involved as a contributing partner to help find the best compromises with the existing regulations. Involving stakeholders on a continuous basis also ensures that the municipality can monitor progress and disseminate possible future improvements at any time. The goals of each stakeholder in the project should be clearly determined from the beginning to enable finding a solution that satisfies the expectations of all stakeholders. As a consequence, while this canteen food waste solution may, in principle, be applied to other situations, the implementation process should be carefully managed with full awareness of the interests at stake. In this paper, we analysed a single case study. While this is a limitation of the work, future research could focus on extending the model to other school canteens and even to company canteens in which a private-public partnership might be required to better manage the positive social impact that this type of food waste solution could have on the community.

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

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