Over 800 million people worldwide are undernourished, while one-third of all food produced for human consumption (~1 B tons) is lost or wasted between the farm and table each year. Retail food chains such as Papa John’s are doing little to recognize or address the problem, yet cost savings are enormous to the company and a boon for communities once waste is identified, measured and cut.
Papa John’s International operates in all 50 states and 39 countries, but lacks basic sustainability reporting and does not acknowledge that food waste is a major problem within the company. Our goal is to encourage Papa John’s to develop processes to better measure, report and combat food waste and address global hunger, including:
- Implement and report on systems to identify the sources of and measure food waste,
- Improve operational practices to reduce waste, and
- Develop waste reduction programs, repurpose ingredients, and develop local relationships for food donation.
CBIS reached out to Papa John’s twice at the end of 2016, to discuss the issue and press the company for better reporting. We are drafting a letter now with the improvements we’d like to see in management practice and reporting for 2017, and have been partnering with key food waste advocates on strategy.