Waste Management Case Study at Hillsboro Restaurant

Current Challenges in Waste Management

The concept of waste management at Hillsboro Restaurant continues to gain traction since the administration introduced the idea to the staff and shared it with the customers. Management understands that food waste has a positive impact on customer satisfaction, knowing the restaurant is doing something about the environmental implications of foodservice while helping to support the local community. Management also realizes sharing the story of reducing waste is an essential motivator for the staff and a means to recruit and retain a younger generation of professionals who grew up learning about environmental awareness at school and recycling programs at home.

Rajeev Singh is the new manager hired one month earlier tasked with overseeing kitchen operations at the Hillsboro Restaurant. He has been asked to lower operating costs and lessen the facility's impact on the environment through waste management and sustainable initiatives. Hillsboro Restaurant is a busy operation that currently isn't as efficient as it needs to be producing a large amount of waster pre-consumer and post-consumer. The Hillsboro Restaurant team provides approximately 2,900 pounds of waste per month. Chef Singh decided to make some observations and meet with various staff. The onsite production team, when questioned, admitted that they are struggling with menu forecasting. Meaning they often would prepare more food than they serve because of an outdated POS and reservation software. The last manager had created an impressive menu that the customers raved about featuring a sophisticated array of menu items, many of which called for a wide range of ingredients. Also contributing to the onsite production team's challenges were the facilities frequently changing menus and sourcing items out of season, from a host of different suppliers. They refused to split cases to accommodate small orders. Certain menu items created natural food waste, according to the production team

 

For example, one menu item called for a small portion of turkey breast, but staff still needed to prepare an entire turkey breast, at a minimum, even though it might not all get used.

The team often reported the chiller would not hold its temperature due to wear and tear on the refrigeration cooling units, and as a result, there was an increase in spoilage. Some equipment was expected to be replaced, and other equipment went without proper monthly service and maintenance due to an oversight and the neglect of the last manager. The cooler uses an outdated water-cooling system, which demands a great deal of water and energy to operate efficiently. The new cooling system to be installed uses cold air from the outside, which is more efficient but was never implemented. Chef Singh observed the lights in the entire facility and dining room were on motion sensors and left on continually. Chef Singh noticed staff arrived in the morning and turned all the equipment on to get started for the day's production.

Chef Singh had read the dinning room logs, which reported several customer queries about the menu literature, which boasted a robust sustainable and environmental awareness program and how the restaurant managed waste. Yet when customers asked service staff about the various strategies, staff didn't know what programs or initiatives the operation had implemented due to poor communication or lack of training. Upon inspection, Chef, Singh also observed that the wash ware staff weren't sorting food waste separating non-food waste from organic food waste and that there weren't any recycling bins for cardboard, glass or plastic. Chef Singh needs to make changes to improve the sustainable program and waste management initiative at the Hillsboro Restaurant. Please provide three recommendations you would make to assist Chef Singh in developing the sustainable, environmental, and waste management program. Chef Singh is responsible for sharing his new program with the kitchen production team and dining room staff. Please provide examples from the case study to support your findings and three recommendations

1. The student(s) will provide three recommendations for Chef Singh to improve the Hillsboro Restaurant to manage its waste management strategy and improve their environmental awareness program.

2. Each of the three recommendations must have five valid points. Therefore three recommendations with a total of fifteen points.

3. Student(s) can provide solutions written as a report, slide presentation, a voice recording such as a podcast, or videotaped as presentation. Please submit your reply to the assignment folder under the assessment tab in this course.
 
4. Review the marking rubric before completing and watch the how-to-video to complete this assignment