The Park City Community Foundation and the Park City Chamber and Visitors Bureau partnered to launch the Zero Food Waste Restaurant Cohort. It’s a pilot program that provides 20 Summit County restaurants and caterers with free industry expertise to help them reduce the amount of food sent to landfills.
The community foundation’s Climate Fund Manager Andy Hecht said the team is looking for restaurants to register.
“They will have a one-day workshop with an organization called ReFED and then they'll have five to seven hours of consulting work afterwards,” he said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour.” “We'll finance all of the startup costs to divert food waste.”
Hecht said experts will work with each business to find ways to reduce waste, like changing food orders and inventory, offering smaller portions and prices and creating new dishes with leftover ingredients.
“There's a climate impact, but for restaurants, when they're using these resources that they'll be gaining from ReFED, they're going to see payback,” Hecht said. “They're going to see money in their pocket.”
The pilot program will help each restaurant determine what works best for them. Hecht said a Main Street eatery operates differently than one in Prospector or on the east side of Summit County.
“That's why we are entering this is to learn from them, so we can use what we've learned,” he said. “What works at this restaurant? OK well, this restaurant is similar, we can institute that. So, 20 restaurants are coming together, we're going to share what's working, what's going well and grow beyond that.”
The pilot is part of the Zero Food Waste initiative the community foundation launched in June 2024. The goal is to divert all Summit County food waste from landfills by 2030.
Interested restaurants and caterers can apply for the free program through April 28.
Find the application here.
