From Excess to Access: Community-Driven Waste Solutions with Ken Baker of Rethink Food

Our latest episode is with Ken Baker, Culinary Director for Rethink Food, which aims to bridge the gap between excess food and food insecure communities by preparing restaurant-quality meals from food that has been rescued from going to waste. Together, Ken and Nika share their experiences in the restaurant industry and the important decisions restaurants make to balance food waste and profits. Ken discusses how Rethink Food transforms excess into access in food insecure communities by providing nutrient dense, culturally relevant meals. We conclude with a discussion of how to shift the narrative around food waste.

If you have an idea for an episode topic you’d like to see featured or if you would like to participate in an episode of USAID’s Kitchen Sink, please reach out to Nika Larian (nlarian@usaid.gov).

There’s no time to waste!

Transcript

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welcome to USAID's kitchen sink a food loss and waste podcast I'm your producer n laan 30 to 40% of the food that is produced is either lost or wasted contributing to a global food crisis with over 800 million going to bed hungry listen on on as USAID experts speak with researchers and development professionals to explore solutions to this critical issue that Demands a kitchen sink approach when it comes to climate food security and food system sustainability we have no time to waste for tuning in to USAID'S kitchen sink a food loss and waste podcast my name is Nika Larian senior food safety advisor and producer of the kitchen sink today I will be speaking with Ken Baker culinary director for rethink food which aims to bridge the gap between excess food and food in Secure communities by preparing restaurant quality meals from food that has been rescued from going to waste Ken I'm really excited to speak with you today and hear your insights as a chef although we have yet to explore the perspective of restaurants on the kitchen sink podcast it's one that interests me quite a bit because of my background my parents owned a French Bakery and Cafe for 37 years in Lexington Kentucky and I really grew up in that Bakery in that restaurant and and really spent more time in the restaurant than I did probably in in my own home and growing up in that environment I got a really great appreciation for the community building that food can provide but also the decisions that restaurants and chefs have to make on a daily basis basis to really address conversations around food waste I remember my parents having conversations about how much bread to make every single day and discussing measurements for flower because of course you want to meet demand but you're balancing um that desire to not have any food left over that's going to go to waste so welcome Ken it's great to have you here today and I'd love to hear a little bit more about your background well thank you ni for having me and thank you for the kind introduction uh my name is Ken Baker I'm the Clary director here at rethink food and my background in the industry started out um as a high school kid needing a job you know I wanted to partake in all the extras that high school has to offer ring dance uh junior prom senior prom and my mom's response was all right you know you gotta get a job you got to help uh carry away from that and so I I started my career in hospitality industry as a bus boy at at 14 at a local golf club back in Baltimore and it really set me on a trajectory and a career path that really allowed me to have amazing opportunities to understand how the in the interconnectivity of the hospitality world and how it creates just Brad of community and just great U relationships and human interaction I didn't have uh understanding of what I wanted to do in high school and my boss was like Hey you know get a Hospitality degree and you'll have markable career uh skill sets that will keep you employed for the rest of your life and so um from there I would go and work in every facet of our industry I've been in large scale catering and hotels and um large scale um managed Dining Services it's one of the big uh players in the space working in on campuses like John S University and American University I've worked in luxury hotels for you know the nation's leaders um in Washington DC um and it all culminated to what I'm doing right here at reink really um understanding the excess that exists within our industry because as a culinary hospitality industry we always want to make sure we have an abundance of product to be able to meet the needs of our guests and consumers but also as a New Yorker intimately understanding the need of individuals who don't have a me and really just marrying those two together that's really rethink strength in this space is that we marry that private sector expertise of our industry and we oriented to this community service expression that's just creating greater Amplified human impact excellent thank you Ken yeah I definitely relate as soon as I probably could walk around the bakery I had a broom in my hand and was waiting tables and really a lot of great interpersonal skills that that can be developed in that interaction um in restaurants so let's let's dive a little deeper into the work that you're doing with rethink food and how you're using these meals to build community while preventing waste absolutely so reink food our mission is to create a more sustainable and Equitable food system but and if you really bow that down we really just exist and create capacity that creates bar the community um we utilize that currency of our mission that meal as this vehicle to just extend compassion to our most needy neighbors but also utilizing it as a vehicle and resource for this upper mobility of Economic Development really understanding that as chefs and as colonary professionals we have a unique mantle we have a unique positioning and Community where you know a lot of society has become very what side are you on on issues you know are you left or right red or blue you know are you live in a city or a rural Center um we kind of focus on just disarming all that when you sit down at the table and you break bread with somebody you disarm all that otherness in the world and allows us to really see what is Broad of community and so we deliver our mission and celebrating culturally competent meals making food that's for people the unique way in which we deliver our our our services to our constituents is that we don't just blank at the city uh with just meals at the lowest cost we really are intentional about what we do and what we're providing in this space and that level of intention is really how we measure dignity understanding that this audience that we are uh providing services for it's the most vulnerable of individuals our most needy neighbors and we believe that food is fundamentally a human right and a no level margul relationship dictate the quality of food you receive and fundamentally we believe that this population that we're servicing because of the dire rat that they're in there should be an extra level of care to engage a sensitive audience a extra level of intention and so in which we the meals we provide are holistically balanced restaurant quality nutrient DS hot meal not just moving food product from place to other just because you're hungry you shouldn't take whatever but really celebrating what food is food is that celebration of community of culture and so in in delivering those nutrient Dent restaurant quality hot meals we also are leaning in as much as possible to culturally celebrated meals New York City is a mosaic of diverse individually individuals there's um every ethnic identity and cultural representation here in New York City and the same way that people want to be spoken to in their preferred language and by the preferred name people also want to eat me food that's very um recognizable and identifiable to their cultural or ethnic identity and to the best of our ability we we provide that in which we here in our s Community Kitchen we invite the fullness of our diverse team to bring their live experience to be in our space but in alternatively when we don't have that capacity in the house we can lean on this restaurant network of over 70 plus New York City primarily women and minority Rand restaurants that have a diverse menu mix that we can lean into to all the cultural celebrations that exist here in New York City I yeah I really love what you mentioned about breaking bread and celebrating culture and what unites us and I think that's one of the the things that I appreciate most about the effort to reduce food waste is that that I hope that it's a a pretty bipartisan issue that everyone can get behind I don't think there's anyone out there that that thinks that we should be wasting food or that it's a good thing to be wasting ing food so I I I really like this movement because I think it's something that that everyone can can latch on to and get behind and I think a lot of that is just finding the right conversations and the right AR arguments to make to to different people for them to see the all the different benefits that can come from reducing food waste so you mentioned this this community building this um alleviating of of food insecurity of course there are climate and economic benefits as well um so many different arguments to to be made um so I I really want to again take it a little deeper um about how the process of reing food is actually happening so can you tell me how you're sourcing this excess food how are the meals prepared and who has access to the meals absolutely and so how we really Source all of our amazing abundant donations are the Catalyst of our meal making it's really just leaning into our built-in Secret sauce the muscle memory that we're able to tap into by being hospitality and culinary professionals I always say you know we aren't nonprofit people trying to feed people we're a bunch of food people who just happen to run a nonprofit and so we know within our industry where the excess exists I can walk into any kitchen any in any operation no matter the scale or size and see where excess exists because for most of our for-profit partners you're delivering a very standardized unique menu offering and you don't have 100% utilization or yield of all of your ingredients or using to deliver your menu we can utilize that excess in creating meals and the unique way in which we again we're creating meals we're not just making one thing and blanking across the city we're making a myriad of various different menu applications and a rethink meal is comprised of a protein element a carbohydrate element and a vegetable element and so all the disperate ingredients from our Retail Partners like Whole Foods and Trader Joe's or corporate cafeteria or just independent restaurants we can comprise all of that here in our stainable community kitchen and then we develop menus that reflect not only um the nutrient dents restaurant quality caloric intake that we have to comprise that meal but also those culturally celebrated meals that reflect the unique communities that we're feeding you know how we feed the Bowery uniquely different than how we feed washt and Heights leaning into our unique way in which we deliver our services is that we don't deliver any of our services like I said in our intro wethink exist to provide provide capacity to create broad of community and we partner with Community Based organizations these are institutions like Rec centers faith-based institutions libraries these institutions that have the anchoring and credibility already in the community these are their neighbors who they have an accountability to the constituent that we're servicing and we just go there and ask them how can we help how many meals do you need what are the dietary preferences or versions of your community how is best way to serve or portion the meals for them because everyone eats differently um and so amassing this this donor Network that allows us to go out and then we capture all of this excess everyone wants to give and be sustainable but it's about making it work the brass tacks of the logistics of it and again we try to not only deliver meals that provide greater Amplified human impact but alleviate all the barriers of access including on our donor side and so we own every single touch point of this operational chain we go out and we capture the donations we transport the donations they come back here to our community kitchen we curate and produce the meals we package the meals we label the meals and then we deliver the meals back out to our Community because that's a stewardship of care in which we have to convey to our constituents because we have to combat these entrenched stigmas of dumpster diving or is a food suitable for human consumption or how are they transporting that um we own every single facet of that operational uh chain that produces the meal so that we can say confidently to our constituent that we are the cified credential professionals that uniquely rethink food and we were delivering you a well-balanced holistic um restaurant quality nutrient-dense meal well I I have to applaud you Ken on on several different fronts um one I mean like you said alleviating the barriers of excess and and all the coordination of logistics that that has to happen to to make this work but really on a deeper level I just I want to appreciate the the Artistry that goes into cooking and the skill that it takes to not only collect all these different excess ingredients but then transform form it as you said into a nutrient-dense and culturally relevant meal on a larger scale I think sometimes we even struggle to do that in our own kitchens and I think a lot of that is is I hope that there's a narrative shift around a lot of different things including around cooking where cooking I enjoy cooking I think it can be a fun challenge it's a great opportunity to be creative and say okay I have all these different ingredients what can I make out of this that's unique that I'm going to like that maybe has a little something new that I haven't tried before and and I think sometimes that's a barrier for people that it seems like an obstacle and it's a burden and and so I think there's a lot of work that we need to do around narrative shifting um when it comes to food waste we often as I said make the economic case for reducing food loss and waste on this podcast it's one that we've heard many times but I think what we've heard less of is making the human case for preventing food waste how do we get people to care about food waste and get excited about the opportunities to rethink our relationship with food I love this question ni and I and I love the term you use narrative shift that's really what we're doing we're redefining re we're rethinking food but we also redefining all the components and aspects evolved in that redefining what it is to be a nonprofit operating in this food excess uh space what it is to Define sustainability you know we've taken a nuanced approaches to finding sustainability and of course in what we're doing in collecting excess and curating it to meals you know 40% of food that's produced in this country doesn't touch human lives the number one contributor to landfills is food waste it's a big uh it a provides a lot of methane that is adding to our climate crisis and so when we're talking about sustainability and if you look at our logo I love our logo because it it showcases the whole operational model of what we do at here everything food but the beginning of that art and the end of that art starts and stops with people we keep people centered in everything they were doing all they were doing in um advancing sustainable cooking initiatives and providing meals that are fighting food in security all that we're doing is just holistically sustaining our communities and that's what we we want to keep that that individual centered in that the individual that's receiving our meals the individuals that are part of our donor Network individuals that are part of making our meals here in the footprint of our stainable community kitchen you know in defining um redefining sustainability that narrative shift about holistic sustainability we look at ourselves to be a blueprint model for our industry and so for that narrative shift about sustainability yes we want to focus on um collecting excess and utilizing it the longevity of this viable um food that's suitable for human consumption because there are one in seven New Yorkers that are food and secure and we want to exist provide the meals but we also want to talk about sustaining our community sustaining our industry what we also are doing is just a great business practice um when we look at the inflationary economy that we exist in right now and that number one cost if it's labor or food you know depending on your operation those are your one and two fixed costs well that food is perishable so finding ways to be more sustainable and extending the longevity of that allows you greater yield and utilization within your operational model and it's getting you a higher Roi um but I also believe in just when you take care of your people your people take care of you and so as an industry being more sustainable and centering the individual sustaining our community sustaining our service core because here's The Untold Truth about our industry a lot of the individuals that do the behind the scene works of the hospital cin industry that's underpin of service core professionals they exist in the same communities that we're servicing and so it's like a chicken or egg situation you're they're they're powering this amazing engine of um hospitality and cl Arts number one industry in the world but also existing in underserve communities where one in seven New Yorkers or depending on that area that are food insecure and it doesn't make sense and so in holistically centering them in their needs presenting rethink as a model of a marquee Hospitality employer that allows for um greater engagement in your community greater planning you know we have our starting wage is $23.76 because that is what a living wage is in New York City and still with that I challenge anybody to find and live off of that alone um in sustaining our communities being able to provide these meals free of cost and one of the question you have four which you know barriers of access we don't ask any questions we come from the assumption that we are chefs we have the ability to make meals if people need a meal we're going to provide a meal we're not going to ask question you don't have to demonstrate your need for it because that also that's not dignified you know we want to fight those in Trin stigmas when you're talking about food and security we're also just talking about a symptom of poverty and in this country we have a lot of Shame and stigmas around not having of resources which is what poverty is we want to exist and the meal to be that currency that's giving you some of Aviation of the present state of mind and hey at least for this one day or for this circumstance I don't have to worry about where my next meal is going to come from I know I I can go to St John's bread in life every Monday Wednesday and Friday and have that nutrient vents restaurant quality hot meal because also take into a fact that time is a big factor whether you have resources or not you can't get more of and if you're a single mom working overtime just to keep rent um keep a roof over your head paying rent in this affordability crisis that we experience in New York City and you have multiple kids and which you also are uh juggling Child Care by the time you get off of work where all your kids you may not have the time to make a meal or you may be because you're so under resource or finally combating the affordability crisis of the housing situation here in New York City you may not be domiciled in a place that has full infrastructure to make a meal and so just eleviating all the barriers of access giving you a safe and secure place to go that's fixed in your community like your local Rec Center or faith-based institution and sitting down in a safe environment having a hot quality nutrient-dense meal that you're happy to give to your kids you feel secure to give your kids and it's it's real food for real people that's very uh very akin to home cooking and and so that's that's the narrative shift that you know we're we're deinstitutionalizing the food we're making it accessible we're not asking the question like demonstrate your poverty and in sustain in doing all of that yes we are having a amazing impact on combating our climate crisis but more intimately we're sustaining our communities creating broader Community allowing individuals to look at themselves in the mirror identify what privilege you have and it's not just Financial Resources it's going be relationships it could be just time do you have time to go and come volunteer with us for two three hours and help us make meals that allows us to amplify our footprint in certain communities um relationships do you have time to introduce us to people like na USAID who can expand the footprint of our mission and let people know what we're doing those that's all privilege and utilizing that privilege uplift others that's how we Define equity when we talk about that Equitable sustainable food system that we're trying to create here at reink Food absolutely I think a lot of us uh take for granted the the access that we have to nutritious food and I I think it's a good thing that there was a recent report to the US food waste index that got a lot of press attention when it shared that households are wasting one billion meals a day at the same time almost 800 million people are going to bed hungry every single night and that dichotomy is just it's I mean it's devastating it's it's it's so problematic and I think it got the attention that it deserved and I hope that we can use it as a jumping point to really get the momentum going and as you mentioned I think the time is right because of the affordability crisis a lot of us who you know maybe again like we're taking for granted the access that we have to nutritious food we're feeling it now when we go to the grocery store and I think it's a good time to to to capitalize on on that moment to say hey it makes economic sense for you to to not throw away this food that you're spending your hard-earned money on and at the same time there's this human case that there's so many people going to bed hungry and we're wasting so much food every single day and while I think there's been a lot of focus on making the economic case because it works for companies it works for the private sector they care about the bottom line and to a certain extent I think households do too but we've talked on previous episodes of the podcast about the plastic straw argument that this was a you know what is the argument that's going to get people to care about well what about the turtles I can't use a plastic straw like I'm thinking about the ocean like we need that moment of what is really going to get people to think every single time that they take their plate to the trash can and they're about to dump all of this food into the trash what is going to be that that story that sticks with them and to me I think it's in households it's not the economic case I think it's it's the human approach and it's thinking about the people that are that need that food and that are going to bed hungry every night and so I really appreciate the work that you're doing that rethink food is doing to rethink the problem the food waste issue is a big problem and we need people that are changing the narrative that are rethinking how we approach the issue and rethinking how we approach food so it's been a really great conversation with you today Ken I've really appreciated your insights um and I hope that we can use these insights to continue to make food a community building aspect and again to bridge this this Gap that we have between the food that we're wasting and the people who really need it well thank you so much ni for having me and thank you to your audience for uh learning more about rinkle food if you want to learn more about rethink food please visit our website at www. rethink food.org um and we're simply at rethink food on X and Instagram as well if you want to follow us and see what we're doing and if you're ever here in New York City stop by our sustainable Community Kitchen and help us make some meals help us just create bar of community here in New York City absolutely well I'll be there in October so I may have to take you up on that offer we love to have you love to have you thanks Ken thank you so much na thank you for tuning in to USAID's kitchen sink this podcast was produced by nian and is organ organized by the USA food loss and waste community of practice co-chairs Ahmed Khablan and Anne Vaughn additional Thanks goes to feed the future the US government's Global Food security initiative and the USAID Center for nutrition