10 Chain Restaurants That Are Working To Combat Food Waste

The chain, which is owned by Darden restaurants, has donated more than 38 million pounds of food since starting the Olive Garden Harvest Program back in 2003. All existing outposts participate in this donation process.

Program Development Director of Food Donation Connection Jim Larson points to Darden restaurants as an outstanding example of a major organization doing food donation right: "Darden is not only good about a surplus of food, they’ve [also] donated things like flatware, or uniforms even, or artwork if they change out some of the art in the restaurant. They’re always looking for something to do with any surplus rather than throw it away."

More than a year ago, Pizza Hut surpassed 100 million pounds of food donated through their Harvest Program with the Food Donation Connection. In fact, the chain was the first to come onboard with the FDC — Larson confirms "it started out with just Pizza Hut in 1992."

The chain also became the barometer by which food donation was measured. Larson notes a pound of food typically equals a meal because "in early days, when we were looking at medium pizzas at Pizza Hut, they were 2 pounds and they fed two people, so we said ‘that’s two meals,’ so we’ve adopted that."

For years, Panera has held true to their Day-End Dough-Nation program, which allows them to (1) ensure what they're serving every day is fresh and (2) donate their unsold bread goods to local rescue missions and food pantries.

In 2017, Starbucks had donated 1 million meals of unsold food through its FoodShare program. By 2020, the chain intends to donate at least 50 million. Per year.

Not only does Chipotle donate leftover food, but they've also been donating their kitchen equipment for years as they upgrade their older locations. That ensures there's less massive equipment sitting in landfills.

All of the restaurants' surplus food that's still consumable gets donated. That adds up to about 500,000 pounds of food per year.

Pret employees gather up all untouched salads and sandwiches at the end of each day to be donated to nearby shelters. Last year, that meant 800,000 meals donated.

KFC takes all chicken not sold within 60-90 minutes out of the kitchen and preps it for donation. They now reportedly boast a 1.7 percent food waste rate, down from 2.6 percent in previous years.

Another Darden chain, Capital Grilles prepare and then freeze leftover food so it can be distributed to nearby food banks. They've reportedly donated more than 66 million pounds of food since 2003.