Airport Experience® News - Post-Conference Issue 2023

Above: Steve Byrne, vice president of concepts and standards for Areas USA.

Above: Mel Hannah (center),vice president and general manager of Marketplace PHL.

it’s extremely easy—you give the people working in your kitchen a tablet and say, ‘Can you put in the waste that we had today?’ Then that goes into the system and is taken out of your prep for the next day so that you’re only prepping what you need.” Steelman then detailed how he tackles food waste concerns at HMSHost. “We look at everything upstream to make sure the pack size is right from the time we’re building a menu, working with technology and kitchen manufacturers to make sure it works in that equipment so I know if I open a case that has ten items in it, all ten of those items can be used at minimal touchpoints from the chef in that equipment,” he said, adding that HMSHost has also partnered with the company Biolo to introduce biodegradable packaging into it s restaurants. Zimmern asked how the panelists would respond to the naysayers who say these programs cost toomuchmoney and resources. “I would advise them to look at it far deeper,” Byrne offered. “The technology, for instance: Yes, there’s an initial investment, but it helps with your labor process, your waste process, and at the end of the day it does help with your bottom line.”

our programs, looking at how we can work with those employees and acknowledge that their work has an impact and then working back upwards.” Hannah then de scr ibed what Marketplace PHL has been doing, calling special attention to the company’s food donation program, which began in 2019 and is done in partnership with a local organization called Philabundance . “The first thing we did was identify someone on our team who could lead the program, and we also had to identify a strategy on how we wanted to launch the program, including educating our merchants, identifying drop off and pick-up locations, and ensuring everything was done safely,” he said. “I’m happy to report that we’re on the cusp right now of 100,000 pounds of food donations, which can feed up to 85,000 people.” Byrne noted that for Areas, there are three things the company looks at to make their program work: “The first one is responsibility, and what that means to me is that we want every member of our organization to understand why we’re doing this,” he said. “The next piece is best practices, and then the third is using technology in order to help make the program happen. With technology,

Above: Jeff Steelman, vice president of culinary for HMSHost.

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