This week I attended the Food Waste Recovery Summit at the Downtown Marriott, sponsored by EPA and the Iowa Waste Reduction Center. DNR pitched in some funding too. In my job, I deal with all things waste. In Iowa, after last year's series of waste composition studies at landfills, organic/food waste was the big "winner". We're tossing a lot of food, people.
I usually work in the Wallace Building, located on the east side of the Des Moines river. On the east side, we have the beautiful Iowa State Capitol, but no skyscrapers on our side of the river. Downtown Des Moines - where the banks and insurance companies hang out, while small for you real city-dwellers, is still intimidating to me. For the Summit, I had to negotiate my way through downtown to a parking ramp for the day. On day one, two ramps were full before I found one of those corkscrew ones. Dizzy!
Des Moines has a great skywalk system and we made our way to the Marriott through that. I should have dropped breadcrumbs! The system does have maps but I find it easy to get confused there - and it was beautiful later summer weather out - so I walked outside when I left that night. The ramp on day three of the conference almost got the best of me! The first attempt to get it was a fail - the button to get the arm to go up didn't work. I backed out and tried the next opening - private for Wells Fargo. Oops again! Third time was a charm. That is why I plan meetings away from downtown - parking is complicated and expensive there. Give me wide open spaces.
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| Single Speed beer-yum! |
Who attends a cool conference like this? It was an interesting mix - government folk like me, people from restaurants, food banks, transportation, composters, biodigesters, students, brewers, and educators. I attended interesting sessions on topics like food rescue and anaerobic digestion. There is a new program many moving van companies are adopting where they will take all leftover usable food from people moving. They deliver the food to area food banks. All it took was one guy to see the need. He is the son in a family that owns a moving company out east. He ran with the idea and this non-profit now employs over ten people to coordinate events and moving food.
Des Moines, the Quad-Cities and Muscatine all were represented, with speakers talking about their food rescue missions. In Muscatine, a non-profit group teaches people to cook - 4 2 hour sessions with transportation and childcare provided. At the end of the sessions, each person receives a laundry basket filled with pots, pans, and utensils. How cool is that!?!
In one session, we drank craft beer (it was the end of the day) while listening to brewery spokespeople from Bell's (MI) and Single Speed in Cedar Falls talk about sustainability. Brewing beer uses a lot of resources. I was glad to hear about the things they do to reduce their marks on our world while providing delish beverages.
I learned more about food labels. There is no rhyme nor legal reason for most of them - except on baby formula. So use your nose and eyes. Best by is just that. Don't toss something just because of a label.
One session was like "Shark Tank". Three project spokespeople each gave a five-minute spiel on their project. At the end of the session, the crowd voted.
- Eat Greater Des Moines pitched their partnership with Wesleylife - they use the Meals On Wheels Smart Cars and drivers to pick up prepared foods from Kum & Go (convenience store) to deliver to rent-controlled apartment complexes.
- A gentleman from Decorah started up a compost site just outside of that city. They are running it on a shoestring, and are taking certain organics from around the state already.
- A woman from the Houston area presented her water-based composter made from a blue plastic repurposed drum with a motor aerator. You put food scraps in and end up with a water product that is rich in nutrients.
The Decorah composter won. Yay! I voted for him. $1,000 can go a long way for a small business like that.
Paul and I are good at cleaning up leftovers, but I wish restaurants would reduce portion sizes. They have gotten much better at "splitting" meals. Paul and I share a lot. The foods we struggle with are bread and produce. Those go bad before we can eat them.
I miss the Earth Machine composter we had at our Creston house. We aren't allowed to have composters here in our DSM townhouse. They're worried about smell and pests. I like many things about living in a townhouse - but that is a negative.
The bad thing about conferences is the challenge to take the stuff you learned and do something with it. Co-workers and I took notes. My big takeaway? Good things are happening Y'all! More needs to. We waste too much. Even though the Midwest is the breadbasket - Iowans are hungry! Volunteers (and money) help so much in these efforts. And good infrastructure.
This week was a good one. I love what I do (except parking)!
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