Presentation: Darden Restaurants Harvest Donation Program (PDF: 1.07MB/11 pages)

Darden Harvest Program
Mandy Sedlak, R.S.
Manager, Total Quality
June 6, 2012
Darden
● Darden is the world’s largest full service restaurant company
§ Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse
§ Capital Grille, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, Eddie V’s
● Over 1,900 company owned and operated restaurants in more than 1000 North
American communities
● Employs more than 180,000 people across North America
● Serves over 400 million meals to US customers annually
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Darden Harvest Program
Darden, like most restaurants, grappled for years with the problem
of food waste. We particularly struggled with the uncomfortable
dilemma of throwing away food that was perfectly good and safe to
eat; yet, for a variety of reasons could not be sold to our guests.
Throughout the day, every Darden restaurant prepares food in
accordance with high quality and high food safety standards.
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Darden Harvest Program
According to the USDA, more than 50 million Americans battle
food insecurity each year. In fact, one in five of all children
nationwide do not have consistent access to proper nutrition to
help them grow and learn.
We recognize that a warm meal is more than just a hot plate and
delicious ingredients. Enjoying a meal can actually fulfill people in
ways that reach beyond hunger. Enjoying a rarely received steak
or bowl of warm pasta can help an individual feel cared for and
appreciated.
This is why Darden established the Darden Harvest program,
which allows Darden to leverage its national scale and processes
to safely provide prepared food to local nonprofit charities helping
people in need.
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Darden Harvest Program
In partnership with Food Donation Connection, a national network
that works with restaurants and other food service companies to
distribute high-quality, prepared foods to hunger-relief
organizations across the United States, Darden established a pilot
program in 2003 to harvest this excess food.
The program grew into a companywide effort the following year
and became known as the Darden Harvest food donation program.
Through our efficient donation processes, prepared food that is
nutritious and wholesome is safely donated to those in need.
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Darden Harvest Program
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Restaurant preparation for the Harvest Donation Program
– Designate holding areas in walk in refrigerators and freezer for
sheet pans used to chill and freeze items and an area for bins to
hold frozen food for scheduled pick ups
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Build Team Awareness & Pride
– Key employees partner with managers to take the lead on
ensuring foods are carefully identified and prepared for donation
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Identify Food for Donation
– Designate foods during end of night and prepare for donation
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Prepare Food for Donation
– Cook and cool if necessary, following Darden food safety
practices & FDA standards
– Document temperatures
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Freeze Food for Donation
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Food Pick Up
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Safety Practices Overview
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Designate Foods Suitable for Donation
– Not all items are suitable for donation for reasons of quality or
food safety
Unopened Bagged Items - Yes
Ô Must be cooled properly
Ô Must be frozen from refrigeration prior to donation
u Refrigerated Foods - Yes
Ô Must be frozen from refrigeration prior to donation
u Raw Proteins - Yes
Ô Must be cooked to minimal FDA Standards, rapidly chilled
and frozen prior to donation
Ô Rapidly chilling involves designated cooling processes such
as cutting items in half, shallow pans, ice baths
u Cooked Proteins - Yes
Ô Foods that have been cooked to minimal FDA Standards,
plated and have not left the window - not served (mistakes)
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Darden Processes for Cooking Foods &
Hot and Cold Holding
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Cooking processes are defined and repeatable
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Recipes and training aides include cooking CCP’s
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Ensure temperature monitoring equipment is right for the job,
calibrated and available
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HACCP Based Food Safety Management System
– Cooking temperatures are monitored and documented
– Hot and cold food temperatures are monitored and documented
at designated frequency
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Darden Processes for Cooling Foods
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Time/Temperature relationship is critical
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Process is well defined and repeatable
– Cooling equipment/refrigeration properly used
– Shallow pans, ice baths maintained
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Proper monitoring tools
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HACCP Based Food Safety Management System
– Documentation of cooling process & verification
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Darden Harvest Program
Since implementation of the Darden Harvest program, Darden
has donated more than 50 million pounds of prepared food with
a fair market value of approximately $500 million to community
food banks and food recovery agencies across the country.
Food that is not served to our guests in the restaurant is cooked,
then frozen and safely stored for the local food donation agency
to pick up on a weekly basis and deliver to those in need.
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