Employee Engagement
Turn Your Team Into Food Waste Champions
We’d like to share ways to get your employees and colleagues excited about preventing wasted food. Below you’ll find creative activity ideas, planning checklists, ready-to-use templates, and a free webinar: everything you need to make Food Waste Prevention Week meaningful for your team.
Checklist
| Step | When to Start | Public Sector Approach | Corporate / Operational Application |
|---|---|---|---|
| 👥Identify Stakeholders | ~3 months | HR, communications, leadership; align with wellness programs | Include location champions (GMs, culinary, operations); align with client stakeholders where applicable; assign ownership for engagement, tracking, reporting |
| 🎯Design the Challenge | ~3 months | Define challenge type and audience | Use gamified, team-based structure; build on existing practices; align to day-to-day behaviors |
| 🖥️Select Platform & Tools | ~2 months | Use shared drives, communication platforms | Leverage existing systems; minimize friction; support both participation and tracking |
| 🏆Incentives & Recognition | ~1 month | Gift cards, wellness rewards | Prioritize team recognition; combine prizes, visibility, leadership recognition |
| 📊Measurement Approach | ~1 month | Track participation and submissions | Track participation, behaviors, waste reduction where feasible; use data for feedback |
| 📣Promotion | ~2 weeks | Newsletters, email, internal media | Use multi-channel comms; tailor to frontline vs office; emphasize ease and impact |
| 🚀Launch & Active Participation | ~2 weeks | Open registration; provide instructions | Keep sign-up simple; establish Teams/communication channel for questions; reinforce early momentum messaging |
| 📈Maintain Engagement | During challenge | Share submissions, reminders, updates | Share updates and leaderboards; provide mid-point and final push messaging; highlight participation throughout |
| ✅Close & Evaluate | End of challenge | Evaluate participation; share outcomes | Set clear submission deadlines; conduct internal review/voting where applicable; communicate results and recognize participants |
| 🌱Sustain & Scale | Post | N/A | Embed into training; continue tracking; recognize top teams; expand program |
Menu of Ideas
| Activity name | Quick description |
|---|---|
| Recipe Exchange | Employees share favorite "use it all up" recipes |
| Daily #Greentips | Share facts each day on our website about food waste and prevention (e.g., proper storage, understanding expiration dates) |
| Composting Kickoff | Promote our office composting bins with clear signage (compare each week's weight to encourage improvement and competition) |
| Food Recovery Drive | Partner with HEP to donate excess from catering |
| Volunteer Day | Organize a group outing to a food rescue organization |
| ContemPLATE Waste Event | Weigh your waste at the beginning and the end of the month to measure your waste reduction and then share the results with customers and team members to encourage behavior changes (provide beginning & ending weights, practices deployed to reduce waste, & pictures of the waste). |
| Host an Upcycle Pizza Party | To showcase ingenuity and creativity by creating a signature pizza using upcycled food ingredients (provide recipe, method, & pictures). |
| Best Practice Pros Event | Showcasing the best engagement campaigns that showcase the unique ways you involve your teams in food waste reduction and/or food recovery efforts at work and/or at home (provide information & methods deployed + pictures) |
| Leftover Legends Event | By showcasing delicious dishes created from leftovers (provide recipe, method, & pictures). |
| Celebrate Food Recovery SuperHeroes | Highlighting team members that rescue food and deliver it to those in need of a hand up (provide weight, people/charity names, & pictures if possible) |
Webinar
June 23 | 2:00 PM ET
Preventing wasted food doesn't stop at home. When people see their colleagues taking action, it sparks the culture shift and behavior change that makes a difference.
Join us for a free How to Engage Your Employees & Colleagues During Food Waste Prevention Week info session designed for anyone working to make Food Waste Prevention Week meaningful at their workplace.
Whether you're just getting started or looking to energize your team, this session is for you. Here's what you'll walk away with:
- Fresh, creative ideas to engage your staff and colleagues
- Real stories from organizations that have already done it
- Planning checklists to keep you on track
- A menu of ready-to-use engagement ideas
- Templates you can put to work right away
Do you have a great idea? Reach out to us below