Temple Shalom of Newton
Greening Your Simcha

All Things Food and Food Service

                                Few of us have ever attended an event that didn’t have too much food on hand.  Okay, maybe they ran out of those 
                                amazing melty brie and raspberry puffs or didn’t have quite enough of those chocolate and peanut butter truffles, but for
                                the most part there is usually a lot of stuff leftover.  Often it gets thrown away at the end of the event, which really is a
                                shame.  A little bit of planning ahead can prevent this kind of waste and get delicious, (mostly) healthy food to people
                                in this area who need it.

                                  Consult with your Caterer  

                                   It is perfectly acceptable to ask your caterer about his/her company’s environmental practices and to make it clear
that it is something that you care about.  You can look for a “green-minded” caterer, or at least someone who is willing to support and assist
your interest in taking the environment into account when planning and celebrating your event.

Reuse & Recycle

If your event is being held at Temple Shalom, note that caterers are required to take away all trash.  Congregants are encouraged to ask caterers about reusing and recycling as many elements of the food service as possible, including recycling cooking oil, reusing plastic containers, platters and serving implements, and composting scraps of food.  Often, caterers will do the greener thing when asked, but won’t do it unless asked

Go Organic

Whenever possible, ask the caterer to buy fruit, vegetables and other products from local organic farms (you can even consider what is in season while planning your menu).  This means that your caterer's purchase on your behalf will not contain pesticides, won't have to travel far (thus reducing environmental impact) and will support your local economy.

                                  Eat Local and Sustainable  

                                 Look for a caterer committed to working with local family farms using sustainable agricultural techniques and
                                producing naturally raised meat without use of growth hormones, antibiotic injections, or trough feeding.  Try to
                                use locally grown produce when it available, fresh farm eggs, and fish caught from the ocean.  One place to try is
                                Lionette’s Market in the South End, 617-778-0360, 577 Tremont Street.  The food is fabulous and the staff very helpful.
                                Vegan and vegetarian dishes are plentiful.

 Fair Trade Coffee

Ask your caterer to serve fair trade coffee.  There are  a number of sources for this coffee, and while you are not helping
your local economy, you can help a small local farmer in a coffee-growing region.  There are a bunch of good fair trade
coffee choices out there.  When you are looking around, you might want to check out Mirembe Kawomera a cooperative
of Jewish, Muslim and Christian farmers in Uganda.

Skip Course Listings

 If your event is in a more formal setting, ask the person who will be coordinating the event whether the venue typically puts a listing of the courses at each place setting.  If so, you could request that this step be skipped to save the paper. 

Choose Reusable Table Settings

 When you can, use plates, utensils, cups, serving pieces, napkins, tableclothes, etc. that can be washed and reused.  When possible, recycle any plastic items.  Durable china is always preferable to paper goods because it avoids repeated costs of production and disposal.  Less gets shipped and thrown away when using china.  Washing the china uses fewer resources than creating new paper goods.

                                     Serving utensils are not yet earth-friendly because they
                                    are still made of plastiC.  Nevertheless, it is possible to
                                    find some brands that are made from a percentage of
                                    recycled post consumer plastics, addition, trays, covers
                                    and serving utensils can be sterilized and re-used which
                                    is more earth-friendly than recycling or just throwing
                                    them away.                                   

Compostable Table Settings

One can now purchase compostable picnic supplies/table settings- plates made from sugarcane, and glasses and cutlery made from corn.  For those in the Boston area, Greenward, 1776 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140, 617-395-1338, is the only place we found that sold these products locally.  One can also purchase these products online through companies including World Centric and Eco Products.  Consider shipping costs (environmental and financial).  The products themselves are considerably less expensive that the usual paper and plastic ware.

Reduce Disposables 

                                        Review all of the disposable products you plan to use.  Are there places where napkins are enough (rather
                                       than little plates and napkins)? Places where you can put out serving tongs rather than individual toothpicks 
                                       (food safety regulations will govern some of this, but your caterer should be able to provide some guidance)? 
                                       Other places where you can eliminate extra disposables?  If disposables are called for, there are more “earth-
                                       friendly” goods than traditional paper.  Plates made from sugar fiber waste, compostable cups made from
                                       corn, and flatware made from corn and potatoes are good options.  Congregants can ask their caterers for
                                       these products or look for them at World Centric, a non-profit in California.  Bamboo plates are a good option if
you want something more substantial and dressy; though single use, they are made from a renewable resource and can be composed because they biodegrade fairly quickly.  Bambu Home is a possible source. (See the appendix for resources.)

Composting 

Compostable products are beneficial only if you do in fact compost them!  However, this is difficult to do at home
with any significant quantity of picnic ware.  So we had the task of investigating local composting resources.  While
local municipalities havebegun to compost yard waste, not many compost food waste and biodegradable picnic ware. 
Cambridge does, but one needs to be a resident, and the times to bring material to the composting site are limited. 
One can also bring waste for composting to Whole Foods Market on Prospect St. in Cambridge, but it is a shlep to
bring any significant amount of waste there.  Our friendly sales-person at Greenward recommended the company
which does the composting for Cambridge—Save that Stuff, 617-241-9998.  They were the only local place we found that would compost food waste and biodegradable picnic supplies.  They brought large waste bins to our home, picked them up when they were full, and composted the waste. After we composted food waste and picnic ware, and recycled cans and bottles, we had virtually no trash after a picnic for 100 people!

Donate Leftovers 

                                 Make plans in advance to donate leftover food to a shelter, soup kitchen or food pantry.  Find out ahead of time what
                                that organization’s policy is regarding accepting prepared (as opposed to nonperishable) food is and be sure that the
                                caterer and/or serving staff knows to wrap up and refrigerate leftover food quickly so that others can safely eat it.  In
                                order to ensure that the leftover food is either picked up or delivered in a timely manner, you could appoint a reliable
                                friend or relative as your “food donation captain.”  Remember, according to MA Law, food that has been served cannot
                                be redistributed as donations.  Only leftover “unserved food” can be donated.  You could also make arrangements with
                                your caterer to have the leftovers wrapped up so that you can take them home. 

Save Room for Leftovers 

In the weeks before, remember to clear space in your refrigerator and freezer so you have a place to put things.  That
way you can keep the festivities going, both by having delicious food on hand for awhile after the party and by not
having to make dinner while you are recovering from your fabulous event!
 

 

 

"Righteous people ... do not waste in this world even a mustard seed. They become sorrowful with every wasteful and destructive act that they see, and if they can, they use all their strength to save everything possible from destruction. But the wicked ... rejoice in the destruction of the world, just as they destroy themselves."

-  Sefer HaChinuch 529; 13th Century