Eight Ottawa hospitality organizations will be taking part in a new program to cut down waste by diverting surplus food to community organizations that help those in need.
Ottawa Tourism announced Thursday it is partnering with non-profit La Tablée des Chefs, which has helped organizations redistribute food waste to address food insecurity since 2002.
Jérôme Miousse, director of public affairs for Ottawa Tourism, said the partnership is a step towards addressing the organization’s sustainability goals, as laid out in its Destination Stewardship Plan released last year.
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“Our team went to a conference in Gatineau, and one of the presenters was La Tablée des Chefs,” said Miousse. “We found his idea of being able to connect event venues to community partners fits perfectly with our commitment to sustainability.”
La Tablée des Chefs provides containers and trains its partners on how to safely store surplus food to be transported for redistribution. With this new partnership, Miousse said Ottawa Tourism will be acting as a liaison for La Tablée des Chefs to identify where its services are most needed.
Miousse said the organizations hope to expand the program to include more partners in the future, but they will remain focused on large event venues that produce a lot of food waste.
“It’s hard when you’re organizing an event to know how much food you will need,” he said. “Humans are human, and not everyone is going to eat the same amount of food. You always end up with surplus food. The goal of the initiative is to take that surplus food that is inevitable and to give it back to our community.”
Its first operation with TD Place will launch at Friday night’s Redblacks game. La Tablée des Chefs will begin working with the other seven partners – Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Casino Lac-Leamy, Lord Elgin Hotel, Ottawa Marriott Hotel, Shaw Centre, My Catering Group and the Westin Ottawa – in the coming weeks.
In an emailed statement to OBJ, the Westin Ottawa said its partnership with La Tablée des Chefs was a “natural fit.”
“The opportunity to partner with an organization focused on providing support for our community’s less fortunate, only made sense,” the hotel said. “La Tablée des Chefs food recovery program significantly enhances our existing food donation efforts. The program automatically expands our reach within the community and provides all the logistic resources to facilitate donation.”
La Tablée des Chefs founder and CEO Jean-François Archambault said Ottawa Tourism is the first destination organization his group has worked with.
“We are really encouraged by Ottawa Tourism’s leadership in being the first Destination Organization to directly join our efforts to move the industry in the right direction,” he said in a news release. “Food waste is a real concern and I am happy to see we can turn this into something so positive for everyone involved.”
Miousse said they hope the program will have meaningful impacts on the social and environmental well-being of the community.
“For us, it’s all about being an active and responsible member of our community,” he said. “We’re trying to bring business to the city, we’re trying to develop the city’s economy, but we also know that not everyone is as fortunate as some others in the city. Being able to develop the economy also means helping where we can, and we’re really hoping that this makes a real difference.”
