Central Iowa Hospitality Industry Partnership Fights Hunger, Homelessness
August 5, 2015
In my profession of traveling to and working with hotels all over the world, I see all the waste that goes on at
hotels both from the guest sleeping room, to the kitchen where plates of uneaten food are tossed with shocking
regularity. Growing up during a time when food issues and paying the bills were a challenge for my family, I
was bothered by the fact that we did not have a local, collective effort to address the growing need among
those who could use these products that would otherwise be thrown out. I knew there had to be a way to
repurpose, recycle, or reuse these products and where better to start the effort than in Iowa where we rank
seventh in the nation for volunteerism. Iowans love to rally behind a great cause and they don’t like to waste
when they can help others.
I originally sat down with Cheryl Math with Heart of America Restaurants & Inns and shared with her my
thoughts on starting a community-wide effort to collect unused food at hotels, and other items as well. We
determined that the area hotels don’t have as much wasted food as they do other items and refocused on
thoughts on other available products.
With the support of Abid Talic representing Paramount Hotel Group and many other influential hoteliers,
including the Iowa Lodging Association, we came up with a plan to repurpose shampoo, conditioner, lotions,
tissues, toilet paper, bedding, mattresses and other items currently going to the landfill – all at no cost to those
participating hotels. This win-win proposal allows hotels, and venues as well, to get involved in a great cause,
to support their community and to even reduce their landfill haul bills. After meeting as a group we were then
able to design a turn-key operation to roll out to the hotels that would provide a simplified structure on how to
collect the items, along with the bags to collect donations, a set schedule, and pick-up teams to deliver the
items to the worthy charities.
During this new process, we will continue to look for ways to repurpose the food items and are equally excited
about working with Eat Greater Des Moines to test out their new app [the app is currently in testing and the
release date is not yet set] that will further enhance the ability for us to get food from hospitality partners (hotels
and venues) to worthy charities immediately. Currently, hospitality partners must follow strict guidelines on
timing that often results in having to toss the food. With this new app, a charity can pick up the food
immediately, avoiding the need to waste perfectly good food that hungry people would greatly appreciate. With
the Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act, there is no reason to waste food when
guidelines can be met.
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