St. Luke’s cutting waste and saving money with a pair of food management programs

Over-production and food waste was taking a big bite out of St. Luke's budget. Like the rest of the nation the hospital has wrestled with increased food costs. Working with Aramark and LeanPath St. Luke's invested in two programs that aimed to help the hospital cut costs in the kitchen without reducing quality.

“ARAMARK said the ValuWaste program would save us three percent in the first year of use and it actually saved us four percent,” said Lori Anderson, St. Luke's Dining Services manager. “ValuWaste helped us track what was used and what we had left over. I was surprised by the numbers.”

The numbers Anderson is referring to is the amount of pre-consumer waste coming from St. Luke's kitchen. Pre-consumer food waste is food that kitchen staff throws away due to overproduction, expiration, spoilage, trimming or handling issues.  When St. Luke's implemented the ValuWaste program it was throwing away 12,946 pounds of waste a month. Today St. Luke's has trimmed its waste to 5,720 pounds a month.

The ValuWaste program requires employees to weigh the food waste like the rinds from cutting up a cantaloupe to expired, uneaten turkey. Employees take the food, enter what it is, weigh it and the ValuWaste scale tells the employee how much it weighs and the cost of the waste. That information is recorded and used for improvement.

“It's amazing what our team has been able to do with this program,” said Anderson. “All of the St. Luke's Dining Service employees have been enthusiastic and helping us follow the program and continue to look for ways to improve.”

Some of those improvements were the result of creating what Anderson refers to as “swat teams.” These employees identified ways they could tweak and reduce waste. One adopted improvement was to cook vegetables in half-pans instead of full pans allowing staff to cook the food as it was needed. Additionally they moved up employee break times. In the past kitchen staff would take later breaks and cook additional food to cover the need during their time away.  This caused a lot of food waste.

St. Luke's has used ValuWaste for about two-and-a-half years and has saved an estimated 68,000 pounds worth of waste – waste that didn't go to a landfill.

“The kitchen staff is very much on-board with this program,” said Anderson. “In fact I see competition between employees to see who produces less waste. Initially when we first implemented the program it was a little extra work but now it's routine.”

St. Luke's Dining Services staff prepares about 14,000 to 15,000 meals a week. Serving that many people takes quite a bit of guesswork. But thanks to the acquisition of another specialized food service program Anderson expects to see more savings in the months ahead.

“About three months ago we started using 8 Steps,” said Anderson. “This computer program helps us calculate how much food we're going to need based on hospital census. It has been great so far and pretty accurate. Anytime we can control costs, reduce waste and maintain a high level of quality is win-win situation. It takes a little extra effort but it's worth it in the long run.”

St. Luke's is one of six

Iowa Health System hospitals that identified cost-saving opportunities in their kitchens.