Restaurants and foodservice operations generated 13 million tons of surplus food in 2022, more than 80% of which went to landfill. In back-of-house operations, overproduction is the leading cause of wasted food. An effective solution to address this challenge is repurposing or upcycling overproduced, surplus food into new and delicious menu items that diners will love. And now a toolkit has been specifically designed for foodservice professionals like restaurant managers, chefs, and dining operators that offers actionable, cost-effective strategies and recipes to utilize high-quality prepped ingredients that would otherwise be wasted.

Over a 12-week period, nearly 40 leaders from nine Menus of Change University Research Collaborative (MCURC) institutions came together for a research sprint to exchange learnings and develop best practices for reducing food waste through the creative practice of repurposing. Their findings are synthesized in the Repurpose With a Purpose operational toolkit and report developed in collaboration with ReFED. The comprehensive report provides the data and background on the initiative along with the financial, environmental, and social impacts of repurposing on foodservice operations. The toolkit provides foodservice operators with practical solutions to implement the findings, and they are already showing promise. In just one month of this project, the research teams collectively saved close to $20,000 in food costs, 21,000 gallons of water, and 545,000 tons of carbon emissions—plus, they improved staff morale.

Learn more by accessing the Repurpose with a Purpose report and toolkit.