FOOD MATTERS CHICAGO THINK TANK PRIORITIES AND BARRIERS - BY SECTOR
Summary of January 31, 2023 Convening at Auburn Gresham Healthy Lifestyle Hub
CITY OF CHICAGO PRIORITIES BARRIERS
Building a roadmap for coordinating city’s efforts around food waste
Strengthening stakeholder relations and engaging community
Planning and coordinating pilot experiments and interventions
Improving alignment and coordination between departments
Inconsistent flow of information between departments
Time constraints to develop detailed map of stakeholders and processes
Excessive bureaucracy and rigid governance
Competing priorities
FOOD RESCUE
Transforming the culture and mindsets around wasted food
Catalyzing model shifts on how food rescue is handled (ex. Free stores)
Fostering local connections among rescue organizations and generators of wasted food
Network-wide coordination and decentralization
Difficulty of planning rescue and distribution of food due to fluctuations in donation
Need for triage - constantly adapting to different volumes and states of food donations
Competition among rescuers for resources
Lack of shared information and communication capabilities
INEDIBLE FOOD WASTE PROCESSING
Clear and adaptable policies
Regulatory compliance
Educating “up, down & out”
Ensuring quality of end products
Lack of infrastructure
Lack of funding
Inadequate segregation and contamination of waste streams
Outdated regulations that hinder innovative solutions
FOOD SERVICE PROVIDERS
A roadmap for effective wasted food management
Bridging information gaps and knowledge sharing
Improving regulatory context/clarity
Creating market solutions (e g , upcycling and food scrap processing)
Lack of infrastructure for storing and transferring wasted food
Commitment of space and food safety liabilities
Lack of funding, increased costs
Competing priorities, within organizations, across supply chain