Creating New Food Practices: A Case Study on Leftover Lunch Service

Abstract

Food wastage is a growing environmental, financial, and social problem: as much as one-third of all food is thrown away. Simultaneously, malnutrition is a huge problem globally, and many people even in developed countries are unable to provide for their basic needs. A lot of attention is paid to food waste prevention in the industry, retail sector, and households, whereas the role of the food service sector (such as restaurants and canteens providing food in schools, hospitals, and workplaces) has thus far been understudied. This article uses a practice theoretical approach to study a leftover lunch service first tested in Jyväskylä in 2013. It describe how the experiment was organized, how the service has spread around Finland, and how the leftover lunch has become a routine that outlines the course of the day of the diners. These findings are used to illustrate the insights of the service for both environmental and social sustainability, and to situate the service in the field of food waste prevention and food redistribution in Finland.

Keywords:

• Food
• leftover food
• food waste
• eating
• practice theory
• experiment

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their in-depth comments and constructive suggestions, which helped to improve the quality of the article considerably.

Notes

1. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6203_en.htm (accessed May 17, 2016).

2. http://www.ravitsemusneuvottelukunta.fi/portal/en/nutrition+recommendations/ (accessed 17.5.2016).

3. http://www.sitra.fi/en/news/resource-wisdom/leftover-lunch-trend-spreading-around-finland (accessed May 17, 2016).

4. http://www.sitra.fi/en/ecology/resource-wisdom (accessed May 17, 2016).

5. The informants have been given pseudonyms to preserve their anonymity.