Reemergence: Revitalizing Food Waste Reduction in Food Service Operations

Sodexo’s priority in addressing its environmental impact is reducing waste and creating circular systems with a goal to eliminate avoidable waste by 2025.  In her role, Nell is responsible for supporting 13,000 Sodexo sites in North American as they work to reach this goal.  Sodexo is a signatory of the United Nations Sustainable Development goal 12.3, and the USDA, EPA and FDA Champions 2030 both targeting a reduction of food loss and waste by 50% by 2030.  Nell is responsible for deploying technology, delivering training and developing tools that help Sodexo sites measure impact and reduce waste in alignment with the EPA Food Waste Hierarchy.  She is leading the largest deployment of food waste measurement technology in North America by any food service company in history and uses the data from this technology to drive system wide change.  Nell is passionate about collaborating with internal and external partners to develop innovative approaches to addressing the global food waste crisis across the value chain.

Nell has a BS in Management from Georgia Institute of Technology.  She started her career at Sodexo as a Sustainability Coordinator and Energy Analyst.  Nell later joined EY where she supported the sustainability missions of Fortune 500 companies by working directly with a diverse client base to mitigate risk, manage brand value and make a positive impact on their communities and the world.

Andrew Shakman is CEO and co-founder of Leanpath, a mission-driven foodservice technology company based in Portland, Oregon. Launched in 2004, Leanpath invented the world’s first automated food waste tracking technology, and Andrew began catalyzing the global movement to address the food waste crisis. Today, working in thousands of foodservice kitchens in 40 countries, Leanpath deploys a suite of technology and coaching tools that change root behaviors that lead to food waste. The result is a current rate of 1 pound of food waste prevented every 2 seconds. Leanpath has offices in London, Barcelona and Sydney and clients include IKEA, Aramark, Sodexo, and Google.

Samantha Kenny is a Program Officer on the Food Waste Team at World Wildlife Fund US where she manages workstreams engaging the global foodservice and tourism sectors. She also works to coordinate the global WWF Network on food loss & waste strategy.  Samantha holds a BA in Environmental Studies from American University College of Arts & Sciences, an MS in Sustainability Management from American University Kogod School of Business, and a Professional Certificate in Sustainable Tourism Destination Management from the George Washington International Institute of Tourism Studies.