Beyond serving healthy treats

Mercy Koske runs a bakery in Nairobi, Kenya, and she is co-founder of Munchy Healthy Treats. At Munchy, they serve variety of healthy and tasty treats, baked using various ingredients such as cassava, sweet potatoes, and arrow roots. She participated in the 2024 food systems e-course and she writes how the hotel industry can contribute to sustainable food system.

As a hotelier and co-founder of Munchy Healthy Treats, serving healthy food is not just a job for me. It is a passion, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share my treats with my clients every day. In the Bakery, it brings me joy to present a healthy treat using fresh and locally sourced ingredients. This way, I serve nutritious meals, and create a fulfilling experience for our clients too. Yet, it makes me sad to see how much food is thrown away. This also has a negative impact on the food system in general.

My key takeaway from the food systems e-course is an increased awareness of how food is produced, transported, processed, sold and consumed. It helped me to see the bigger picture and to realize how food is lost or wasted at each step of the process. I believe that the hospitality industry can be part of the solution of eliminating or minimizing food waste. We can contribute in three ways:

Effective local sourcing

By working closely with local farmers, hotels can source the freshest and most nutritious ingredients. Local ingredients are an alternative to frozen imported ingredients. Frozen ingredients may have issues such as discoloration and loss of flavor. By establishing relationships with local farmers, hotels know who is producing the food ingredients. This relation allows for direct communication about product quality, freshness and other demands.

Food logistics also play a crucial role in ensuring that food reaches its destination in a timely and efficient manner. By optimizing transportation routes and reducing food miles, hotels contribute to a more sustainable food system.

Mercy’s Munchy Healthy Treats bakes and offers cookies, cupcakes and bread made of ingredients such as cassava, sweet potatoes and arrow roots.

Minimizing food waste

In the hospitality industry, food waste usually occurs when services are below expectations of clients and when fresh ingredients are not used on time. For fresh ingredients, if not timely used, we need a Plan B before they go to waste. For example, in addition to proper purchasing plan, we should strictly apply FIFO method – First in, first out – for fresh ingredients.

Training the next generation of chefs and cooks should include awareness of how to minimize food waste in the professional kitchen. Because significant food waste also occurs when commis repeatedly use fresh ingredients to perfect a certain dish during their training.

Food waste management is critical in food system transformation. Hotels can implement composting programs to recycle food waste and food leftovers and turn it into nutrient-rich soil for gardening or they can sell them to local farmers who can utilize it.

Creating awareness

In the hospitality industry, we need to create awareness about the importance of healthy diets, local ingredients and reducing food waste. Hotels and restaurants can offer training programs for their staff, in collaboration with culinary schools. If we can trigger the awareness and passion for healthy food with our staff, this message will reach our clients too.

This way of thinking requires a new mindset. Through education, collaboration and a commitment to sustainability, we can pave the way for a healthier and more sustainable food system.