Lavish events are what five star hotel Rome Cavalieri does best, each year hosting 450 banquets for guests from all over the world. Waste food at the end of the night is sadly inevitable however, now, the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts launches an initiative to donate redundant cooked food to charities. Looking to provide a positive contribution to environmental and social issues, the Rome Cavalieri has trialled this new drive over a period of a month and subsequently donated 3,400 meals. They hope to donate 35,000 meals over the course of a year.
The project is managed in collaboration with Equoevent, an Italian non-profit association that recovers waste food where food maintenance laws have been adhered to, from events and redistributes it to charities. From the kitchens of Rome Cavalieri, they guarantee that the food is transported effectively to the canteens of the Sant’Egidio Community, Santa Lucia and Regina Mundi. Not only does the project provide food for underprivileged communities but it fosters respect for the environment, avoiding tonnes of bio-waste disposal.
The hotel’s Managing Director, Alessandro Cabella, describes how the project was born: “I was worried about seeing all that excellent food thrown away at the end of the banquets, because of its waste and its high environmental impact. Standing to statistics, the 20-30 per cent of food produced for events goes to waste. Aware that our wastes should and could have become resources, we have achieved this miracle.”
Rome Cavalieri hopes this small contribution will make a lasting difference and that other large organisations may follow in their footsteps. Driven by Fausto Ciarcia, Rome Cavalieri’s Human Resources Director, he has found incredible support from the whole hotel team: “It’s amazing to see how much the whole Rome Cavalieri’s kitchen team cares about this initiative.”
