Closing the Loop: Food waste prevention pathways for Chicago

During Spring 2023, the Design for Climate Leadership course focused on a 14-week exploration where ten ID students worked with key stakeholders around food waste prevention in Chicago to envision equitable and sustainable pathways for keeping food and scraps from landfills.

Group of people sitting in a workshop setup at Institute of Design building with papers and sticky notes laid in front of them while they talk to each other

Closing the Loop: Food waste prevention pathways for Chicago

August 7, 2023

  • Aman Bhardwaj

    Anahita Dasgupta

    Anish Patil

    Avani Chaturvedi

    Deepakshi Tulshan

    Diana Nguyen

    Nafisa Shams

    Pitchaya Thaveesakvilai

    Rutuja Chavan

    Sanjana Kripalani

  • Weslynne Ashton

    Maura Shea

    Azra Sungu

  • City of Chicago

    NRDC Food Matters

  • Jennifer Herd, City of Chicago

    Stephanie Katsaros, Bright Beat

    Carter O'Brien, City of Chicago

    Alex Poltorak, Urban Canopy

    Joseph Taylor, Urban Canopy

    Doug Bradley, Savor

    Amy DeLorenzo, EPA

Wasted food prevention is a huge challenge: 40% of all the food produced in the US is estimated to go to waste, with 55 million pounds of food wasted in Chicago every month. In the face of this challenge numerous organizations and communities in Chicago are taking action to prevent food from going to landfills. In order to scale the impact of these ongoing efforts and achieve sustainable transitions, we need systemic, networked and coordinated action that centers the values we share as citizens and neighbors, employers and employees, government officials and legislators.

The Institute of Design’s Food Systems Action Lab collaborated with the City of Chicago, as part of its participation in NRDC's Food Matters Great Lakes cohort, to engage key stakeholders in a series of collaborative sense-making activities. Students worked with stakeholder partners to map existing food and waste flows in order to reframe the problems from their perspectives and identify opportunity spaces for action. The project engaged groups of stakeholders representing:

  • City of Chicago & Policy

  • Food Service & Retail

  • Food Rescue & Community Organizations

  • Food Scrap Recycling

Leveraging the power of visualization

In order to envision collective pathways, we need to be able to see the system beyond where we stand. We mapped the current food flows from the perspectives of different stakeholders with a focus on food waste reduction, rescue and recycling in the food service industry. Each map highlights the frictions in the current system and highlights opportunity spaces to transform infrastructures, alongside cultures and mindsets that lead to wasteful food flows.

Accounting for diverse perspectives and values

Together, we identified some of the priorities and barriers (access complete list here) for mobilizing efforts city-wide for prevention of wasted food and envisioned pathways for a more circular food system grounded in the ongoing efforts of stakeholders. We gathered our learnings in a report, highlighting some opportunity spaces and recommendations that could support decentralized and inclusive ways of addressing food waste.

We thank our partners and contributors for their extensive support and commitment!