Reducing Food Waste: Brandon Collins Of Unilever Food Solutions On How They Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste
An Interview With Martita Mestey
Long hours — This is a marathon, not a sprint. You will spend a lot of hours away from family and away from friends from holidays and celebrations. It’s an addiction — As a chef, you can become addicted to the rush, the feeling of service, and the experience of the team on the line. Take care of yourself — you still need to take care of yourself and pay attention to what your body says. There are a lot of career paths out there — once you are done with your line experience you can explore other jobs like the one I currently hold. The joy of cooking with the joy of time with your family. Pay attention — Pay attention to what the industry is telling you, your team is telling you, and your life is telling you. You are constantly learning.
It has been estimated that each year, more than 100 billion pounds of food is wasted in the United States. That equates to more than $160 billion worth of food thrown away each year. At the same time, in many parts of the United States, there is a crisis caused by people having limited access to healthy & affordable food options. The waste of food is not only a waste of money and bad for the environment, but it is also making vulnerable populations even more vulnerable.
Authority Magazine started a new series called “How Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies and Food Companies Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste.” In this interview series, we are talking to leaders and principals of Restaurants, Grocery Stores, Supermarkets, Hospitality Companies, Food Companies, and any business or nonprofit that is helping to eliminate food waste, about the initiatives they are taking to eliminate or reduce food waste.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Brandon Collins.
Brandon Collins is the Corporate Executive Chef for North America at Unilever Food Solutions. Growing up in Fairborn, Ohio where food brought family together, Brandon knew he wanted to be a chef from a young age. A graduate of the CIA in 2001, Brandon built most of his career thoughout the Hudson Valley with notable stops at Valley Restaurant at the Garrison and as the opening chef of The Roundhouse At Beacon Falls. Brandon went on to work for Sodexo for four years before joining the Unilever Food Solutions team.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Gladly. As a child I always found that food brought people together. Through good times and bad, death and birthdays. I wanted to be the reason people were happy while sitting around a table, or the reason they could forget for a moment about what the world was handing them. A reason to create a memory.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company or organization?
I think one of the more interesting things that happened to me since I have joined the company is starting my training as a mustard sommelier. “Sommelier” is a word I had never associated with mustard, but I have enjoyed the journey. It has taken me all over the world (and as someone who hated flying) this was a challenge, but a good one.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Hmmm I wouldn’t call it a mistake per se, but when I first started traveling for this position I was petrified of flying. I mean white knuckle pale, didn’t eat for days, scared. I flew with members of my company to a national sales meeting and I was a wreck. I was dropping things in the airport, I carried a knife in my backpack (that was confiscated at TSA). I was a complete mess (and continued to be for a good 2 more years). The main thing I learned and I do constantly now is double check everything, oh, and to try to calm down a bit when getting on a plane. I missed a lot of travel and amazing places because I was afraid of it. And now I have learned to approach life differently with a more open mind and better understanding of myself.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership to me is being an example for your team. I know it’s cliché but I won’t ask someone to do something I am not willing to do. It’s also about understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each member of your team. I am the leader of a team and should know who would be best suited for each task, who I can push outside of their comfort zone and when, and how I can help each individual achieve their best.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.” — Anthony Bourdain. I wouldn’t change a single thing in my life, honestly I can truly say that. Everything that has happened to me has molded me into who I am today. My mother died when I was young and while I would love to have her back, she is the reason why I push myself so hard every day to be a great father, great husband, and great leader and friend. The journey, while not always sunshine and roses, is the most amazing part of life.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the main focus of our interview. Let’s begin with a basic definition of terms so that all of us are on the same page. What exactly are we talking about when we refer to food waste?
Food waste is the loss of useable food or food scraps within the system. Food waste is unsold crops, crops destroyed by storms, food left in a manufacturing plant or that has to be flushed through the system in order to make more things, e.g. banana peels, carrot tops, carrot peelings, anything that is thrown away in a kitchen that can be used.
Can you help articulate a few of the main causes of food waste?
From an operational standpoint, some causes of food waste include over-ordering, a lack of understanding of uses i.e. do I have to peel the carrot, or do I always do that? Also, the supply chain causes food waste, such as the inability to get the wasted/unsold food to the location where the food may be needed.
What are a few of the obstacles that companies and organizations face when it comes to distributing extra or excess food? What can be done to overcome those barriers?
I think this is twofold. First is identifying where the excess food needs to be, e.g. shelters, food pantries etc. Second is, can I use this within my establishment? Can I use the carrot scraps or carrot tops, can I pickle it, can I preserve it? That can help me extend the shelf life of the product and therefore get it to the right people.
Can you describe a few of the ways that you or your organization are helping to reduce food waste?
We are helping to train our operators in how to utilize the food waste either through campaigns and recipes or in-person training. Here is a quick way to pickle something, here is a recipe that uses X and so on. We also have a cover crop program with some of our growers to help keep the soil healthy resulting in more resilient crops.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help address the root of this problem?
I think for the most part it is just more awareness and support. We need to support our farmers the same way we support our sports heroes. They are the literal backbone of our world. They are resourceful and interesting. We should support paying a fair price for the right ingredients because are healthy and good for you and to help the farmer get a fair price for their product.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why?
Long hours — This is a marathon, not a sprint. You will spend a lot of hours away from family and away from friends from holidays and celebrations. It’s an addiction — As a chef, you can become addicted to the rush, the feeling of service, and the experience of the team on the line. Take care of yourself — you still need to take care of yourself and pay attention to what your body says. There are a lot of career paths out there — once you are done with your line experience you can explore other jobs like the one I currently hold. The joy of cooking with the joy of time with your family. Pay attention — Pay attention to what the industry is telling you, your team is telling you, and your life is telling you. You are constantly learning.
Are there other leaders or organizations who have done good work to address food waste? Can you tell us what they have done? What specifically impresses you about their work? Perhaps we can reach out to them to include them in this series.
Do Good Foods is an amazing example of removing excess food from the supply chain. They have managed to create a chicken feed out of “discarded” food from grocery stores. The chickens and eggs that they produce are amazing. Such a cool way to attack some of the problem.
Vojtech Vegh is an amazing zero waste plant-based chef. He wrote the book Surplus, about the full utilization of vegetables. It’s absolutely amazing.
Too Good to Go — This amazing app helps bring excess food to the people. People purchase unsold food from grocery stores, restaurants, etc. at a discounted price.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire a movement, it would be to support lunch across all public schools — I find it amazing that we require our schools to run the student lunch program like a business. So many families are currently struggling across the board and would love to see this taken off their plate. Align schools with the local food chain and create healthier and more nutritious meals while taking the pressure off parents and off the food and beverage team.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs — I heard an amazing interview with him and the first thought I had was I would love to have a drink or meal with this guy. Amazingly down to earth and an awesome outlook on how to lead a company.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
@chefbrandonc on Instagram
@unileverfoodsolutions.us
@mailleus
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
Reducing Food Waste: Brandon Collins Of Unilever Food Solutions On How They Are Helping To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.