An Interview With Martita Mestey
Take ownership for your mistakes.
Taking ownership for my mistakes and failures has helped me gain trust and respect from the people I work with. It seems counterintuitive, like taking responsibility for mistakes would make my colleagues trust me less, but I’ve experienced the opposite effect. There’s a lot of humility involved in taking ownership for your mistakes and it’s a skill I’m still trying to cultivate.
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 Roni Vayre.
Roni is the head of marketing for Plan to Eat, the meal planning app created for planner personalities. She helps pen-and-paper planners discover the benefits and flexibility of transitioning to digital meal planning. Her goal is to educate, inspire, and empower meal planners to simplify their meal planning process and in turn, simplify their lives.
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?
Before Plan to Eat, I worked as a waitress and personal trainer. In the restaurant industry, I saw so much food waste everyday. Most customers didn’t take their leftovers home and the portion sizes were far too large for one meal. At the same time, my job as a trainer opened my eyes to the stress people face when it comes to figuring out what to eat and how to adopt sustainable life changes. I was experiencing food through two completely different lenses and yet, food waste and stress about food felt connected.
One of my friends was working for Plan to Eat at the time and getting ready to leave the company and she recommended me for her role. I started at the company as a customer support specialist and I immediately saw how meal planning helped people waste less food and reduce stress around what to eat. As the company has grown and changed, so has my role and now I get to share this amazing tool with others and help them realize the ripple effect that planning ahead has on all aspects of our lives.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company or organization?
More than a single interesting story is the incredible amount of interesting people I’ve met through this career. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend conferences and food-focused events and have interacted with some of the most passionate and ambitious people in the food industry! Through our podcast, I’ve also been able to connect with industry experts who are changing the lives of thousands of people through their work and passions. It’s awe-inspiring to talk with coaches, dietitians, doctors, parents, and chefs and hear about what food means to them and how it has impacted their lives. It’s been so fun to learn how each person relates to food in a unique way and hear the stories behind their relationships with food.
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?
Several years ago, a colleague and I participated in Seth Godin’s Marketing Seminar workshop, put on by Akimbo. Previous to this course, we marketed our app to the busy, on-the-go families and parents who needed to have an answer to the ever present question, “What’s for dinner?”. But that focus was too broad. We were trying to create a product that fit into everyone’s lives, rather than our niche audience.
Through that workshop we realized our program is best suited to planner personalities. The people who love to have a schedule, like to write their life on a calendar, and enjoy the freedom that comes with planning ahead. It’s funny because we spent so much time and effort spinning our wheels in the wrong direction and once we course corrected everything fell into place. Narrowing our focus has allowed us to make better decisions as a small business and create features that best serve our people.
This mistake helped me learn that it’s okay (good, even) to create a product that doesn’t please everyone. The saying is true: if you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Being a leader isn’t about a promotion or a title, it’s something you earn by positively influencing those around you. For example, you listen to the needs of others, you take responsibility for yourself and your team, you give praise and recognition, and through your actions you help the people around you become better versions of themselves.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
There’s a Japanese proverb that says, “fall down seven times, stand up eight” which speaks to the power of resilience and hope. As someone who struggles with perfectionism, I love this quote because it embraces failure as part of life, and is a reminder to keep forging ahead.
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 food that is grown and produced for consumption, but not eaten or used. Food loss and waste happens at all stages of production. Blight, disease, and pests can infest our food sources and make them undesirable or inedible. Food can be damaged during harvest, packaging, and transportation. Grocery stores throw out food that’s past the “sell by” or “best by” date, even if it’s still edible. Restaurants, event spaces, and individual consumers throw out food that is wilted, uneaten, or blemished.
Can you help articulate a few of the main causes of food waste?
A big cause of individual food waste is that we buy too much food at the grocery store because we didn’t plan ahead effectively. Since we don’t have a plan for what to buy, food ends up forgotten in the back of our fridge and we eventually toss it out. Another issue is viewing blemished or imperfect food as being inedible. This leads to many grocery store chains throwing out perfectly good food that simply looks different than what we’re used to.
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?
As a company that’s focused on a direct to consumer product, I can’t imagine the obstacles and complexities companies face when it comes to distributing excess food. We know that on an individual level, consumers struggle with over purchasing items at the grocery store and having those goods go to waste.
Can you describe a few of the ways that you or your organization are helping to reduce food waste?
Meal planning helps with food waste on a individual level. Grocery shopping without a plan means you go to the store and shop at random. You end up buying items that sound good in the moment and the things you think you need, but you’re not totally sure.
Creating a meal plan and then having a shopping list based on that plan allows you to shop for what you need and not buy excess food that will get thrown out. A meal plan gives each ingredient you buy a purpose because it will get used in a recipe rather than forgotten in the back of the fridge and trashed. Only buying the food you need helps you use more of the food you buy and 78% of our customers say they waste less food when they meal plan.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help address the root of this problem?
At Plan to Eat, our focus is on the actions of individual consumers and how they can affect food waste. Individuals can start by creating a meal plan for the week ahead. It doesn’t need to be extensive or rigid, but planning recipes and buying specific ingredients helps you use more of the food you buy.
Creating a meal plan leads to intentional grocery shopping because you’re buying ingredients that have a purpose. Shopping with a purpose reduces waste and hopefully that intention grows and affects other areas of a person’s life. By simply planning your meals, you can change your perspective on food and reconnect with what you buy and cook at home.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.
- Don’t try to please everyone.
Just like we learned with our target audience, you will never be able to please everyone. It’s better (and easier) to be yourself, find your people, and not worry what anyone else thinks.
2. Take ownership for your mistakes.
Taking ownership for my mistakes and failures has helped me gain trust and respect from the people I work with. It seems counterintuitive, like taking responsibility for mistakes would make my colleagues trust me less, but I’ve experienced the opposite effect. There’s a lot of humility involved in taking ownership for your mistakes and it’s a skill I’m still trying to cultivate.
3. Effective communication is the #1 skill to develop.
Whether it’s giving feedback, talking about deadlines, or expressing emotions, effectively communicating with others has lead to the most progress and best breakthroughs at our company.
4. Take breaks from focused work.
I often get my best ideas when I’m away from my computer and not hyper focused on a project or problem. In her course, Learning How to Learn, Barbara Oakley talks about the difference between focused and diffuse thinking and how both are essential to learning and processing information. Taking breaks from work and letting the diffuse mode kick in helps me generate better ideas and solve problems faster.
5. Organization is freedom.
Through meal planning I’ve discovered that having a plan and being organized is not stifling, but instead freeing. Getting plans, thoughts, and ideas out of my head and onto paper or into a program has helped me free up brain space, reduce decision fatigue, and be more productive.
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.
https://wastenofood.org/ is working to bridge the gap between food donors and charities through a mobile app. I love the concept because it takes the guess work and liability out of how to donate excess food and provides charities with support so they can save time and money.
https://www.misfitsmarket.com/ helps get imperfect produce into the hands, and homes, of consumers. Misfits Market rescues blemished and imperfect foods from going to landfills by working directly with farmers to deliver their goods to consumers.
https://refed.org/ is working on the large scale to highlight cost-effective ways to reduce food waste across the food chain.
On a local level, our food bank, https://foodbanklarimer.org/food-rescue/ is committed to rescuing food and keeping it out of the landfill.
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. 🙂
I would love to inspire people to reconnect with their food and where it comes from. Plant a garden in your yard or join a community garden project. Please, talk to local farmers and ranchers and learn how much they care for their livestock and crops. Support the people in your community who work to feed and nourish others. And, of course, start meal planning! Planning ahead and being intentional about your meals will help you reconnect with what you eat and feed your family.
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. 🙂
Seth Godin. He is an inspiration to me as a marketer and as a conscious human being.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
www.plantoeat.com and @plantoeat on all social platforms
This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.
Reducing Food Waste: Roni Vayre On Plan to Eat On How They Are Helping To Eliminate Food Waste was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.