Detroit area restaurants are first in nation to get this special certification

A small handful of Metro Detroit restaurants and culinary centers are the first in the country to earn a special certification for their commitment to preventing and reducing food waste.

Of the more than two dozen entities that registered for the program, called the Pledge, seven have finished the program and have been certified, meeting or exceeding the required steps to not only reduce food waste, but also save money, improve menus and educate employees and customers. The Pledge is an international certification that is issued locally by Detroit-based nonprofit Make Food Not Waste, an accredited consultant.

The seven local businesses are Alchemi and Johnny's Speakeasy restaurants in downtown Royal Oak; Folk cafe and market in Corktown; Sylvan Table farm and restaurant in Sylvan Lake; and three dining halls at Oakland University.

"There are 95 action steps that the business needs to take, and there is a threshold of mandatory ones that they have to do get them to the bronze level and then there are these bonus activities that they can do to help them get to silver, gold and all star," said Make Food Not Waste founder and executive director Danielle Todd. "All of these businesses that received the certification have demonstrated that they have done the fundamental action steps of the program.

Todd says the program is very focused on prevention.

"A lot times when people think about reducing food waste in restaurants they think about restaurants donating more, or composting, and even though those are two parts of this program, the majority of it is not" she said. "The majority of it is saying how to we prevent it in the first place ... and that's how businesses save money."

All seven kitchens were honored at a brunch event at Alchemi in Royal Oak last month, where they got to meet each other and discuss the benefits of the program.

"Alchemi and Johnny's saw a 50% reduction in overall waste they were producing, Sylvan Table had a 4% drop in food costs, which is really big for a restaurant," said Todd. "Oakland University uncovered that there is a big opportunity to engage the students this fall ... and use this as a platform to set good habits as students graduate and go on to manage their own home kitchens."

The team at Sylvan Table in Sylvan Lake is one of the restaurants that took a chance on this new program, but because of their commitment to sustainability since opening two years ago, they already had a lot of these good habits down pat. To be certified, however, the restaurant and farm had to start logging and keeping track of food waste reduction efforts, and in doing that they found even more ways to give scraps and other parts a second life.

"It made us better at what we were already doing and it helped us streamline what we were doing so we could actually account for it," said co-owner Nicole Ryan, adding that the entire staff got in on the project, including front and back of house. "And it was very team building ... it was very unifying, I thought."

Sylvan Table's executive chef Chris Gadulka said they pickled stems from some of the leafy vegetables that would otherwise go unused, and took some parts of the mushrooms, dehydrated them and turned them into mushroom powder.

"Most people would say this is too woody, too meh, but we've flavored it in a way to give it a second life, and keeping it out of the compost," he said.

Todd said that it's important for restaurants to care about food waste for two reasons: They produce a lot more food than the average household, and they are influential.

"They're generating more food than we do at home, so there's an opportunity in sheer numbers and volume to make a difference in how much they're landfilling but they also have an important role because chefs are rock stars, and we all look to restaurants and chefs set the tone for a lot of how we eat and we don't even realize it all the time," said Todd. "It's inspirational but also kind of sets the tone for how we should all feel about food."

For more information on the Pledge certification or the efforts of Make Food Not Waste, visit makefoodnotwaste.org.

More:Danielle Todd stops food from entering landfills, and uses it to feed people

More:Restaurant review: Seasonal, sustainable Sylvan Table goes the extra acre

mbaetens@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @melodybaetens