Save the Food campaign launches second phase

The Ad Council, New York, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), New York, launched the second phase of their Save The Food national public service campaign, aimed at combating America’s food waste problem at the consumer level.

Save The Food is focused on raising consumer awareness and empowering people with the tools they need to waste less food and money. For phase two, the groups are releasing:

• a video with Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns chef and co-owner Dan Barber;
• a new Save The Food Amazon Echo Alexa skill;
• an update to NRDC’s Wasted report that provides new statistics and analysis on the environmental, social and economic impacts of food waste; and
• data showing consumer action and awareness around the issue has increased since the campaign launched in April 2016.

To raise awareness about food waste, the groups produced a public service announcement with Barber. The video features the chef and his team surprising two food lovers with hand-delivered meals made from scraps that would otherwise never have been eaten. Watch the video below:

"Food waste isn’t just an environmental issue or a health issue or an economic issue; it’s gastronomic too,” says Barber. “How do you find culinary opportunity in what’s left behind? That idea—deliciousness by way of resourcefulness—is at the core of every great cuisine. And it’s a powerful mechanism for change.”

SapientRazorfish, the agency of record for the campaign, developed the new Save The Food skill now available on Amazon Echo devices. The skill is designed to educate consumers about simple ways to limit food waste in their own homes.

In conjunction with the second phase of the campaign, NRDC is releasing a second edition of its 2012 report, called Wasted, that provides updated statistics on the environmental, economic and social impacts, analyzes areas of progress at the government, business and consumer levels in the last five years, and offers policy solutions for combating the problem. 

“People increasingly recognize that saving food saves money, saves water and helps save the planet,” says JoAnne Berkenkamp, senior advocate in NRDC’s food and agriculture program. “Making even a few small changes in our daily lives can have a big impact. Together, we are building a better future for our children—and we’re starting right in our own kitchens.”

The report was written by Dana Gunders, NRDC senior scientist and author of the Waste-Free Kitchen Handbook, with Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland and creator of WastedFood.com. 
Find the full report here.

Save The Food’s success to date has been tracked through a study commissioned by the Ad Council. The groups say that the data shows:

• adults who recognized the PSAs more often said they sought information about ways to waste less food (59 percent) than those who did not recognize the PSAs (17 percent);
• adults who recognized the campaign’s PSAs more often said they discussed or shared info about wasting less food (64 percent) than those who did not recognize the PSAs (33 percent);
• approximately 54 percent of adults now strongly agree that food waste is a big problem in the U.S.—up from 51 percent prior to launch; recognition of the PSA among moms grew from 20 percent in April 2016 to 24 percent in March 2017; and
• among millennials, recognition is up from 31 percent in April 2016 to 36 percent by March 2017.

As part of the phase two launch, Save The Food is also partnering with digital content creators, including actress and creator Alyson Stoner and Nora Masour and Ani Esmalian from the channel Modamob, who will serve as ambassadors for the campaign and extend campaign messaging. Each creator will kick off the partnership with a new video on their channels discussing the importance of reducing food waste and encourage followers to do the same.