Split-A-Meal

Overview
Split-A-Meal is a program that seeks to provide a link between food banks and average people by encouraging restaurants to give patrons the option of donating part of their meal to charity. It is very common these days for restaurants to serve giant portions much of which ends up going to waste. Even when patrons consume entire meals at restaurants they often wish that they had not. The wasted food that results from this is shocking--a U.S. Department of Agriculture study found that, in 1995, 27% of the food available for human consumption in the United States (96 billion pounds) were lost at retail, consumer, and food-service levels. By offering to split a meal with the nation's poor, consumers and restaurants can directly help reduce this waste and alleviate suffering due to hunger.

Motivation
We've all had the experience of ordering a meal at a restaurant only to discover that, after the free bread, the soup, the salad, and an appetizer, the enormous meal that is finally served is entirely outside of our capabilities as an ordinary human being to finish. In fact, from time to time we may even feel that the appetizer was a bit much. Unfortunately, all of the food that we fail to take home has to be thrown out by restaurants for sanitary reasons, even if we haven't touched it. Although this phenomenon may not seem like a huge problem to many people who frequently dine out, there are several reasons why this scenario could and should be improved.
    For starters, there are over 36 million people in the United States who have trouble obtaining enough food every year. Of these, over 13 million are children. Millions of people rely on food banks to help them make it through the year, and food banks rely largely on the charity of individual people and organizations. Although it may seem trivial that the other half of our sandwich and potato chips get thrown away at the end of lunch, to someone this is a wasted meal. The Second Harvest network, one of the country's largest food bank networks, distributes two billion pounds of food per year. If the food-service industry were able to save only a fraction of the 96 billion pounds of food that it throws away every year, it would revolutionize the state of hunger in America.
    Another important crisis in America is the rising rate of obesity, and at least some of the cause of this lies on the rising size of portions in restaurants. With approximately a third of calories being consumed outside the home, it is very important for health-conscious individuals to watch their portion sizes carefully. This can be difficult, however, when many restaurants serve such heaping portions. In fact, recent studies have suggested that the amount of food one is served gives subconscious clues about how much one should eat--by receiving larger portions in restaurants we are effectively being subtly encouraged to eat more. Unfortunately, when it comes to leaving food on our plate, we just aren't very good at moderating ourselves. Not surprisingly, it is almost impossible to find a reputable diet program that does not encourage its followers to avoid eating out, to split meals, or to ask for part of the meal to be boxed up before it comes to the table.
    The entire goal of Split-A-Meal is just this. We want to encourage restaurant consumers to split a meal with the country's hungry. To do this requires the cooperation of the restaurants, who must prepare and package the other half of the meal prior to serving it; the food banks, who must secure these donations and distribute them; and, of course, the patrons, who must be willing to sacrifice half of their meal for someone who else needs it. Split-A-Meal seeks to facilitate this process by working with all three of these parties in whatever capacity is necessary.

Benefits for Restaurants
Any prudent restaurant owner will naturally ask the question of why he or she should take the risk of implementing this sort of program. The real question, however, is, "What risk?". As a restaurant, only a few simple things need to be changed for the program to begin:

Menus must be changed to notify the patrons of the Split-A-Meal program and which entrees are available as part of it. Alternately, signs can be erected or inserts can be included with the menus; we would be more than happy to help with this.
The staff must be trained to be aware of the program and what it entails. In the case of chefs, care must be taken to choose which entrees can easily be part of the Split-A-Meal program. Cooks must also be trained to either make and store the chosen meals in halves or to make only half of a meal and annotate the saved ingredients for later donation.

That's it. We will facilitate communication with the food banks and organize pickup of donations at the necessary intervals. We would, of course, be happy to deliver any other food that might be thrown away at the end of the day as well. These two tasks are the only costs of the program; so what are the benefits?

All of your donations are tax-exempt. Because the food banks that we work with are not-for-profit entities, we will help you keep track of the total cost of your donations and provide you with receipts for tax write-offs.
Because many restaurants (especially large franchises) cannot easily implement these sorts of programs on the local level, you gain a competitive advantage with respect to patrons who feel strongly about charity. Many customers will feel that they are doing something direct and meaningful by frequenting your restaurant and exhibit a loyalty to it as a result.
The Food and Drug administration has already begun a campaign to encourage restaurants to reduce portion size. Split-A-Meal puts your restaurant one step ahead of the game by preparing you for these changes without deadlines or external pressure.
There is no potential for loss in profits because you will still be collecting the same amount of money for the same amount of product; half of the product, however, will be donated to food banks. Additionally, customers who only consume half of a meal are more likely to order dessert and appetizers, so the net effect is likely to be an increase in overall sales.
Of course, you get to offer your patrons healthier food choices while contributing to the solution to hunger in America.