Diners go 'Halfsies' to fight hunger and obesity

'Halfsies' plan at restaurants would serve half of a normal portion to diners with the remaining value of the dish used to aid the hungry.

|
Lucas Jackson/Reuters
An overweight woman sits on a chair in Times Square in New York. The startup 'Halfsies' aims to cut obesity and increase food aid to the hungry by serving diners half a portion and donating the cost of the rest of the meal to charity.

How many times have you gone to a restaurant and not been able to finish your whole meal? Or worse, taken home the leftovers only to throw them out after several days of them sitting untouched in the refrigerator?

Thankfully, there is a new social initiative offering a choice to restaurant-goers that provides two benefits: healthier meal portions, while simultaneously reducing food waste to support the fight against hunger.

While the United States is plagued with both obesity and hunger, Halfsies will now provide a new option of ordering half of a normal portion with the remaining value of the dish being put to better use.

IN PICTURES: Baltimore's food czar addresses hunger and obesity

About 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is thrown away. And the national food-waste habit is growing: As a nation, we waste 50 percent more food today that we did in 1974. At the same time, portion sizes have grown considerably. In the 1970s, about 47 percent of Americans were overweight or obese; now 66 percent are considered overweight. At the same time, more than 50 million Americans are hungry.

With a tag line of “Eat Less, Give More,” Halfsies aims to not only fight world hunger, but also educate consumers on portion sizes, a problem that contributes to America’s growing obesity epidemic. The vision of this nonprofit is to educate right where people live, eat, and work. By offering a half-portion option in participating restaurants, customers are empowered to make a real difference, both in their own lives and in the lives of people in need.

When a consumer chooses to "go halfsies" at a participating restaurant, he or she receives a half-portion of their meal while still paying full price. What restaurants don’t put on the table will be donated to both local (60 percent) and international nonprofits (30 percent) to tackle hunger.  Halfsies will take 5 to 10 percent of the donations to cover overhead costs, and any remaining funds will be used for special projects that align with Halfsies’ mission and values, such as emergency disaster relief, sustainable agriculture, and women’s rights. 

Halfsies turns the simple act of going out to eat into a charitable-giving opportunity. Started by four friends from Austin, Texas, Halfsies plans to kick off pilot programs in its hometown this spring and move into NYC later this year. It is planning for a national launch in 2013. Halfsies is still working through the details with the restaurants, such as the software to be used for easy ordering and tracking, and how different meals will be treated.

Through local and global initiatives, Halfies aims to see food waste in American cut in half, local poverty levels drop, and a significant impact made in the lives of people living with hunger and poverty, both in the United States and around the world. By creating a simple process, Halfsies gives restaurant-goers the opportunity to make an easy choice that benefits themselves, their community, and their world.

For more details visit www.gohalfsies.com

This article originally appeared at Nourishing the Planet. Holly Tassi is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project, a blog published by the Worldwatch Institute. To purchase "State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet," please click HERE. And to watch the one-minute book trailer, click HERE.

• Sign up to receive a weekly selection of practical and inspiring Change Agent articles by clicking here.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Diners go 'Halfsies' to fight hunger and obesity
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/Change-Agent/2012/0516/Diners-go-Halfsies-to-fight-hunger-and-obesity
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe