In The News

Eat'n Park Hospitality Group is at the Vanguard of Eco-Responsibility
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In 1949 Eat'n Park scored with the fresh notion of carhops bringing trays of shakes and burgers to eat in your car. You rolled the window down (cars weren't air-conditioned) for the tray to be clipped on, and the fabulous burger fumes swooshed in, along with traffic exhaust from busy Saw Mill Run, aka Route 51, near the South Hills side of the Liberty Tubes.

Sixty years later, Eat'n Park Hospitality Group is a leader among the nation's eco-responsible food providers. The transformation happened in the past decade.

Jamie Moore was in the right place at the right time.

When the corporation hired away Mr. Moore from the Hilton Hotel in 1999 to become its first purchasing manager, neither he nor his employer knew what his job would become.

"'We're in a huge agricultural state," reasoned Mitch Possinger, head of the corporation's college and senior living dining services, in 2001. 'Why should we be trucking potatoes from Maine when we have potatoes in the Lehigh Valley and Western Pennsylvania. It's here for us, and we can't get the darned produce.'"

Environmental issues were already on the boil in the 80 restaurants and 80 dining services Eat'n Park operates in colleges, hospitals and senior living units in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland and New York state.

Mr. Possinger: "The [ecological] stuff was coming at us from a fire hose.

"I don't think we had a client who wasn't on board. Students in the dining programs were asking for more eco-action, more humane animal treatment, better recycling, less energy consumption. Everyone, including people in the senior living programs, just emotionally loved the notion of food from 'down the road.'"

Mr. Moore developed FarmSource, a local food purchasing system.

During 2006 and 2007, Eat'n Park dropped trans-fats from all menus; banned smoking; eliminated added bovine growth hormone from dairy products. In 2008, it tackled composting, championed sustainable seafood and began converting used restaurant fats to biofuel.

Mr. Moore was tapped to harness and prioritize these efforts.

When he was not out on the road teaching, preaching, listening, cajoling, exhorting, empathizing, encouraging, he was back at Eat'n Park's Homestead headquarters, quantifying, analyzing, synthesizing, reporting.

The company shipped him off to Germany to learn how European Union countries turn food waste into rich soil to be sold back to farmers. This summer he squeezed in a rigorous, week-long course at Penn State, passing an exam to become an accredited organic crop inspector for the International Organic Inspectors Association (ioia.net).

Mitch Possinger: "Jamie was an enormous resource as our internal expert. He develops our positions on the contemporary sustainable topics and adapts them as new information comes out. He brings sophistication into the analysis. He is the traffic cop, determining what really works for us."

Today he travels to clients for whom Eat'n Park provides dining services, a list of 15 and growing, who want to develop broader sustainability plans. Eat'n Park is the steward of company programs such as PNC and Highmark in the city and Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., and St. John's College in Annapolis, Md.

Using a program Mr. Moore devised, called Eco-Steps, he and a client detail steps tailored to a company's interest and budget: "My job is to help clients to be green on their own terms."

First published on October 8, 2009 at 12:00 am.



View original article here
Eat'n Park Hospitality Group is at the Vanguard of Eco-Responsibility
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

In 1949 Eat'n Park scored with the fresh notion of carhops bringing trays of shakes and burgers to eat in your car. You rolled the window down (cars weren't air-conditioned) for the tray to be clipped on, and the fabulous burger fumes swooshed in, along with traffic exhaust from busy Saw Mill Run, aka Route 51, near the South Hills side of the Liberty Tubes.

Sixty years later, Eat'n Park Hospitality Group is a leader among the nation's eco-responsible food providers. The transformation happened in the past decade.

Jamie Moore was in the right place at the right time.

When the corporation hired away Mr. Moore from the Hilton Hotel in 1999 to become its first purchasing manager, neither he nor his employer knew what his job would become.

"'We're in a huge agricultural state," reasoned Mitch Possinger, head of the corporation's college and senior living dining services, in 2001. 'Why should we be trucking potatoes from Maine when we have potatoes in the Lehigh Valley and Western Pennsylvania. It's here for us, and we can't get the darned produce.'"

Environmental issues were already on the boil in the 80 restaurants and 80 dining services Eat'n Park operates in colleges, hospitals and senior living units in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland and New York state.

Mr. Possinger: "The [ecological] stuff was coming at us from a fire hose.

"I don't think we had a client who wasn't on board. Students in the dining programs were asking for more eco-action, more humane animal treatment, better recycling, less energy consumption. Everyone, including people in the senior living programs, just emotionally loved the notion of food from 'down the road.'"

Mr. Moore developed FarmSource, a local food purchasing system.

During 2006 and 2007, Eat'n Park dropped trans-fats from all menus; banned smoking; eliminated added bovine growth hormone from dairy products. In 2008, it tackled composting, championed sustainable seafood and began converting used restaurant fats to biofuel.

Mr. Moore was tapped to harness and prioritize these efforts.

When he was not out on the road teaching, preaching, listening, cajoling, exhorting, empathizing, encouraging, he was back at Eat'n Park's Homestead headquarters, quantifying, analyzing, synthesizing, reporting.

The company shipped him off to Germany to learn how European Union countries turn food waste into rich soil to be sold back to farmers. This summer he squeezed in a rigorous, week-long course at Penn State, passing an exam to become an accredited organic crop inspector for the International Organic Inspectors Association (ioia.net).

Mitch Possinger: "Jamie was an enormous resource as our internal expert. He develops our positions on the contemporary sustainable topics and adapts them as new information comes out. He brings sophistication into the analysis. He is the traffic cop, determining what really works for us."

Today he travels to clients for whom Eat'n Park provides dining services, a list of 15 and growing, who want to develop broader sustainability plans. Eat'n Park is the steward of company programs such as PNC and Highmark in the city and Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., and St. John's College in Annapolis, Md.

Using a program Mr. Moore devised, called Eco-Steps, he and a client detail steps tailored to a company's interest and budget: "My job is to help clients to be green on their own terms."

First published on October 8, 2009 at 12:00 am.



View original article here