JENNA OUTCALT
Staff Writer
Mark Wenzler first noticed the issue of food waste in Chautauqua Institution a few years ago. A friend who visited for a week with her family asked him to take leftover food after their stay, not wanting to waste their extra purchases. Wenzler, Peter Nosler director of the Chautauqua Climate Change Initiative, wondered if the same problem happened with other short-term renters. Now, CCI is working on a solution.
Chautauqua and Chautauqua Property Owners Association are launching a pilot program in the 2026 Summer Season to conserve food waste and combat local food insecurity. Chautauquans with non-perishable food left over at the end of their visit can donate the leftover items at a central drop-off point in front of Turner Community Center.
“Food waste is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems,” Wenzler said. “But it’s also got a huge potential for helping people in need.”
The drop-off will be open from 9 to 11 a.m. every Saturday until the end of Week Nine. Donations will be distributed to local foodbanks in surrounding areas like Mayville and Jamestown.
Data from Feeding America’s 2023 “Mind the Meal Gap” study estimated 15.4% of Chautauqua County faces food insecurity. Claire Johnson Baker, an independent contractor working with the CCI, said the food rescue was a way to “connect Chautauqua to the broader Chautauqua County system.”
“We have excess, and being able to distribute it, even though it’s only for nine weeks, I think that’s at least a bright spot, and hopefully it can encourage more of that within the county,” Johnson Baker said.
Because this is the first year of the program, Johnson Baker said they would be starting small and “creating bridges wherever we can.”
“It’s exciting to just navigate the initial phases of it and find out what more we can do and how to build it,” she said.
Wenzler said they will check on the program throughout the summer to ensure the food banks are able to utilize the food from Chautauquans.
“What we don’t want to do is create a big burden for these organizations and give them this huge pulse of stuff that they can’t process,” Wenzler said.
The 2026 Season at Chautauqua will have two weeks related to the food rescue program. Week Four will explore society’s relationship to waste, and Week Eight will dive deeper into the environmental and societal impacts of our food system.
“We have, as an Institution, committed to reducing our environmental footprint,” Wenzler said. “So this really helps us advance that goal as well.”
