One of Carnival Corporation’s cruise lines is expanding a program to donate more prepared, unserved food from their ships.
Costa Cruises started the 4GOODFOOD program in 2017 and is now expanding it. The program donates prepared, unserved food from cruise ships to local community food banks.
The food is “ready to eat” meals prepared on board but did not get served in the ship’s restaurants.
The cruise line announced an agreement with two more ports (Palma de Mallorca and Valencia) that brings the total number to 16 that benefit from this program.
To date, the cruise line has donated more than 300,000 portions of food in the Caribbean and Mediterranean.
Jan Swartz, executive vice president of strategic operations for Carnival Corporation, gave the following statement:
“One of the many ways we create unforgettable happiness for our guests is through world-class food and dining experiences on our ships.
We are committed to doing this responsibly, and we rely on the dedication and creativity of our 160,000 talented team members who constantly find new ways to reduce food waste from our operations, often while enhancing the guest experience.
“Our goal is to have less uneaten food and, with the remaining food, find ways to ensure it doesn’t go to waste, like doing our part to help communities facing food scarcity.”
In addition to meal donations, phases of the 4GOODFOOD program have included revising more than 500 recipes to make meal production more efficient.
Carnival Corporation is looking to expand the program to more ports in the Caribbean and Latin America.
Earlier this year, Carnival surpassed its 2025 food waste reduction goal, leveraging human ingenuity and new technologies to cut 42% of food loss and waste compared to five years ago (2019) and is tracking toward its 50% reduction target set for 2030.