Thanksgiving weekend brings fuller dining rooms, longer hours, and four days of back-to-back services. It also happens to be one of the most waste-heavy days of the year. ReFED estimates that Americans will throw out 320 million pounds of food on Thanksgiving, about $550 million worth in a single day.

Much of the weekend’s prep happens earlier in the month, and choices made during that period have a big impact on how much waste kitchens generate. But with a bit of structure before the rush, teams can keep food waste in check while still delivering a great guest experience and without slowing down service.

1. Forecast by service type, not total covers

Food waste increases by approximately 25% between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. Getting ahead of that spike starts with how you forecast.

To do this, break your forecast into meal periods and channels. Look at last year’s data if you have it. However, don’t look at total volume, but instead at what sold through each format and what came back to the dish pit untouched.

For example, if you ran a carving station, did guests take full portions or just a few slices? Did the salad bar empty out or sit half full at close?

When you forecast by format, your prep list gets specific. For instance, you order turkey breast for carving, not whole birds that yield trim you won’t use. Or you batch cornbread for the buffet and hold back dough for late bakes if the brunch line extends.

2. Switch to smaller pans and refill more often near close

Full hotel pans look abundant, but they cool fast and can dry out under heat lamps. So, as you get closer to the end of service, consider swapping to half pans or even third pans and refill every 20 minutes instead of topping off every hour.

Smaller batches stay hotter and look fresher. Guests take what they want without navigating a picked-over tray. And when service ends, you’re left with less food sitting in the hot well.

This approach works well for high-risk items such as mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, stuffing, and anything in a cream or butter sauce. These dishes degrade quickly under heat, and large quantities often means waste.

Tools like Orbisk can help fine-tune this process. By automatically capturing discard data during service, it shows which items end up in the bin most often. So you can adjust pan sizes and refill frequency based on waste insights.

3. Give guests portion cues on the menu

Guests don’t always know how much food is coming. If your Thanksgiving spread includes eight sides, three proteins, and a dessert station, they’ll load their first plate and realize too late they took too much.

Thoughtful menu copy can help. Signal portion sizes with phrases like “savor-size” or “taste portion” for sides. Call the bread basket “petite” or “just enough to start.” Let diners know when an entrée is generously served or when a dish is especially rich and filling.

These subtle cues set expectations without feeling restrictive. Guests pace themselves, plates come back cleaner, and you’re not scraping untouched sweet potato casserole into the waste bin at the end of the night.

4. Build your prep list around what has sold

Every kitchen has ingredients that consistently over-perform and others that sit. Maybe dinner rolls are gone in minutes, while the cranberry relish barely gets touched.

Your waste data can tell that story clearly. Look at recent events such as October banquets, Sunday brunches, or similar catering profiles, and pinpoint which items generate the most waste by weight or frequency. Then update your prep list accordingly.

If you’re using a food waste-tracking system like Orbisk, you can review exactly how many servings of green bean casserole or sweet potato mash are being tossed after your Thanksgiving buffet. Use this information to adjust the next service’s batch size accordingly.

5. Decide what happens to leftovers before service starts

The federal goal is to halve food waste by 2030, and holiday service is a key opportunity to make a real impact. Because excess food doesn’t have to become waste if your team knows what to do with it. Can leftovers be repurposed for staff meals or next-day specials? Or is there a donation partner nearby who can take it under the Good Samaritan law?

Excess food doesn’t have to become waste if your team knows what to do with it. Leftovers can be repurposed for staff meals or next-day specials, or donated to a local partner under the Good Samaritan law.

Tools like MealConnect make this simple: find a nearby food bank, provide donation details, and schedule a pickup. Doing this also boosts your bottom line as, under Section 170(e)(3)(C) of the Internal Revenue Code, restaurants can claim a deduction for prepared foods.

For items that can’t be donated, plan an alternative. For instance, vegetable trimmings can go to compost, and day-old bread can be transformed into croutons or bread pudding. Make this decision once, then repeat it every service.

Internal repurposing works too. Roasted turkey becomes turkey salad. Mashed potatoes turn into croquettes. But set the guardrail: if it sat in the hot well for three hours, it’s waste, not an ingredient.

6. Measure waste per cover, not total waste

A busy Saturday will always generate more waste than a slow Tuesday in raw numbers. That doesn’t tell you much. If you served three times as many covers and waste only doubled, you’re getting tighter. Waste per cover shows real performance.

Beyond the overall number, look for category hot spots. Are proteins the issue, or is it sides and starches? Is waste concentrated in one station or spread across the line?

Action completion rate matters too. If your team gets a list of waste-reduction steps each shift, are they actually executing? Enterprise reporting gives multi-site visibility for groups running Thanksgiving banquets in several locations, so you can see which kitchens are improving and which need support.

7. Adjust in real time based on what happened yesterday

Thanksgiving weekend runs Thursday through Sunday for most operations. That’s three more services where you can fix what went wrong instead of repeating it.

If Thursday’s buffet showed high waste on stuffing and low waste on turkey, adjust Friday’s prep. If Saturday’s banquet had untouched salads but empty dessert trays, flip the quantities for Sunday.

The only way this works is if insights arrive fast enough to act on them. Waiting a week for a report means you’ve already run four more services with the same problems. Orbisk can help by capturing discarded food waste data automatically during service. And Orbisk AI highlights which items are being wasted most, so your team can make adjustments before the next shift starts.

Minimize waste this Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving will always bring volume spikes, high expectations, and tight timing. But food waste doesn’t have to come with it. Forecast by channel, use smaller pans near the end of service, give guests portion cues, prep based on what sells, have a clear leftovers plan, measure what matters, and adjust daily.

Tools like Orbisk can help you reduce food costs by tracking what’s wasted, when, and why, all without making the busiest weekend any harder than it already is.

Ultimately, small adjustments add up. With a bit of planning, Thanksgiving can run smoothly without the usual pile of leftovers at the end.