Staying fed while adventuring in the mountains often comes with a fair amount of waste; individually-wrapped sandwiches and treats are convenient ways to pack lunch on the trail, often leading to a remarkable amount of trash at the end of the day. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In fact, the meals that Teton Lunch Counter has served up all summer for local guide outfits are almost entirely waste-free; prepped with local ingredients delivered in bulk, packaged in reusable stainless steel tins, and delivered by Lunch Counter founder Tori Parker via e-bike.
Teton Lunch Counter just wrapped up their first (and very busy) season, prepping and delivering daily lunch orders for group tours and guided trips in and around Jackson.
With a background in sustainable engineering and a passion for cooking and the outdoors, Parker noticed a need for sustainable lunch options, especially among guided groups that see a high volume of visitors. Her partner, Max Pelosi, works as a river guide and manages the kayak school at Rendezvous River Sports, and when they first moved in together she noticed how much waste there was in the surplus food that he’d bring home from overnight trips.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing for guides and outfitters to be able to eat healthy, locally sourced food with zero waste?” she explains. “Really it kills three birds with one stone.” The three pillars being: a consistent ordering platform for guide services, reducing waste from tourism, and supporting local farmers and producers.
Parker created a menu that guides and outfitters can order from, and all meals are delivered (mostly by e-bike unless they’re really large). Parker picks up the dirty containers as is, composts any waste through their partnership with Haderlie Farms and WyoFarm Composting, washes the containers and rotates them back into the cycle.
Almost everything in the lunchbox is sourced locally, with veggies from Haderlie, 460 Bread, meat from Teton Valley Meats and gluten-free cookies from Sky High Cuisine. Parker and sous chef Molly Broom prep all the meals from their kitchen space rented from SUDA.
Wrapping up the summer, Parker is proud of the dent they’ve made decreasing the use of single-use plastic locally, and is looking forward to reopening in December for the winter season. Their records show that they’ve prevented over 20,000 containers from ending up in a landfill, and throughout the 21-week season Parker says she only had to empty their 25-gallon recycle bin five times. “We’re really proud of what we’ve accomplished this summer,” she says. “It’s really amazing that just the three of us alone were able to achieve such an incredible tangible amount of waste reduction.”
“Right now we’re focused on sustainable growth,” she says. “One day the ideal is a storefront, where we can do orders out the back and grab and go in the front.”
