Local businessman works to reduce restaurant waste

As owner of One World Enterprises, Jeff Mease shows a strong interest in sustainability.

Mease has run local restaurants Pizza X, Lennie’s and the Bloomington Brewing Company for the past 29 years and his interest in local sustainability has led him to think of ways to start recycling and reusing within his own companies.  

For example, Pizza X gives out reusable cups with delivery, and they have a battery-recycling program where drivers collect old batteries from customers, and they are properly recycled instead of thrown away.

Five years ago Mease purchased a farm west of Bloomington. Mease contacted friends around town from other local establishments and began to find ways for his company to reduce how much money he spends on farm operations. This in turn also allows companies to get rid of their waste without it winding up in a landfill.  

“It was a great opportunity to build soil and redirect waste,” Mease said.

Once a week, Mease takes leftovers, waste and other plate scrapings to his farm and puts it in a compost pile that returns nutrients to the soil. Mease said about 500  pounds of waste are redirected in a week.  

All of the separating and collecting costs time and energy, but the end product is a valuable thing, Mease said.

Mease obtains some of his feed from Bloomington Bagel, which gives him some of their surplus bagels at the end of the day, since bagels can only be sold the same day they are made. Mease said he also gets feed from The Tudor Room at the Indiana Memorial Union and Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority where the food is refrigerated for him until the end of the day.

Dawn Keough, the chief operating officer of Bloomington Bagel Company and the Bloomington Catering Company, said she also supports local sustainability.

Bloomington Bagel donates to the Shalom Center every morning and gives its leftovers to Mease at the end of the day.

“We have a nice cycle going on,” Keough said. “It’s a great way not to have waste; it was a no brainer.”

Keough said she believes by participating in local sustainability, what companies give as donations will come back around and help the whole community.

“The beauty of local businesses is that you can thank them by giving back,” said Sue Aquila, owner and president of Bloomington Bagel Company.

One of Bloomington Bagel’s corporate themes is “locally owned and boiled.”  

Aquila said Indiana is her home, where her family and friends live. She has family involved in the Shalom Center and Mease is a personal friend, both whom they make donations to on a daily basis.

“I am going to live and die in Bloomington, Indiana,” Aquila said. “I want to contribute to the community as it has made my life so much better.”

Mease has a vision for agro-tourism, something that incorporates a blend of agriculture and tourism. This would entail allowing people to come to his farm so that it is not just a factory for food.  

He eventually wants to build a brewery at the farm and have a working organic farm for people that are interested in farming and agriculture, as Mease has a strong interest in sustainability and his community.

“It is a beautiful, virtuous cycle,” Mease said.