Severe weather is becoming a fact of life in nearly every corner of the country. For restaurants and other foodservice operators, the earliest decisions you make after a storm are often the most financially important ones.
When you invite staff members to help drive the outcome, you create a culture where people want to do better. When they know their opinions matter, they will proactively initiate ideas.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off June 11 and doesn’t end until July 19. For six weeks, 16 host cities across North America will host 6.5 million fans in stadiums. And tens of millions more will be cheering on their teams from offices, breweries, event spaces and living rooms across the country. Every single one of those watch parties, corporate gatherings and fan meetups needs food.
In 2021, more than 398,000 people in the U.S. needed medical care for burns, according to the CDC, and a claims-based analysis from 2020 reported 698,555 burn-related insurance claims. Meanwhile, the latest data shows that 8,000 fires break out at restaurants every year.
When times are tough, it’s natural to default to what feels safe, seems productive or has worked before. Sometimes, those instincts can keep us stuck.
Here’s a fresh look at the most common mistakes made by operators—and what stand-out hospitality businesses do instead.
Most catering operators treat packaging as someone else’s problem. You hand off specs to your supplier, they negotiate prices, and you move on to things that feel more exciting.
But packaging plays more of a role in a catering business than operators tend to realize. It directly affects your reorder rates, client acquisition costs and average order value. When you approach it strategically, it stops being a line item to minimize and starts generating measurable returns.
Focus on your trash. It may sound unsexy, but it’s a game-changing place to start if you’re serious about making your catering business more sustainable in 2026.
That’s one of the tips from Steve Short, a longtime sustainability expert who’s the COO of the Steve Short Culinary Team and Atlasta Catering in Phoenix, and a member of the CFE News advisory board. CFE News asked Short for the practical guidance he’d give other caterers looking to make meaningful sustainability changes in the new year.
As catering evolves, packaging continues to play a critical role in the customer experience. From food safety and performance to waste reduction and circularity, packaging is a way foodservice establishments can elevate their catering offerings. In 2025, we saw several innovations in food packaging, and we anticipate these trends will continue to expand in 2026.
Football season is in full swing, then there’s “Drinksgiving,” then New Year’s Eve, followed by the Super Bowl! The fall/holiday
By Allison Freeman, Element Event Solutions When it comes to holiday events, if you build it, they will come—and leave
