LESS DATA.
LESS WASTE.

Count Me Out is an independent initiative to help kitchens forecast their food demand for November 19, 2026. Public visitors can count themselves out of their usual canteen lunch on November 19, choose a participating kitchen or enter an unregistered lunch spot, and correct their response later. No name or personal email is requested from visitors.

WHAT WE COLLECT

We store your lunch-status answer, the kitchen or location you selected and the response time. An anonymous browser identifier is stored in a first-party cookie and its cryptographic hash is used to avoid counting the same browser repeatedly. This is not strong identity verification and cannot prevent every duplicate or manipulated response.

For kitchen managers, we store the kitchen name, city, country, contact email, order deadline, verification status, recorded response counts and any order reductions the kitchen reports. We send transactional verification and deadline emails only when email sending is configured.

WORLDWIDE PLACE SEARCH

If the operator connects Google Places, search queries and selected place IDs are sent to Google to retrieve suggestions and place details. Google may process these requests under its own terms and privacy policy. You can always use manual location entry instead. Visitors' manually entered workplace and canteen names may be suggested to other visitors; these are unverified public suggestions, not proof of kitchen participation.

WHAT WE PUBLISH

We publish aggregated counts. Public city and kitchen listings may be visible, but player responses are not published individually. A private kitchen dashboard uses a secret link that its manager should not share. An email verification alone does not establish legal authority over a kitchen, so organizers should check participating kitchens independently for a full public launch.

WHY IT MATTERS

Answers are self-reports and do not automatically change a food order. Kitchens decide whether to adjust their plans. A reduction in meals ordered or prepared is not necessarily a verified reduction in food waste.

RUNNING YOUR OWN VERSION

This is a template for the project operator. Before publishing, add the operator's identity, contact details, actual hosting and retention policy, legal basis for processing, data request process, and any relevant regional privacy disclosures. Do not launch it with this placeholder operator disclosure.