Become a Zero Food Waste Business Through the OLIO Surplus Food Rescue Programme
Every year around 1/3 of all food produced globally goes to waste, largely ending up in landfill and accounting for 8% of greenhouse gas emissions per year. If food waste were a country it would be 3rd behind China and the USA in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.
In the UK alone, according to WRAP, in the Hospitality and Foodservice Sector alone over 1.1M tons of food goes to waste each year, and 75% of this is food still fit for consumption, equating to 1.3bn meals.
Reducing food waste represents one of the greatest opportunities to reverse global warming and at the same time build communities and feed people.
While reducing food waste in the first place is where the primary focus should be, the reality is that, despite the best technology to achieve this, surplus food will always exist, and should be redistributed to preven
t it from going to waste, reaching instead local communities. Charities play a key role here, but unfortunately not all charities are able to take all food types or have limited availability. Additionally, there are several ‘food insecure’ families who do not visit food banks, for various reasons, including social stigma.
Through our unique platform, the OLIO Food Waste Heroes programme supports the hospitality industry to prevent surplus food from going to the bin. Through our nationwide 8,000-strong food safety trained Food Waste Hero volunteers, we rescue surplus food from businesses a
nd share it via our OLIO Neighbour-to-Neighbour sharing app with local communities. In this way, not only are we helping to reduce food waste, but also helping to build communities as we reach people across the economic spectrum. The sharing is safe, fast, friendly, and stigma-free.
Particularly during the current pandemic, we have also (through no-contact sharing) been reaching those most vulnerable/at risk who might not be able to visit supermarkets and/or food banks.
If you want to become a Zero Food Waste Business and have surplus food to be rescued due to covid-19, or if you would like to partner with OLIO for regular collections, please visit www.olioex.com or reach out to Martin Rohleder, Director OLIO for Businesses, at martin@olioex.com
