OLIO and FareShare enlist Tesco and One Stop for free meals initiative
In response to the cost of living crisis, UK-based free sharing app, OLIO, has announced plans to work with FareShare to save and redistribute 200 million meals over the next year, with support from UK businesses including Tesco, One Stop, and Planet Organic.
Tessa Clarke, Co-founder and CEO, OLIO, says: “It’s simply wrong that right now millions of people across the UK are struggling to put food on the table, whilst billions of meals worth of perfectly edible food is going straight in the bin.”
“There’s more than enough food in this country to feed everybody, and that’s why we decided to take action. We’re so grateful to those organisations that have already pledged their support and we’re calling for others to do the same as a matter of urgency.”
Participating businesses provide their surplus food to OLIO which will be collected regularly by its network of more than 50,000 volunteer Food Waste Heroes.
The latter will then list the food on the OLIO app, making it available to their local community to come and collect and enjoy for free.
Neil Thomas, Head of Transformation at One Stop, comments: “We are proud to be part of this movement to help put food in the hands of those who need it and save it from being needlessly thrown away.”
“We’ve been working with OLIO and Fareshare for the past few months and as a convenience store retailer with over 900 community stores, we know only too well how much people are struggling and the immediate benefits these initiatives create.”
“Sadly, for too many they are serving as a lifeline during difficult times, showing why raising these record numbers has become so critical.”
“In the past year we have donated 710,000 equivalent meals. We will be working closely with OLIO to increase this number, galvanise awareness and create pressure in the industry in order to reach more people who need this both now and in the future.”
FareShare takes delivery of surplus good to eat food, which is unsold or unwanted by the food industry, sorts it in one of its 31 regional warehouses, and passes it onto a network of nearly 10,000 charities and charity groups across the UK.
Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive at FareShare, says: “Our latest annual figures show the scale of just how many people have been struggling to get enough to eat, while so much good food goes to waste.”
“We’re excited to be working with OLIO on this great campaign to help reduce food waste and ensure it feeds people, not landfill.”
