Did you know… homes in the UK throw away over a quarter of their weekly grocery shopping. Meanwhile, our cupboards are full of things we’ll never eat or use. So if you love free food, hate waste and care about your community or environment, there is a mobile phone app for you, and it’s called OLIO.
Olio is a free app that connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. The app encourages communities to share surplus food using geo-location to put food-sharers in touch. The app also features real-time messaging to enable speedy swapping arrangements to be made.
Once the app has been downloaded, Olio users can post details of their surplus food, and arrange for it to be delivered, collected direct, or left at established drop boxes within each community. Everything listed on Olio is for free or for donation to charity.
Their Food Waste Hero (FWH) programme is making a massive difference to the amount of surplus food redistributed via Olio. FWHs are actively rescuing unsold food at the end of the day from over 150 businesses, with more joining every single week. This unsold food is immediately added to OLIO and shared within the community to ensure that no good food goes to waste. Olio are currently recruiting Volunteers as they expand their reach to Hull.
If you are interested in helping to connect your community and ensure that good food does not go to waste, please email craig.pretty@veris-strategies.co.uk or to find out more on how to get involved with the Food Waste Heroes program please visit: www.olioex.com