Tesco partnership saves five million meals from going to waste
A new partnership between Tesco and food waste app OLIO has prevented more than five million meals from going to waste.
In the first 12 months of the partnership, OLIO’s network of more than 3,700 Food Waste Heroes has helped over 72,000 people benefit from the supermarket’s unsold surplus food that is still fit for consumption.
Tesco head of communities Claire De Silva said: “Tesco is committed to tackling food waste and we were confident our partnership with OLIO would help with that, but its impact has exceeded all our expectations.
“For our partnership to have diverted more than five million surplus meals from going to waste in its first year is a huge achievement and shows the strength of the partnership between our store colleagues and OLIO’s Food Waste Heroes.”
The partnership builds on Tesco’s existing food surplus donations programme, including its Community Food Connection scheme with FareShare. Running since 2016, the FareShare scheme has provided more than 120 million meals of food to charities and community groups across the UK.
OLIO Food Waste Heroes collect food when charities supported by FareShare are unable to do so and take it back to their homes. The items are then uploaded onto the OLIO app, ready to be re-distributed free to community groups and people living nearby. OLIO app users can then pick the items up from an agreed contact-free collection point.
Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder of OLIO, said: “Our partnership with Tesco has been a huge success this year, and we’re incredibly proud to have delivered so many meals that would have otherwise been wasted to communities across the UK. Tesco has been a true pioneer.
“But our work is far from done. We hope this partnership encourages other businesses to follow suit and consider how they can take a more proactive approach to minimising waste and supporting local communities. Just imagine what we could achieve if every business followed their lead.”
