In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, a free sharing app has prevented the equivalent of 57,000 meals in Dublin from going to waste in just over a year.
The app, called Olio, first partnered with Tesco Ireland in November last year. Their ‘Food Waste Heroes’ visit Tesco Ireland supermarkets daily to collect unsold food still fit for consumption – and list it for free on the app so that others can collect and consume it. 1,800 have signed up as volunteers so far.
Dublin took the top spot with the most active Food Waste Hero community, saving 24 tonnes of food or the equivalent of 57,000 meals. “It is so great to see such an active community of Dublin people joining together to fight waste, while helping out their neighbours,” said Olio chief Tessa Clarke. Fruit and veg (37 per cent) accounted for the most shared items, followed by dairy and eggs (32 per cent) and bakery (24 per cent).
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Dublin Olio user Gemma Scudder signed up as a Food Waste Hero in May and collects from four different Tesco Ireland stores five days a week. “We signed up thinking it could be a good way to make a few friends locally, while preventing food waste,” the 33-year-old said.
“Since we get to keep 10% of our collections, the savings to our food bill have also been beyond what we ever expected. Our €1,500 monthly spend on food is now only €400.” Ms Scudder has listed 1,868 food items to date and given products to 175 people, saving the equivalent of almost 23,000 meals and 7.2million litres of water.
A Tesco Ireland spokeswoman said: “Tesco Ireland has been donating surplus food through its partnership with FoodCloud since 2014. Last year we made the decision to partner with Olio to help us expand our surplus food donations programme. “This step was another major milestone towards helping us achieve our ambition to ensure that no good food goes to waste. Thanks to Olio and their team of flexible volunteers, in 2022 we were able to increase our Christmas food rescue efforts, making sure as much food as possible ended up feeding people in the communities that surround our stores."
The Olio app can be downloaded from Google Play and Apple app stores. The desktop version is also accessible via the app’s official website .
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