Coffee chain Costa has joined a collaborative, business-led initiative which uses a food sharing app to help tackle food waste and food poverty issues in Hull.
More than 6,200 people across Hull have signed up to receive food through OLIO to date
Launched by major premium food supplier Cranswick and food redistribution app OLIO last summer, the Food Waste Hero project has diverted more than eight million tonnes of food waste – or 40,588 individual items – from landfill to date.
Under the scheme, Cranswick has been listing surplus food from its Hull facilities on the OLIO app at the end of every day. The products are then collected and distributed by a team of volunteers, with the app operating on a first come, first served basis and serving 6,200 people across the city region.
Costa is now set to redistribute surplus food from its Anlaby Retail Park store using the same model, after joining the scheme earlier this week. The coffee chain is hoping to roll out the programme to all of its other Hull-based facilities in the near future.
“At Costa, we take food waste extremely seriously; we are working hard to minimise food waste throughout Costa stores and run a number of initiatives across the UK to do so,” Costa’s head of sustainability Victoria Moorhouse said.
“We are therefore delighted that a number of our local Hull stores are now partnering with Cranswick and OLIO on their Zero Food Waste project, working with local volunteers to help tackle food poverty.”
The move builds on Costa’s existing partnership with food redistribution platform FareShare, under which it sends food wastes generated at a supply chain level to charity and community groups across the UK.
At a store level, the chain has implemented a Food Surplus Policy, which enables store managers to make donations directly to local charities on demand. It additionally sends all organic waste from stores it manages directly for anaerobic digestion (AD). In order to help staff ensure that as little food as possible is sent for landfilling or AD, however, Costa requires all stores to offer a 50% discount on food which cannot be sold the following day during the last hour of trading.
Costa at edie Live
Costa’s sustainability manager Jodi Wheatley and head of environment Oliver Rosevear will be appearing on the circular economy theatre at edie Live next month (21-22 May 2019), as part of a panel discussion on how employee engagement can help spur circular economy progress. Taking place at 12.45 pm on Day One of the event, the debate will see Wheatley and Rosevearjoined by experts from Hubbub, Bournemouth University, EuroStar and EY.
The session is just one of many taking place across four theatres during the two-day show, which is edie’s biggest of the year and a highlight in the calendar for sustainability, energy and environment professionals. Under the theme of “turning ambition into ACTION”, we will be bringing attendees the inspiration and solutions needed to achieve a low-carbon, resource efficient and profitable future for their organisation.
Register for your free edie Live 2019 pass here.
Sarah George