We throw away seven million tonnes of food a year in the UK alone but now there is an app that aims to tackle this issue. OLIO connects neighbours together with local shops so left over food can be shared and not thrown away.
Cardiff has a good variety of projects attempting to tackle the issue of food waste. Amongst them are the Food Not Bombs project based in Wyndham Diner in Riverside and The Real Junk project in Cathays.
Food Not Bombs has been in Cardiff for over three years and volunteers have started to use the app frequently. The group of volunteers who consider themselves to be equal, work together to provide free vegan meals to people in Cardiff city centre. They collect surplus food that would otherwise go to waste from sources around the area such as markets and local restaurants, then prepare the meals to serve to those who are hungry.
Satya who is a regular volunteer and an OLIO app ambassador for the Cardiff area said that food waste is a really important topic and we need to get the message out there.
The real junk food project on Cathays terrace was opened in January 2016 by James Price and Joshua O’ Coigligh. Based in the Embassy Café in Cathays community centre, they are a pay as you feel café using surplus food from other sources to create a daily menu made up of vegetarian meals. By doing this they hope to challenge the way people value food, encouraging them to give it their own valuation.
Josh said: We have not used OLIO much as of yet but are looking into it for the future with setting up a potential drop box. This is a concept made by OLIO where people in the area can drop off food into the drop box without having to arrange doorstep collection.
