Food waste heroes in north Antrim

In August last year Tesco became the first supermarket to partner with the food sharing app, which provides unsold surplus food fit for consumption to people in the community and prevent it from being thrown away.

In the first full year of the partnership OLIO’s network of more than 3,700 Food Waste Heroes across the UK helped to save 5.6m meals from Tesco stores, with more than 72,000 people able to put the food to good use for themselves, their families and others in their local communities.

In North Antrim, OLIO Food Waste Heroes have now shared 10,210 meals through the app. The partnership builds on Tesco’s existing food surplus donations programme, including its Community Food Connection scheme with FareShare. That scheme has provided more than 120 million meals of food to charities and community groups across the UK. FareShare supports frontline charities and community groups working with children – from summer holiday clubs and breakfast clubs to community kitchens, and groups which supply food parcels to those facing food insecurity.

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 immediately uploaded onto the OLIO app, ready to be re-distributed free to those living nearby as well as to community groups.