Many of us have had that moment when you look in the fridge and realise you'll have to chuck out half of what's there... such a waste! British woman Tessa Cook thought so, too. So she created OLIO – an app for sharing unwanted food.
Photo: Supplied / Olio
Tessa is a farmer's daughter so she knows how much work goes into food production, she says.
When she was moving country three years ago the removalists told her she had to chuck out everything from her kitchen cupboards.
"Much to their irritation I set out to find someone to share my food with – failed."
There are apps for everything so Tessa was stunned to discover there wasn't one for food sharing.
OLIO works by connecting people who have unneeded food with those in the same neighbourhood who either want or need it.
Tessa says the most commonly shared items are bread, fruit, vegetables and... tea.
"Here in the UK we love a cup of tea and we often experiment with crazy tea flaours… and sometimes don't like them."
Sometimes people donate when they're going on a diet – lots of chocolate comes on to the app after Easter and purged cupboard contents after New Year's resolutions.
Currently, 325,000 people are using the app, but Tessa wants to hit 325 million.
Globally we throw away one-third of all food we produce while 800 million people go hungry, she says.
Food waste is also the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the USA and China.
Well over half of food waste takes place in homes, but UK retail stores Sainsbury's, Tesco and Pret a Manger are now getting involved, too.
Volunteers collect unsold food from the stores, take it home, photograph it, upload the photos and then their neighbours can request it.
OLIO is now being used by neighbourhoods in the UK, Sweden, Finland, Russia, USA – and it would be very easy to get it happening here, Tessa says.
