Louth’s ‘Food Waste Heroes’ save 883kg of food from going to waste

A free sharing app has prevented the equivalent of 312,000 meals from going to waste in just over a year - with 883kg of food saved by Louth users.

Since Olio first partnered with Tesco Ireland in November last year, the app’s army of 'Food Waste Heroes' volunteers has collected the equivalent of 6,000 meals a week from the supermarket’s stores throughout the country to redistribute for free. 

Louth took the third spot for the most active Food Waste Hero community to date, with volunteers visiting Tesco Ireland supermarkets to collect unsold food still fit for consumption and list it for free on the app so that others can collect and consume it.

“It is great to see such an active community of people in Louth joining together to fight waste, while helping out their neighbours,” said Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO of Olio.

“Our partnership with Tesco Ireland has resulted in a massive 656,000 items of food being diverted from going to waste in just over a year.

“Food waste accounts for one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions and is the single largest emitting sector. If we are to fix the climate crisis, preventing food waste should be a priority.”

Fruit and veg (37%) accounted for the most shared items, followed by dairy and eggs (32%) and bakery (24%). Olio user, Sarah Karam, 33, signed up as a Food Waste Hero in June. She has so far given away 526 items, saving the equivalent of over 1,260 meals and 396k litres of water.

“It took a couple of weeks to get established but I have people who regularly collect from me now and any food I post on Olio is gone within an hour,” she said.

“Fruit, veg and ready-made meals are always the first to go. I’ve made some great friends through the app – including other food waste heroes locally. We help each other out and are all determined to reduce the environmental impact of food waste. Food waste in my own home is now less than 1%.”

More than 1,800 people in Ireland have signed up to be Food Waste Heroes since November last year, with 534 collections made each week across the country.

“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,” said Rosemary Garth, Communications Director, Tesco Ireland.

“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 olioex.com.