Did you know that the average UK family throws away over £700 of food every year? We, along with supermarkets, restaurants and everything in between, are throwing away more food waste than ever. However, Tessa Cook and Saasha Celestial-One are hoping to change this. Tessa once found herself with some perfectly good food that she couldn’t bring herself to throw away so she went out on the streets to find someone to give this food to but failed miserably. It was in that moment that Olio was born. Olio is a free app that connects people to exchange their edible surplus food.
Olio contains everything from freshly made rolls, salmon, organic lemon and ginger tea bags, soup, organic raw goats milk and a selection of organic fruit. This is just a selection of a long list of things being given away in the last week. All you have to do is browse the items on offer then request whatever you fancy to arrange a pick-up via private messaging. If you want to make food available, simply upload a photo of the item to the app, add a description and price (if you want) and when and where the item is available for pick-up. These pick-ups and drop-offs are mainly done via drop-boxes scattered around different neighbourhoods.
Currently, there are loads of drop-boxes in London but little anywhere else. However, we Brightonians aren’t ones to be left behind the times, particularly when it comes to helping out the community and the environment. There is one drop-box currently in Brighton, residing in the Open Market at The Food Shed and hopefully this will only be one of many in a few months’ time. On 5th March, Olio are coming to One Church to celebrate the launch of this drop-box with a Brighton potluck. All you have to do is bring either a starter, main or desert so everyone can help themselves to lots of lovely food. There will also be entertainment and activities for all the family. The app is free on the app store and Google play and is doing something wonderful for the community and the environment, so why not take a look? You can find out more about Olio via their website, and more about the Brighton Potluck here.
Holly Martin
feature image is of Tessa and Saasha
