Seven social innovation feasibility studies have been launched into tackling food waste across Europe.
Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies (FUSION) is working towards a more resource efficient Europe by significantly reducing food waste.
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The four-year project will include WRAP in the UK and is funded by the European Commissions and coordinated by Wageningen UR Food & Biobased Research.
Feasibility studies will look at how social innovation can be used to tackle food waste such as using internet technology to connect those with surplus food with those who need it, through to arranging community-based food preservation events.
The studies include:
- Order-Cook-Pay
- Partner: The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, Sweden
- The study tackles canteen food waste by transforming traditional ways of working within the food service sector. It will develop and implement a web-based tool to provide school kitchens and business canteens with accurate information about the numbers of lunches to serve.
- Surplus Food
- Partner: Stop Wasting Food, Communique, Denmark
- The study tests a decentralised system to connect surplus food with those in need via the internet or an SMS service that connects local food producers, retailers, restaurants and catering outlets with local shelters, crisis and refugee centres, women shelters, etc.
- The Gleaning Network EU
- Partner: Feeding the 5000, UK
- Gleaning Network EU aims to disseminate best practice guidance and support for the creation of national gleaning networks to redistribute wasted fruit and vegetables from farms to charities. The study will provide a model for collaboration between growers, grassroots volunteers and charities across Europe, as well as giving specific support to groups initiating gleaning networks.
- Food Service and Hospitality Surplus Redistribution
- Partner: The Hungarian Foodbank Association, Hungary, BIO by Deloitte, France
- This Feasibility Study will develop new social relationships between the food service sector and food banks in Hungary, as well as providing a model for collaboration that can be replicated across Europe.
- Disco BôCô
- Partners: Feeding the 5000 (UK), Bio by Deloitte (France)
- Disco BôCô aims to organise collaborative and festive events to bring people together to cook and preserve discarded fruits and vegetables. The project will mobilise local communities to connect and make use of food surplus by developing domestic preservation skills.
- Advancing Social Supermarkets
- Partners: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (Austria), Bio by Deloitte (France)
- This Feasibility Study supports the implementation of “social supermarkets” in the EU based on the experiences of already established markets in France as well as in Austria.
- Cr-EAT-ive Schools
- Partners: Anatoliki (Development Agency Thessaloniki), Greece
- The project aims to develop food waste prevention methods and practical tips to encourage behaviour change in the families of preschool children (aged 3-5 years) at home and in the food services of the crèches and kindergartens. This will be achieved through the development of a series of innovative educational tools and activities that will involve parents, children, preschool educators and cooks.
