Photo: © Phil Tragen 2022
Olio and Iceland started working together just over a year ago. Since then, we’ve rolled out our Food Waste Heroes Programme across their 950 stores, working closely with the team to make sure that as much edible surplus food as possible is rescued across those sites.
We’re incredibly proud to reveal the awesome impact we’ve achieved since then.
Our impact over 12 months
Through our partnership, we’ve rescued 2.3 million meals together. That food has gone on to feed 75k families – saving the equivalent of 4 million kgs of Co2 from entering the atmosphere, and 738 million litres of water from being wasted.
That’s like cancelling out over 4,000 return flights from London to New York – and saving 12,000 swimming pools worth of water!
We spoke to a couple of our volunteers, who have been so crucial in helping us make this partnership a success. Here are some of their highlights from their experience of volunteering with Olio and Iceland:
I just knew this meant so much to some of the poorer families that collect from me
We were all part of the same food sharing gang!
We couldn’t be prouder to be working alongside Iceland to fight food waste and feed communities across the UK – especially while the rising cost of living means so many are going hungry.
A word from one of Olio’s co-founders
Here’s what Tessa Clarke, Olio’s CEO and co-founder, had to say about the milestone:
“It’s thanks to partners like Iceland that we’re able to take meaningful action on food waste on such a large scale, and we’re really grateful for their support. We’d love to see more businesses following Iceland’s example and committing to zero edible food waste across their operations.”
What’s next?
To the whole team at Iceland, and all our wonderful Food Waste Heroes who’ve made this possible, a heartfelt thank you. We can’t wait to see what the next 12 months brings.