Film and TV sets are famously fast-paced, unpredictable environments. Call times shift, locations move, and hundreds of people cycle through daily. This creates a big challenge for catering: how do you make sure everyone gets fed enough, at the right time – without generating mountains of food waste?
For Quay Street Productions – who wrapped on filming for The Blame for ITV in December 2025 – the solution has been a partnership with Olio, which allows them to redistribute surplus food quickly and safely into communities surrounding their shooting locations.
Food is collected from sets by Olio volunteers, who then share that food with local people via the app. Olio users collect food from the volunteer’s house (and often share heartwarming messages of gratitude once they’ve collected it).
We sat down with Rosy Birchall, Production Runner for The Blame, to talk about how Olio has worked for them while shooting – and how paying more attention to food waste on set has created an unexpected shift in attitudes towards sustainability across the crew.
Why do production sets generate food waste?
Rosy explains that sometimes, predicting food demand on set is “basically a guessing game.”
“One day you’ll make three trays of sandwiches and no one will touch them. The next day you half it, and everyone’s hungry and it’s all gone.”
On any given day, multiple factors influence how much people eat. Caterers have to over-prepare because the alternative – hungry cast and crew who rely on the catering to have food available on set – isn’t an option.
So on some days, they’re left with lots of perfectly good food left over, particularly sandwiches, salads, and “late break” items.
Before using Olio, much of this would have ended up in the bin.
How does Olio fit into a day on set?
For Rosy and her team, Olio forms “an integral part of the day.”Here’s how it works:
1. Caterers prepare meals fresh on site – often beginning as early as 3am (😱)
2. Once cast and crew have eaten their fill, Rosy boxes up any surplus items with allergen information clearly labelled on each box
3. Olio volunteers arrive to collect food for redistribution the same day, once shooting has finished
Even in the most remote locations, volunteers have been able to find their way on set to rescue food.
“Even when we were filming in the middle of Epping Forest, every single day someone came to collect the food – they just always made it work.”
Because Olio’s volunteer network is flexible and hyper-local, collections can adjust to the production’s unpredictable schedule.
One good example of this unpredictability was when the team once realised that the fridge was being driven to the next unit base – before they’d had time to pack up the food.
And even then, a volunteer was still able to make it at short notice:
“Someone showed up within 45 minutes to collect it. They saved the day. Nothing went to waste.”
A culture shift around sustainability among the crew
Olio’s impact has extended far beyond just production logistics. Working closely with surplus food has changed attitudes among Rosy’s team:
“Seeing how much perfectly good food used to be thrown out – it feels ridiculous now. I probably buy less in my personal life because of it.”
Sustainability is built into the daily routine (rather than an extra hassle). And donating surplus catering through Olio has become automatic:
“We have a really good system. Before wrap, someone tells me how much is left. Some days it’s none, sometimes it’s all of it – I package up whatever needs to be collected by a volunteer. It’s quick and simple, and just part of the day.
Sometimes I go to catering and ask, ‘Has someone collected the food?’ and they say, ‘Yeah, they’ve been and gone.’ It’s so efficient — it just happens.”
A system that works with (not against) production chaos
Perhaps the strongest endorsement Rosy offers is that Olio fits the unpredictable nature of production life better than anything else could.
“Because it’s volunteer-based, it works so brilliantly with our very hectic and constantly changing schedule… If it was any other system, I don’t know how easily it would work.”
As Rosy puts it, using Olio on set “feels like a no-brainer” – a sustainable practice that makes operational sense, boosts morale, supports local communities, and prevents huge volumes of good food from being wasted.
Quay Street Productions’ experience shows what’s possible when sustainability is embraced not as an afterthought, but as an everyday behaviour embedded across the crew.
And with more productions discovering the simplicity of surplus redistribution, we’re very pleased to see how this is fast becoming a new standard for the industry.
Speak to someone from Olio about surplus food from your next production 👉 lily.chappin@olioapp.com