Compass & Olio: How we’ve helped cut food waste across Compass catering operations
A bit about Compass
Compass Group UK & I is the UK’s leading hospitality and foodservice provider.
They provide millions of meals at offices, stadiums, hospitals, schools and other venues across the country each day .
Through partnerships with organisations like Olio, Compass can make sure any uneaten food at its sites is safely shared with members of the local community.
How we started working together
Olio started working with Compass Group UK & I in 2018. We’ve since partnered with Compass businesses including Restaurant Associates, Eurest, Chartwell’s and Levy UK & Ireland.
Compass is an industry leader in sustainability – they’ve set ambitious targets to become Climate Net Zero across their operations by 2030. They’re also signatories of the Government’s ‘Step Up To The Plate’ pledge, UK Food Waste Roadmap and WRAP Courtauld 2030.
Compass and Olio began working together to support food waste reduction goals across Compass businesses and sites. Compass tries to avoid food waste in all its kitchens, but where this is unavoidable, the Compass teams then look at redistribution.
Why Olio is a great fit for Compass Group
Through Olio, Compass and its businesses now have a fully flexible, scalable way to cut out food waste, that covers everything from hot food to loose ingredients, pre-packaged sandwiches, snacks, and more.
Here’s how it works
Pair
Prepare
Collect
Share
For Compass, its businesses and their clients, having a way to redistribute hot food has been especially impactful, as they weren’t able to do this before working with Olio.
How we’ve partnered with businesses across Compass group
Restaurant Associates, one of Compass’ businesses that provides workplace catering, works closely with Olio collecting food from its restaurants across the UK. Restaurant Associates’ clients include companies across the banking, media, and technology sectors.
With Olio, those companies can now make sure any surplus food left at the end of each day benefits people in communities local to them, in line with their CSR targets.
Plus, Sustainability Managers at those businesses also love that they can see the environmental impact they’re having through cutting out food waste, which Olio shares with them via bespoke quarterly impact reports.
Here’s what the team at Restaurant Associates had to say about working with Olio:
“Olio and its volunteers are great to work with. Volunteers are flexible and fit around our needs and those of our businesses. It’s great to see within our monthly reports the impact our surplus food donations are making to the wider community within the local area”.
Christina Benjamin, London Regional Manager
Restaurant Associates
Start working with Olio today
Are you a contract caterer? Or does your office have a catered canteen? Get in touch with Olio today to see how simple it is to share your surplus food with people in your community.