{"id":5008,"date":"2026-09-01T20:32:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T20:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/?p=5008"},"modified":"2026-08-26T08:39:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T08:39:58","slug":"free-food-app-safety-net-at-uni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/olio-stories\/free-food-app-safety-net-at-uni\/","title":{"rendered":"How a free food app became Malikha&#8217;s financial safety net at uni"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malikha from York first came across Olio back in his hometown of Leicester, before he&#8217;d even started university. He used it to get surplus food locally, glad to be helping cut down on food waste. Once at university he got busy and hadn&#8217;t used it much, until a friend mentioned it again and he decided to jump back in properly and became a <a href=\"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/students\/student-volunteering-5-reasons-why-to-do-it-with-olio\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Food Waste Hero<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5009\" style=\"width:500px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-768x1024-1.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;When money&#8217;s tight, I rely on Olio to pick up core ingredients so I can still cook and bake proper meals from scratch. Veg for pasta bakes, potatoes for jacket potatoes, and ingredients for baking\u00a0so I can still make things like apple cake without breaking my budget.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malikha usually does surplus food collections from supermarkets like Lidl and Sainsbury&#8217;s, where the biggest surplus food collections tend to happen in his area, and he watches the app for community listings too. Those savings stretch past the weekly shop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;Beyond food, I&#8217;ve managed to pick up really useful household basics. Things like cleaning supplies, Tupperware (which is a lifesaver for my batch cooking), and even sometimes laundry pods or toiletries that other students give away when they&#8217;re moving out. It all really adds up and helps cut down on those hidden living costs.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Malikha tracks every penny. As an Accounting and Finance student at York University, he&#8217;s the kind of person who knows exactly where his money goes each month, and where he can keep more of it.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;Studying Accounting and Finance, I&#8217;ve become hyper-aware of where every penny goes. Olio essentially acts as a financial buffer. The money that would have been spent on basic groceries can stay in our accounts to help cover other expenses like rent and university materials.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Unfortunately, more and more students are struggling financially. More than a quarter of UK universities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hepi.ac.uk\/reports\/how-to-beat-a-cost-of-learning-crisis-universities-support-for-students\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now run a food bank<\/a>, and in Save the Student&#8217;s 2025 survey, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.savethestudent.org\/money\/surveys\/student-money-survey-2024-results.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">61% of students said they skip meals<\/a> to save money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s what pushed Malikha to do something about it on his own campus. As Events Secretary on the David Kato College student committee, Malikha helps run a pantry for students, stocked with food and everyday essentials that anyone can take.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-1-768x1024-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5010\" style=\"aspect-ratio:0.7503001200480192;object-fit:cover;width:500px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-1-768x1024-1.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-1-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-1-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1\/2026\/08\/image-1.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;Any best-before food that goes unrequested, plus anything spare from his Save Me collections he can&#8217;t use himself, he takes to the pantry so students can help themselves with free food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;It makes it incredibly easy for students who are just passing through campus, or attending an event, to simply grab what they need without any stigma. A lot of students are secretly struggling with the cost of living, so seeing someone realise they don&#8217;t have to skip a meal or stress over an empty cupboard for the next few days is really rewarding.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What does Olio mean to you?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8220;To me, Olio means a safety net. It takes the panic out of the current cost of living crisis and replaces it with a real sense of community sharing.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Malikha from York first came across Olio back in his hometown of Leicester, before he&#8217;d even started university. He used&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":3958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-olio-stories","category-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How a free food app became Malikha&#039;s financial safety net at uni - Olio | At Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Meet Malikha, a York student using Olio, the free food app, as a financial safety net, saving money on food other essentials.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/olioapp.com\/en\/olio-stories\/free-food-app-safety-net-at-uni\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a free food app became Malikha&#039;s financial safety net at uni - 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