Saasha Celestial-One and Tessa Clarke: OLIO

OLIO is a free food sharing app that connects users with unwanted food with neighbours living nearby who would like it.

THE PROBLEM

Globally, 1/3 of all food produced is wasted; this is environmentally devastating and profoundly unsustainable. We have another 2.2 billion people joining the planet by 2050, and in order to feed everybody we need to increase global food production by >50%. Through taking a circular approach and re-using the food that we already have we can help solve three enormous problems: food waste, food poverty and climate change. Surprisingly, over half of all food waste takes place in the home & local community, and so OLIO tackles this problem by harnessing the power of mobile technology to connect neighbours to *share* food rather than bin it.

THE INNOVATION

OLIO is a free app that connects neighbours with each other and with local shops & cafes so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. Users simply snap a picture of their items and add them to OLIO. Neighbours then receive customised alerts and can request anything that takes their fancy. Pick-up takes place – often the same day – at the home or another agreed location. All listings on the app are available for free. We also have over 2,000 Food Waste Heroes (volunteers) who collect unsold food from local retailers, take it home, add it to the app, and redistribute it to the local community, thereby enabling those businesses to be zero food waste.

THE VISION

Build a global, scalable profitable and impactful business with over 1 billion users.