Just seven months ago Islander Elis Joudalova introduced Olio – a free app connecting people with businesses to save surplus food being wasted – to Jersey, and now 30 food outlets are signed up.
And from next month Miss Joudalova will be dedicating all her time to the cause, as she is leaving her full-time job in HR to ‘make a difference.’
Olio was launched in the UK in 2015. It works by volunteers, also known as Food Waste Heroes, collecting food past its best-before date but not after the use-by date from various food outlets.
The volunteers then post details of the items on the app and people are able to request what they want before collecting it from volunteers’ homes.
Miss Joudalova said: ‘We now have 5,300 people signed up to the app, which is fantastic. I also have 40 Food Waste Heroes who help me collect and distribute food.
‘The app is making people think about what they can do to limit the amount of food they are chucking away. People need to know how to experiment with different foods and try new things – Olio has been great for that.
‘We recorded all our food rescued in one week in November to get an idea of the current average and we collected 1,350 individual items, which was half a tonne of food.’
Earlier this month some of the team from the UK came to Jersey to meet Miss Joudalova and said they were impressed by what was happening here.
The UK team sent an email to 200,000 Olio users across the world telling them about Jersey’s success.
She said: ‘I would like to build on the success of Olio and take it further next year by working more closely with suppliers and businesses to help them reduce and avoid food waste in the first place, which will save them precious resources and decrease lost capital.
‘The overall aim is to reduce costs and increase profits to all parties involved while supporting the local community and preserving the environment.
‘I feel it is my time to make a difference.’
Miss Joudalova was due to meet the Education Minister to look at ways she can be involved with talks around waste and sustainability in Jersey schools. The Islander already has dates set for a talk at Jersey College for Girls and Le Rocquier.
She said: ‘The local authorities have expressed a strong interest to work with me towards the shared goal of creating a more sustainable Island, which I am very excited about.’
