Food Pride Turin

Every year, in Italy, the numbers of food waste increase, and the figures are staggering: every family throws almost 3 kg of food per month, especially vegetables, fruit and baked goods, for a total of 28 euros of wasted food alone. In one year, domestic food waste joins that of retail stores and large-scale retail trade to reach record numbers of 16 billion euros literally thrown in the trash.
Eight percent of wasted food comes from local markets and small businesses.

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Food waste is at the top of the waste pyramid, perceived as the most urgent and dramatic by Italians, and it is a problem that requires multiple joint, immediate, and multi-level solutions: one is precisely that of combating food waste, starting from local markets, food stalls, and small shop distribution. With this in mind, the Food Pride project, a container of experiences of anti-waste associations that have already been operating in the Turin area since 2012. After funding from the Compagnia di San Paolo, the volunteers managed to systematize and establish the presence of anti-waste delivery workers in the city.

A real network for the recovery of unsold food in so-called local shops, non-profit, which saves food destined for bins, unsold food, and surplus food and transforms it into still-good food for soup kitchens, leftover cooking workshops, and food projects for people in difficult conditions.

FOOD PRIDERS TURIN

All of this is made possible by the food angels, real riders like the pizza delivery guys who roam the streets of the Piedmontese capital on bicycles or cargo bikes, equipped with a spacious roof rack. This time, however, they don't deliver food; they ask for it and collect it: at markets after closing time and in small shops, collecting not only surplus food but also food close to its expiration date—that is, food that's unsellable but still edible. Without paying anything or making a cent.
The food priders, (union between the word riders and the English word pride which means pride(because the project's volunteers are incredibly proud to be part of it, and rightly so) give new life to products that were destined for waste, and the good practice of recovering what goes to waste can, with their contribution, become a practical aid in the fight against hunger. The food they collect is redistributed to people in need, for whom even a packet of pasta and a can of tomatoes can make a difference.

In the last year alone and only in Turin's Porta Palazzo market, almost 100,000 were recovered and redistributed. 60 tons of fruit and vegetables which otherwise would have ended up in landfill. A gesture that has allowed more than 200 people to be able to support their families.

TO KNOW MORE:Organic markets in Italy: a region-by-region map of where to buy from producer to consumer.

FOOD PRIDERS AGAINST FOOD WASTE

Pride, then, is also an acronym: an acronym that stands for Participate, Recover, Integrate, Distribute and Educate, and for this very reason the project does not intend to limit itself to road activity, by bike.

In collaboration with the City of Turin, with which it has been working for years to fully implement the Gadda law against food waste, local health authorities, and a long list of anti-poverty organizations, Food Pride and its priders' commitment to fighting food waste continues.
In fact, several initiatives are in the pipeline in schools and in the local area: in addition to the expansion beyond the Turin metropolitan beltThe idea is to organize real lessons that make kids reflect on conscious waste management. Or social dinners, street events, anti-waste cooking lessons Free donations for those experiencing financial hardship, to ensure that good practices spread like wildfire. So that food never ends up in the trash again.

(Featured image accompanying the text taken from the Facebook page of Food Pride Turin)

DON'T WASTE FOOD:

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