Foodbusters: Volunteers who recover wasted food at events

Weddings, baptisms, first communions. But also corporate conventions and graduation parties. All of these events involve food waste: nearly a third of the food offered to attendees at these events promptly ends up in the garbage. This contributes to Italy's 13th place in the European food waste rankings, according to data from the Food Sustainability Index, with 65 kilograms of food wasted per capita every year.

The Foodbusters project, a nonprofit food recovery organization based in Ancona, focuses on this very issue—fighting waste through events. It's one of the first organizations in Italy to become an organized organization with widespread operations throughout the region. A group of women and men who are personally dedicated to the value of recovery and prevention of waste, they fight daily to save and recover surplus food. This creates not only a source of solidarity around food, but a true virtuous circle: what may seem like waste, discarded or unsold food, can become a nourishing resource, an opportunity for socialization, and a strong ethical commitment.

The project was born in Ancona in 2016, from the idea of ​​Diego Ciarloni and his wife Simona Paolella, who, together with a friend, Marcello Santalucia, decided to declare war on waste of foodFood recovery superheroes, whose missions focus primarily on the food thrown away at events: from weddings to corporate meetings, from birthdays to graduation parties. Paninis, sandwiches, tramezzini, pizzas, hot and ready-made food—it's a shame to let it end up in the trash. And, indeed, the figures for food waste intended for refreshments and social gatherings are staggering: kilos and kilos of food which, if put together, would allow us to feed 18 million people.

The Foodbusters are born, a fun play on the famous Ghostbusters movie. The ones being caught, however, are not ectoplasms, but 1822 meals, which are saved from the organic waste bin and transported, with the appropriate hygiene rules, to charities, family homes and 32 soup kitchens, within a few hours.

The food that is recovered from the food catcher It comes from three different supply chains: restaurants, hotels, and supermarkets, plus all private events that can collaborate with Foodbusters to recover unused food, becoming a fair-trade, waste-free event. A popular wedding and ceremony planning portal has even listed them as a recovery partner, giving anyone the opportunity to obtain it. their anti-waste service.

Foodbusters' strength is its organization: precise, punctual, and comprehensive. Every event Salvacibo participates in is tracked online in real time, from the moment the food is collected to its delivery to the nearest or designated charity.

(Featured image from the Foodbusters Onlus Facebook page)

Read also:

• Bari Social Food: People with Down's Syndrome Take Charge of Food Recovery
• The food we need: the ACLI project in Rome with the recovery of 200 kilos of products
• Don Gualtiero's soup kitchen: Michelin-starred chefs serve the poor.
• Unsold food: volunteers in Milan are recovering it, store by store.