‘This has saved 725kgs of Co2 from entering the atmosphere, preventing 125,000 litres of water from going to waste’

Yeovil-based aerospace engineering company Leonardo has revealed that its collaboration with food donation company Olio has rescued hundreds of meals for families in Somerset.

The company, which was recently crowned ‘The Home of British Helicopters’, has offering a new route for community food supplies, donating excess food from its site in Yeovil, as well as in Basildon, Edinburgh, Luton and Southampton.

Since the start of the partnership in March 2023, the Leonardo site in Yeovil has rescued 400 meals, which have gone on to feed 51 families.

This has saved 725kgs of Co2 from entering the atmosphere, preventing 125,000 litres of water from going to waste. This is equivalent to planting 33 trees and taking 2,464 car miles off the road.

Mobile app Olio is a place where neighbours and local shops and cafes can share surplus food, so that local communities can benefit. Food-safety trained volunteers collect and check the food at the end of each day, then add it the app so that people living nearby can request it and pick it up.

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The scheme emerged when Tessa Clarke, Co-Founder and CEO of Olio realised she had perfectly edible food her family hadn’t managed to eat when she was moving home. It was from this moment that the idea for Olio was born.

Tessa said: “One-third of all the food produced each year gets thrown away, meanwhile 800 million people go to bed hungry each night, and the impact of food waste is environmentally devastating. If it were to be a country, it would be the third largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after the USA and China.”

Leonardo Sustainability Spokesperson Zevi Watmough told Somerset’s Alive!: “Olio allows families to access food privately for free, rather than relying on food banks in their local area.

“This private approach allows people to avoid any sense of stigma, which is particularly important when they are already going through a difficult time.

“We are grateful to Olio for the work that they do and we also value the fact that reducing food waste has the benefit of lowering the carbon footprint of our operations in the local community.”

Launched in 2015 with the sole purpose of tackling food waste, Olio now has more than 8.5 million users worldwide, and a UK network of over 97,000 Food Waste Heroes.  

If you would like to access the Olio App click here: https://olioapp.com/en/