Mainz is a nice city of approx. 200.000 people in the south-west of Germany with a very active and friendly foodsharing community. Kristijan Miklobusec shared the review of what happened in 2016 in this model community. The following can be seen 1) as a template of how to write an annual report, 2) as a list of things foodsharing communities can do and 3) as an inspiring story of success.
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For starters have a look at these figures and facts to get a quick overview of what happened with foodsharing in Mainz in the year 2016. More detailed descriptions of the various events follow further down.
New foodsavers
Approx. 100 new foodsavers registered in 2016 in Mainz.
New cooperations
We sought the attention of 28 new businesses, of which
- 17 are now cooperating with us.
- 1 is still negotiating with us.
- 6 give their surplus to food banks and don't throw away anything.
- 1 has closed.
- 1 doesn't want to cooperate.
- 2 could not be contacted yet.
Pick-ups
7.313 pick-ups have been carried out in total.
Active foodsavers
228 foodsavers have been involved in these pick-ups.
Amounts of food saved
13.543 kg of food have been saved.
Food-Share Points
6 FSPs exist in Mainz.
Orga meet-ups
We had 11 meetings and there are minutes for all of them.
Brunch
On 51 Saturdays there was a Brunch, always at Cronopios, Zanggasse 21.
Events for community building
- Two foodsavers from Mainz attended the big foodsharing festival in Berlin. (August)
- We held a workshop on how to preserve food by cooking and pickling it. (November)
- We have an active campus group! Whoever is interested in participating can contact Natalie under email@example.org
- We came together to make cookies, nut slices and various other baked goods to then gift them to the businesses cooperating with us. While being together we also made jams and pickles.
- For a limited time the new film by Valentin Thurn "10 Billion - How can we all get fed?" was available online for free. A small group gathered at Kristijan's place to watch it together. Thanks to Sebastian, Florian and Natalie for a nice evening!
PR actions
Actions and events, in which foodsavers from Mainz took part to raise awareness for food waste and promote foodsharing.
at events:
- Streetfood festival (April)
- Summer celebration of the students' union executive committee (July)
- Veggienale (October)
at music festivals:
- Open Ohr (May)
- Hurricane (June)
- Tropen Tango (August)
- Chiemsee Reggae Summer (August)
in Mainz:
- "Taste the waste" got publicly screened twice (once at Café Awake and once at Johannes Gutenberg University)
- Foodsharing Mainz got its very own flyer! Thanks to Katharina A. who designed it and the campus group for taking care of financing the printing.
- Kristijan held a presentation about foodsharing at a Viva con Agua gathering in April.
Press
A whole lot of different reports and interviews (all in German):
Special events
- Harvesting actions
- Celebration of cultures
- Distribution of fairtrade chocolate
- Foodsaving at the Christmas market
- Remarkable new cooperation: University canteens
- Book'n'Drive sponsoring
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Brunch
In 2016 the foodsharing brunch took place 51 times, that equals 98% of all Saturdays. The brunch is an opportunity to come together with the most different kinds of people, regardless of social status. People can meet in an open space, meet fellow foodsavers, have nice talks and enjoy saved food. The guiding principle is "bring your surplus, take what you need" and we encourage everyone to take part, bring their friends and strengthen the bonds of our local foodsharing community.
Simply come over and spend a pleasant morning with us! If you have open or saved food left over from the week you can bring it and it will be shared with everyone, like everything else. Of course you can also come to ask whatever question you may have on your mind with regards to foodsharing! Or just to save some food.
Community building
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Many thanks to Elke, who was our pickling master, to Denis, for realizing this idea, to the Pfarrer Landvogt Hilfe, for letting us use their space and to the cooperating businesses, who made it possible for us to host such an event by donating their left-over food.
Founding of the campus group
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We met in Kristijan's shared flat to make 10-12 trays of cookies and mayn jars of pumpkin jam, which were gifted to some of our cooperating businesses afterwards. Almost all of the ingerients could be saved through foodsharing, so that we only needed to buy some eggs and some foil for packaging. It was a very fun event and the stores really appreciated this way of saying thanks for this last year of good cooperations!
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PR actions
Raising awareness is a big part of foodsharing! We did so with info stands, movie screenings, creating info material and holding a presentation.
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For two days we had a booth at the streetfood festival in Halle 45. Thanks to the organizer's support we could show lots of saved fruits and veggies and by that raise awareness for all the perfectly fine food that gets thrown away on a daily basis. Many thanks to Thomas and Carina E. for providing the food and to Verena E., Marlene N., Denis S., Julia B. and Kristijan M for manning the booth.
Summer celebration of the students' union executive committee
At this summer celebration we had an info stand and presented saved food again. The public was very interested and we distributed many flyers and gave out big amounts of food, mainly cake, chocolate, cookies, bread, fruits and vegetables. Many thanks to Thomas and Carina E. for providing the food and to Denis S., Verena E., Natalie N., Florian N. and Stephanie R. for taking care of the stand.
Veggienale
The last big PR event of the year for us was the Veggienale, where we participated with a booth for two days. As always, we had lots of food in our booth to give people a glimpse of the waste that is happening all around us, as well as to show them what we can already to with foodsharing to counter it. Many thanks to Thomas and Carina E. for providing the food and to Urs S., Natalie N., Verena E., Kristijan M, Melanie H. and Stephanie R. for manning the booth.
Music festivals
(tbw)
Movie screenings
In December we screened the movie 'Taste the waste', one time at the University and one time at Café Awake. The documentary made by Valentin Thurn shows drastic pictures of how much food gets wasted in our society, as well as pointing out the reasons why. The screenings were followed by lively discussions about food waste and we informed the audiences about our work with foodsharing. Both times many people (approx. 80) gathered to watch the film and discuss with us. Thanks to Thomas and Carina E. For bringing food, and to Denis B., Verena E. and Natalie N. for organizing.
Flyer
In Spring we designed custom flyers for our city! All relevant information about how to join foodsharing.de, the locations of our Fair-Share Points, when and where we hold our brunch, as well as facts and figures regarding food waste and some success stories from Mainz can be read on them. Many thanks to Katharina A. and Julia B., who helped a lot with the creation of these nice and informative pieces!
Presentation at VcA gathering
When supporting the Viva con Agua gathering with saved food, we took the chance to also inform the people there about our work with foodsharing. Kristijan planned to talk for half an hour, but due to the huge interest the presentation took two hours in the end and included lots of questions and discussions.
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Special events
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Thanks to Julia B. we were able to convince a farmer in the neighboring region Main-Taunus-Kreis to let us save the pumpkins, which were left on the field after the harvest. If we hadn't collected them they would have been shredded.
Potatoes
Huuuge amounts of potatoes could be saved from a farm in Undenheim: We came multiple times to collect at least 12 tons of potatoes! Afterwards we distributed them in Mainz, Alzey and Kostheim. Thanks to Carina and Thomas E., as well as to Marlene N., for making this possible!
Celebration of cultures
Some of the organizers of the celebration thought of us and brought their left-over food to us after the event, without us having to ask! We then prepared it together with a professional chef at Cronopios, ate and enjoyed this very tasty foodsaving action.
Distribution of fairtrade chocolate
In June we participated in a very special distribution: The French label Ethiquable cooperated with foodsharing communities in six cities to raise awareness for the unclear and questionable best before date by providing us with more than 600 bars of fairtrade chocolate with ginger and flax seeds.
Foodsharing Mainz distributed them - always together with one flyer - in different locations on a nice and sunny Saturday and informed many people about food waste, foodsharing and what best before dates actually are. We had interesting discussions with people on the streets in Mainz and made many people happy with 'expired' chocolate.
Foodsaving at the Christmas market
Just like the years before, we cooperated with stands on the Christmas market to save the food, which wouldn't last over the winter break. When the Christmas market came to an end we were able to save large amounts of ingredients, as well as already prepared food from friendly and cooperative stall holders. We saved e.g. popcorn, many kilograms of sugarroasted almonds, different kinds of punch, cocoa, cakes, cookies, cookie dough, cut veggies, lots of oranges and other fruit, salads, schnitzels, sausages, fries, soups, sauces, baked goods and so much more. The food was distributed among the foodsavers, but also given to the Pfarrer-Landvogt-Hilfe, where it was distributed further on the next day. Thanks to Zohra G., Marlene N., Jürgen and Leila for organizing this!
Remarkable new cooperation: University canteens
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Thanks to foodsharing Darmstadt we were able to participate in an amazing donation campaign: We could benefit from Book'n'Drive car-sharing time that equals €400! We'll use this time for big pick-ups, where a car or even a van is needed. Many thanks to Book'n'Drive!
Support of refugees
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Schleiergewannweg 10 \ Im Zwetschenfeld), flexible opening times
HaMü-FSP
(Am Jugendwerk 20), fixed opening times
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