This page aims to collect information on already existing foodsharing and -saving projects around the world. The data presented here was collected by ourselves and contributed by active people from the mentioned initiatives. The order is based on the alphabet.
DENMARK - Foodsharing Copenhagen
Started by volunteers of Floating City, yunity and others in May 2016.
Public facebook group with >2500 members, hidden (secret) facebook group for active volunteers (>50 members)
Website for information and to sign up as foodsaver
Stores: big market, bakery and supermarket (on hold)
FRANCE - Nantes - DLC, Détournement Libre de Consommables
Clément and Chloé started around January 2016 a facebook group based on foodsharing.de's experience.
Community: 700 members on a public Facebook group (by 08/2016), without advertisement
Stores: 2 cooperating supermarkets, about 7 pickups a weeks with a lot of fruits and vegetables
Legal: registered as an association on the Loi 1901, costs 85€/year to insure active members. Haven't contacted the municipality directly. Active members sign a ''Charte'' manually.
Difficulties: getting more stores to cooperate. Have tried mostly supermarkets. A bit messy at first, as all volunteers were invited to go and ask stores without preparation. Will try from Sept. 2016 onwards to look for more stores with a more structured, professional approach. Law of Feb.2016 (supermarkets must try to give away their leftovers) : an association needs to be a charity and at least 2 years old to be eligible to receive the unsold food.
Tried to implement a different tool than Facebook but very few people transited to Slack and Trello.
How does it work? Members who want to become active pay a 5€ subscription to cover the costs of the association. About 25 active members. Each pick-up needs one active member and a car. They can choose to donate to a charity, put the food in a ''Boîte Utile'', 4 existing boxes in Nantes where people give and get all sorts of things for free (without a fridge, completely open in the streets), or redistribute. They often choose the later option and write on Facebook where they will redistribute, often at their home with fixed times.
They have a quiz but it is not compulsory. 2 trial pick-ups.
Interested to try out a basic software if it's in French.
NETHERLANDS - Amsterdam - Taste before you waste
not yet in contact
POLAND - Foodsharing Warsaw
Agnieszka and Karolina started around March 2016 a facebook group based on foodsharing.de's experience.
Community: 15 core people who meet every two weeks, only 1 verified foodsaver so far (because of a lack of cooperations) and around 30 more aspiring ones (by 09/2016). After 10-20 interviews for different media in May they now get contacted by people all over Poland and other cities already started foodsharing initiatives as well.
Food Share Points: 3 fridges, soon 4 (by 09/2016). They call them 'Jadłodzielnia' (from 'jadło' - the fodder + 'dzielić' - to share + '-nia' - marks a location). Are used by the people, but sometimes empty.
Stores: The most lacking part so far. No regular pick-ups, just spontaneous calls from a bakery, a chef-in-training, and a seafood store.
Legal: foodsharing Warszawa doesn't want to register as an organization, because as private individuals noone is liable for possible problems due to the FSPs.
Difficulties: getting more stores to cooperate. Will focus from Oct. 2016 onwards to get regular cooperations. The Polish gift law, which makes the recipient of a gift pay 10% of its value to the state.
Solutions for handling the gift tax problem:
- First solution is clandestineness (The food is 'abandoned' and 'coincidentally' gets found by the foodsaver. Downside: Makes the cooperation inofficial and illegitimate.)
- Second solution is price reduction (where the store reduces the price to ridiculously small amounts and thus makes the tax almost non-existent. Downside: There still is money involved and the store has more work in accounting.)
- Third solution are tax-free amounts (If the value of the gifted items doesn't exceed a certain amount of money over some years, no tax needs to be paid. Downside: Work in accounting.)
How does it work? Extensive use of facebook:
Fanpage with 2246 likes (by 09/2016) https://www.facebook.com/FoodsharingWarszawa/
A closed group for the orgateam consisting of 14 people (by 09/2016)
A secret group for foodsavers, consisting of ca. 30 people (by 09/16)
A closed group for private foodsharing, dumster diving and freeganism, which already existed before, with 2069 members (by 09/2016)
A closed group for connecting organizations that have food with those who need it with 13 members (by 09/2016)
A closed group to coordinate the expansion of foodsharing to other Polish cities with 26 members (by 09/2016)
They have no quiz. 3 trial pick-ups are needed to become a verified foodsaver, two meetings must be visited to get the password to the orga-googledrive. On that drive there are spreadsheets about FSPs, pick-ups and verified and aspiring foodsavers, meeting minutes, a general rules sheet, flyers and posters, also to approach stores and basically everything they work on. The googledrive is like the office of foodsharing Warsaw, and who has the password is part of the orgateam.
Still dreaming of translating foodsharing.de. Interested to try out a basic software. Already thinking about building an app for themselves.
RUSSIA - Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar
not in close contact
SCOTLAND - Foodsharing Edinburgh
tbw
SWEDEN - Uppsala - Livsmedela
not in close contact
TAIWAN - Taipei - Foodsharing Taiwan
Stefan started around April 2016 a facebook group (FB page with 780 likes (by 10/2016)) based on foodsharing.de's experience.
Community: Stefan is the only core person (from 04/16 to 08/16 he got help from a Taiwanese friend), about 15 Foodsaver who pick up food daily, lots of volunteers ask to help. After interviews for different media they got a lot of contacts, but nothing concrete followed, also because it’s very hard to coordinate the whole project with 1-2 core people.
Food Share Points: 1 fridge and shelf since August 2016. They named it享食站 - Food Hub. It's frequently used by the people, but sometimes empty. A foundation contacted them to donate lots of fridges, but as they aren’t a legal organization, things are not that easy and they don’t have the time to handle this at the moment.
Stores: One bakery (pick-up every day) and one restaurant (pick-up every two days) (10/2016). They call them half an hour before they close, to ask if they have food or not. Every shop has its own facebook group to coordinate everything, using a googledocs file as a calendar to sign in for the pick-ups.
Legal: They have a legal arrangement, according to the Taiwanese law. Foodsharing and the Food Hubs are separated projects, so that it is not guaranteed that the food in the fridges comes from the food from the stores. To get funds and share the legal risk Stefan would like to found or join a legal organization, as at the moment everything happens in his name.
Difficulties: Getting more active support from people (beyond picking up food), getting people who are reliable, engaged, identify with and understand the idea of such a project and behave that way, smooth pick-ups with a nice manner and in time, getting people who look for new cooperations (they went to a bunch of fruit shops already) and sites to set up public fridges, getting more stores to cooperate, getting more publicity, spread the word of foodsharing, networking with other groups, maybe turn into an legal organization and apply for funding
They use IDs, people apply for ID by email, and afterwards Stefan meets them to sign the legal arrangements and hands the ID over. They don’t have a quiz, nor trial pick-ups. Stefan tries to explain the concept in person when he meets the people.
Plans:
As Stefan leaves Taiwan in December 2016 he wants to make sure Foodsharing Taiwan persists in his absence, therefore he thinks it might be a good idea to get the support of a bigger legal organization that might be willing to take the project under its patronage. He is currently (10/2016) looking for such a possibility,
Have a foodsharing event to bring people together and give a presentation on the concept,
Have a platform (webpage, app) in Chinese language.
