Banter 41: Share more, Waste less,16Oct24, Harvey Mcgivern
Harvey introduces us to the Olio system, including phone app, for collecting and distributing free food that would otherwise go to waste
Video Timeline (min:sec):
00:00 - 14:00 Presentation
14:00 - 43:03 (end) Q & A
Presentation:
Meeting Summary
Oct 16, 2024 11:54 AM London ID: 834 5460 8536Quick recap
Discussion on the operations of a local organization that collects and distributes food waste, and the potential for partnerships and expansion.
Next steps
Peter to share Olio information in the East Coast Climate Action Network newsletter.
Graham to ask his MP about spreading awareness of Olio through parishes and local areas.
Harvey to create a generic newsletter copy about Olio for easy sharing by community groups.
Harvey to follow up with Olio about potential partnerships with existing community fridge initiatives.
Hilary to explore how Olio can supplement her community's existing food redistribution efforts.
Summary
Resolving Issues and Sharing Recent Achievements
The meeting began with Garry and Graham discussing some issues, which were later resolved. Mike joined the meeting late, apologizing for his absence due to his busy schedule. He mentioned that he had been working on two new assemblies, one in January and one in May, with the latter featuring a keynote speech by the Deputy Commissioner for future generations. Mike expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to present their work to others, which has generated excitement and interest. Graham suggested that Mike write an email detailing his recent achievements for their bid. The meeting then transitioned to Harvey, who was set to share his screen and discuss his topic.
Olio Partnership for Food Redistribution and Awareness
Harvey, a director of community works at a social enterprise, discussed the company's partnership with Olio, a free local sharing app that connects people to give away rather than throw away their spare food and other household items. Olio was founded by Tessa and Sasha, and the idea came from Tessa's experience of having to throw away food when moving back to the UK from Switzerland. Harvey highlighted the staggering statistics on food waste, which contributes to the climate crisis, and the need to redistribute this food to those who need it most. The partnership aims to raise awareness of Olio through various partnerships, including with brands, charities, and universities, and is currently in conversation with councils at the county level.
Olio's Evolution and Community Impact
Harvey discussed the evolution of Olio, a platform initially focused on reducing food waste but now expanded to include sharing of any household item. He highlighted the app's success, with 8 million users, 4 million in the UK, and 5 million items shared monthly, preventing an estimated 201,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Harvey emphasized the platform's role in strengthening communities, fostering new connections, and providing a sense of accomplishment in tackling the climate crisis. He also noted the app's ongoing trials of new features and partnerships with supermarkets.
Food Waste Heroes Program Expansion and Impact
Harvey discussed the major development of the Food Waste Heroes program by Oleo, a company that has been working with Tesco for three years. The program involves Oleo volunteers collecting food that is still good to eat but might go off, redistributing it through the Oleo app, and making it accessible to the local community. This initiative has expanded to include major supermarkets like Morrison's and Waitrose, and is now looking to help individual smaller businesses. Harvey also highlighted the positive impact of the program on the climate, businesses, and individuals, as well as its role in reducing the stigma associated with food banks.
Oleo Community Organization and Food Waste Reduction
Harvey discussed the work of Oleo, a community organization that aims to reduce food waste by redistributing surplus food to those in need. He highlighted the importance of word-of-mouth and partnerships with organizations like the Climate Coalition to spread awareness about the app and volunteer opportunities. Graham expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative and suggested targeting schools and trade unions to further spread the word. He also mentioned downloading the app and discovering numerous users in his area. Stuart, who had not previously heard of Oleo, expressed his interest and raised questions about the organization's work and potential for expansion.
Food Waste Collection and Distribution Challenges
Stuart and Harvey discussed the operations of a local organization that collects and distributes food waste. They noted that the organization's main challenge was increasing the supply of food, as demand was consistently met. Harvey mentioned that the organization would have a process for handling leftover food. The conversation also touched on the potential for distributing garden produce through the organization. Peter, who runs the East Coast Climate Action Network, expressed interest in using the organization's resources for his own newsletter, suggesting that he could use their content as a "ready-made news item". He also asked about the organization's relationship with Too Good To Go.
Exploring Food Waste Reduction Organizations and Roles
Harvey discussed the various organizations working towards similar goals, such as Too Good To Go, Fair Share, Neighborly, and Jeeve, which all aim to reduce food waste. He mentioned that these organizations often work together and that Olio, a platform he is involved with, has conversations with other organizations like Jeeve about potential partnerships. Harvey also clarified the roles of Olio ambassadors and volunteers, explaining that ambassadors spread the word about Olio, while volunteers undergo training to collect and redistribute food from stores like Tesco. He emphasized that Olio takes responsibility for the food once it leaves the store, ensuring proper training for volunteers to maintain food safety and health standards.
Private Company's Business Model and App
Harvey discussed the business model of a private company aiming to create massive scale and become profitable by 2030. The company's app is currently free for users, with a supported version allowing donations. Harvey clarified that the company's main source of income is from companies like Tesco, who pay to have their food redistributed through the app. The company is currently funded by venture capital and is not yet profitable. Peter raised a question about the company's business model when food waste collection becomes compulsory for local authorities, to which Harvey responded that the company's aim is to stop food waste by redistributing it before it becomes waste. Graham and Peter also discussed the need for a generic newsletter copy for easier sharing of the app. Hilary expressed uncertainty about her relevance in the group, mentioning her involvement in a climate action group.
Food Waste Management and Competition Strategies
Hilary and Harvey discussed the competition between their respective organizations, Gamlingay Climate Action Group and Olio, in the context of food waste management. Hilary's group operates a community fridge that collects food waste from local supermarkets and redistributes it to those in need. Harvey explained that Olio, a larger organization, also collects food waste but operates on a household-to-household basis. They discussed the potential for Olio to supplement the work of community fridges like Hilary's, but also acknowledged the challenges of competing with other organizations for food waste. They also touched on the sustainability of their respective models, with Hilary expressing doubts about Olio's long-term financial viability. Harvey mentioned that Olio is exploring new income streams, including advertising on their app.
Exploring Community Connections and Food Waste
Hilary expressed interest in a proposed model for connecting people in communities, which Harvey and Alex discussed. Tristram raised a question about food waste and sell-by dates, asking if volunteers were allowed to sell food beyond its sell-by date if they judged it still palatable. Harvey explained that the legal basis for this would depend on the terminology used, and that Oleo takes full responsibility for any food-related issues. Tristram also inquired about the process for food waste heroes, to which Harvey responded that he hadn't yet gone through the training but understood that it would involve stringent guidelines. Hilary followed up on tristram's question, noting that they often receive food from supermarkets that is close to its expiration date.
Managing Food Waste and Composting Process
Hilary discussed the process of collecting and managing food waste, emphasizing the importance of not giving out certain items and the need for responsible composting. Graham asked about the efficiency of their system in clearing food before it goes to waste, to which Harvey responded that Olio, a food waste app, has detailed numbers and that the demand for food is so high that most of it is cleared. Hilary also mentioned that they weigh everything that comes in and out, with a tiny fraction being waste. The conversation ended with Graham expressing uncertainty about next week's agenda and thanking Harvey for his participation.
Chat:
00:40:18 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: @Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group You are not too small
00:45:38 Mike E - HAy Resilience Initiative: Do you think that if they try and charge for the use of the App - that will work?
00:45:51 Mike E - HAy Resilience Initiative: It will work?
00:47:10 Graham Stoddart-Stones - Great Collaboration: @mike Eccles You can get rid of the advertisements on the app by paying a subscription!
00:48:25 Mike E - HAy Resilience Initiative: Reacted to "@mike Eccles You can..." with 👍
Speech-to-Text:
WEBVTT
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:35.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Good day, to you.
00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The way this works, Harvey, is that we um. We usually.
00:04:43.000 --> 00:04:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Chatter amongst ourselves for the 1st 5 min, because there's always people who are caught up on phone calls or their meetings over running or whatever.
00:04:52.000 --> 00:04:54.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, that's it's good that you.
00:04:53.000 --> 00:04:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: People. People's lives seem so busy nowadays. They just run from one meeting to the next.
00:04:58.000 --> 00:04:59.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:03.000 Stuart Withington: I think that's part of the problem with the online meetings.
00:05:03.000 --> 00:05:05.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah, they just.
00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:06.000 Stuart Withington: I mean previously, if you had a meeting.
00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:09.000 Stuart Withington: I don't know. 30 miles away a different hospital.
00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:12.000 Stuart Withington: That would be half the day taken out.
00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:16.000 Stuart Withington: But now you can have meeting after meeting, after meeting.
00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:18.000 Stuart Withington: And everyone knows where you are.
00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:20.000 tristram cary: Yeah.
00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:22.000 Stuart Withington: I mean, you used to be able to hide.
00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Stuart Withington: And.
00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Stuart Withington: I'm at a meeting in, you know, Northeast London, or something.
00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.000 Lindsey Newberry: Yeah.
00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:28.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah.
00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:32.000 Clare Cherry: The other thing is, we all assume that meetings should be.
00:05:32.000 --> 00:05:35.000 Clare Cherry: Half an hour long, or an hour long, or.
00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:38.000 Clare Cherry: 2 h long, when in actual facts.
00:05:38.000 --> 00:05:39.000 Clare Cherry: Meetings can quite often.
00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:42.000 Clare Cherry: Be very effective for 9 min or.
00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:53.000 Clare Cherry: 23 min, or, you know, at least 22 min or 20 min, so you can have 10 min between one and the other, and have a break, and have a drink and stretch, and whatever. But we just seem to go for the.
00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:55.000 Clare Cherry: Straight.
00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:56.000 Clare Cherry: You know the.
00:05:57.000 --> 00:05:58.000 Clare Cherry: Traditional bits.
00:05:58.000 --> 00:06:12.000 Harvey McGivern: Ohio, the company. I'm gonna talk to you guys about basically their founders only ever work in 15 min meeting blocks. But they seem to have 15 min meetings back to back to back. So they get like it's kind of the other extreme.
00:06:04.000 --> 00:06:05.000 Clare Cherry: Oh!
00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right.
00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:12.000 tristram cary: No.
00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay.
00:06:12.000 --> 00:06:15.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Claire, you're of um.
00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Will be familiar with John Cleese. You remember the meeting? Um videos that he used to do.
00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:21.000 Lindsey Newberry: No.
00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.000 Clare Cherry: 2. Yeah, the training one, the training video. Yeah.
00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:23.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And he would.
00:06:23.000 --> 00:06:29.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, exactly, and he would suggest that you can. He kept a bow and arrow handly for shooting people who went on too long.
00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:25.000 Clare Cherry: Yeah.
00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.000 Lindsey Newberry: Yeah.
00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:34.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I always thought that was very useful. I'm very sorry that never actually turned into practice.
00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:36.000 Clare Cherry: Okay.
00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:40.000 Clare Cherry: Maybe there should be a reaction on here.
00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:43.000 Clare Cherry: That somebody can send, saying, You know.
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:44.000 tristram cary: Shut up!
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.000 Clare Cherry: Shut up!
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's a very interesting point. Yes. What are the reactions? You can send lots of tears.
00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:53.000 Clare Cherry: Oh, that'd be a good one. Yeah.
00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:54.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Harvey McGivern: I look forward to seeing them, as, starting with.
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:55.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:02.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, we're making you nervous.
00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:07.000 Clare Cherry: Yeah, there's pretty well every icon that you can.
00:07:08.000 --> 00:07:10.000 tristram cary: Yes, I've never seen that before.
00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:13.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah. Why don't you just choose your your wishes?
00:07:14.000 --> 00:07:23.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um whilst we're waiting. I just point out to people um the opportunity to rename themselves for this meeting to at least give us indication of.
00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:27.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Where you're from, or who you're representing, or anything you're interested.
00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: To this. I'm just gonna change mine.
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:33.000 tristram cary: Because I don't like changing it, because then I forget to change it back.
00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:36.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But is it a handy.
00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:36.000 tristram cary: Right there.
00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:37.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.
00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:42.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Box, you can tick to get it, to rename it or not to rename it for future.
00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:43.000 tristram cary: Kind of.
00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:47.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But, on the other hand, I found it completely ignores that.
00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:47.000 tristram cary: Yeah, there's a.
00:07:47.000 --> 00:07:48.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It's never, actually.
00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Managed to remember my name from one meeting to the next.
00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:52.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Good. Thank you very much.
00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:55.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So.
00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:55.000 tristram cary: This is.
00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:59.000 tristram cary: There's quite a good reaction, which is a big Red Cross.
00:07:59.000 --> 00:08:02.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Oh, Stephen, yes, Stephen Orton. Yes.
00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: It reminds you of the buzzer on Britain's got talent.
00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:07.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: It's hang on a minute. It is.
00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:08.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Oh!
00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:09.000 tristram cary: It is.
00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:10.000 tristram cary: Very well. That's the reaction.
00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:11.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Every day.
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:13.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thank you.
00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:15.000 tristram cary: How do I get rid of it? Huh?
00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:14.000 Clare Cherry: Mhm.
00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:16.000 tristram cary: Oh, yeah, there we go.
00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:16.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oh!
00:08:19.000 --> 00:08:22.000 tristram cary: So, Harvey, I'll have that ready for you if you wish around too much.
00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, I'll I'll keep my eye looking out for it.
00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:27.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: That um!
00:08:26.000 --> 00:08:33.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, let me just catch up with later arrivals. Good afternoon, Peter Hilary. Mike Gary.
00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:30.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Let me know that.
00:08:35.000 --> 00:08:39.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And somebody is being very noisy. Who's that?
00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:50.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Give me 2 min.
00:08:45.000 --> 00:08:46.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Who needs music?
00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And just muting people until they shut up.
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, yeah.
00:08:51.000 --> 00:08:52.000 Garry Ford - Corsham Town Council: Alright! No worries. I'll go ahead.
00:09:00.000 --> 00:09:03.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Right. We'll give another 90 seconds to the late arrivals.
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:06.000 Mike Eccles: Hi! Everybody!
00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:07.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Mike. Good good afternoon, Mike.
00:09:08.000 --> 00:09:11.000 Mike Eccles: Sorry I've not been present.
00:09:11.000 --> 00:09:12.000 Mike Eccles: Recently.
00:09:12.000 --> 00:09:15.000 Mike Eccles: I've been, as you could imagine, rather busy.
00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:19.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, I didn't know. Did that lovely Lady Katie Club get in touch with you?
00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:16.000 Mike Eccles: We know.
00:09:19.000 --> 00:09:24.000 Mike Eccles: Well, she didn't. But but um! Um! I'm gonna follow that up so uh.
00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:28.000 Mike Eccles: Um. I definitely will respond to that.
00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:29.000 Mike Eccles: I just.
00:09:29.000 --> 00:09:31.000 Mike Eccles: Got 2 grog applications in.
00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.000 Mike Eccles: And I've been um.
00:09:33.000 --> 00:09:37.000 Mike Eccles: Absolutely up to my eyes, doing all of that. And.
00:09:37.000 --> 00:09:42.000 Mike Eccles: We now have 2 dates for 2 new assemblies, one in January and one in May.
00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:46.000 Mike Eccles: And the one in May is the well-being assembly and the.
00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:51.000 Mike Eccles: Deputy Commissioner for future generations is coming to that and giving a keynote speech.
00:09:49.000 --> 00:09:50.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Woo.
00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Mike Eccles: So.
00:09:51.000 --> 00:09:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well done!
00:09:52.000 --> 00:09:56.000 Mike Eccles: We're getting the support that we need at long last.
00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.000 Mike Eccles: I think we've made a breakthrough, and frankly, the presentation that I did for you.
00:10:01.000 --> 00:10:03.000 Mike Eccles: Has a a.
00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:05.000 Mike Eccles: Really got an awful lot of people.
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.000 Mike Eccles: Excited about what we're doing, because I.
00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:10.000 Mike Eccles: Tell them to go and listen to it, and.
00:10:10.000 --> 00:10:12.000 Mike Eccles: And that's.
00:10:11.000 --> 00:10:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But.
00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:18.000 Mike Eccles: That's the easiest way for me to be able to communicate to them what what we've been doing. So thank you very.
00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:18.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: But that's.
00:10:18.000 --> 00:10:21.000 Mike Eccles: Giving me that opportunity. Graham is fantastic.
00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:31.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's great news. Now we'll put that into our bid. We're also bidding for money at the moment, and to hear that we're having this sort of effect would be magic.
00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:37.000 Mike Eccles: Uh yeah. Well, if you want me to write something, tell me what what you want me to say, and I'll say if if you need that, or you can.
00:10:36.000 --> 00:10:45.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I think there's a term called expression of interest or something. But if you can, yeah, just an email saying exactly what you've just said would be wonderful.
00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:48.000 Mike Eccles: Okay. I'll do that after we finish.
00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:49.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: You're very kind, Mike. Thank you.
00:10:49.000 --> 00:10:50.000 Mike Eccles: Well, thank you.
00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Okay. Well, we've reached a magical number of 5 min late. So I'm going to say that those who aren't here yet will have to suffer.
00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:02.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um good day to you all, and welcome to yet another.
00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Of our endless sessions.
00:11:04.000 --> 00:11:05.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.
00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:14.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And with great pleasure I'm gonna pass the buck over to Harvey and ask him to do the introduction and what he's gonna talk about, and to press on with it, and uh.
00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:25.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Please do afterwards. Use your raise hands buttons if you need to get going in the question and answer session. But I'm sure we'll we'll get to that. So all yours, Harvey. Thank you.
00:11:25.000 --> 00:11:29.000 Harvey McGivern: Perfect. Thank you very much, Graham. I'm just gonna share my screen.
00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:32.000 Harvey McGivern: Can you all see that.
00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:35.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, cool. Perfect.
00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:56.000 Harvey McGivern: Um cool. So I'm Harvey Mcgiven. I'm a director of community works. Um, we're a social enterprise, working on a number of different projects. Um, all looking at kind of strengthening communities and accelerating low carbon economies across the Uk. My colleague at Alex actually spoke to you guys in June about another one of our projects. We're working on.
00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:13.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, we work on various things. Um together. Um, basically. What I'm going to speak to you today about is a company called Olio um. So, Oleo, we've kind of been doing some work with for the past 6 months. Um, some of you might have heard of Oleo, but I'm sure lots of you won't have.
00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:23.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. And it's basically a free local sharing app which connects people with their neighbors so they can give away rather than throw away their spare food and other household items.
00:12:24.000 --> 00:12:43.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. I've personally been a big fan of Odeo for the last 6 years. Um! And over the last 6 months we've been helping them raise awareness through a number of different partnerships. So these have been with brands, charities, organizations tackling the climate crisis universities. So we're looking at doing a Pilot, with University of Suffolk.
00:12:43.000 --> 00:13:04.000 Harvey McGivern: Um just kind of raise awareness through for all their students. But also, how do we then look at doing that? For all the universities in the country. Um, and then councils at the moment the conversations we're having today is councils at the county level. So on a number of other projects. We've worked on. Um, that we've partnered with Essex, Kent, Suffolk County Councils.
00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:09.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. And so we're speaking to them about kind of raising awareness of Oleo within their.
00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:29.000 Harvey McGivern: Um counties um, but also like their climate change networks with other local authorities. Um, but it's kind of really at the individual level that this matters. And so it's kind of great to speak to you guys at that kind of parish and town council level. Um, where you have kind of direct connection with people in the local community.
00:13:33.000 --> 00:13:41.000 Harvey McGivern: So earlier, was basically founded by Tessa and Sasha um earlier a startup. But they've been going for 8 years now.
00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:43.000 Harvey McGivern: Um! And the idea for Oleo.
00:13:43.000 --> 00:13:44.000 Harvey McGivern: Came.
00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.000 Harvey McGivern: Oh, yeah.
00:13:45.000 --> 00:13:52.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Could you switch into slide mode, please, Harvey, at the moment we're seeing all of your um Powerpoint stuff.
00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:55.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, it can.
00:13:53.000 --> 00:13:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: If you go back to say from the current side on the whatever it is, yeah.
00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.000 Harvey McGivern: I think the issue is, it will.
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:04.000 Harvey McGivern: It will remove my notes. Is that a problem? If I do it like that?
00:14:07.000 --> 00:14:11.000 Harvey McGivern: Oh, is that? Is that okay? Doing it this way? Sorry.
00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:12.000 Harvey McGivern: Otherwise I can't see my notes.
00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, so I can't hear any of you. You're all on mute, but I'll take it.
00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:18.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Fair enough. Yeah, no, that's fine. Thank you.
00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:19.000 Harvey McGivern: Thank you.
00:14:19.000 --> 00:14:23.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. So earlier. It was founded by Tessa and Sasha.
00:14:23.000 --> 00:14:24.000 Harvey McGivern: Um.
00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:35.000 Harvey McGivern: They? So the idea for Olio came from Tessa was moving back to the Uk. From Switzerland. She had a load of food that she basically was.
00:14:35.000 --> 00:14:37.000 Harvey McGivern: Told by the removal people she couldn't take with her.
00:14:37.000 --> 00:14:47.000 Harvey McGivern: And so the idea of throwing this food away. She's a farmer's daughter was just inconceivable to her, so she kind of set off down the road, trying to give away this food.
00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:54.000 Harvey McGivern: But at the time there was no kind of way of doing this, and if you knock on someone's door randomly trying to give them food. They think you're a crazy person.
00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:09.000 Harvey McGivern: So there was no kind of way of doing this, and ultimately she wasn't able to give away the food. What she ended up doing was sneaking it back into in her luggage and taking it back with her that way. But that was where kind of the idea, for Oleo came from.
00:15:09.000 --> 00:15:33.000 Harvey McGivern: When she got back to the Uk she kind of looked into the stats on food waste and found out they were fairly staggering. So basically, just to give you a few of them. So a 3rd of all food produced ends up going to waste. And most of this is perfectly good to be eaten at the time it's thrown away. 8 to 10% of global greenhouse emissions comes from food that's not consumed.
00:15:33.000 --> 00:15:45.000 Harvey McGivern: And at the same time as this, within the Uk, we have 11 million people that have experienced food, insecurity, and 4 million children start the day hungry because they don't have enough food to eat.
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:53.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. So this was where she teamed up with Sasha. And it was this idea around, how do you take this food that people are just.
00:15:53.000 --> 00:16:00.000 Harvey McGivern: Throwing away that is contributing to the climate crisis and redistribute it so that people who need it most can come and collect it.
00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.000 Harvey McGivern: Ah! Do do so.
00:16:05.000 --> 00:16:19.000 Harvey McGivern: Basically, when earlier 1st launched, it was just the idea was always around food waste sharing food. Um, and 50% of all food waste takes place within the home. So it's how do you create the ability for households to share with each other?
00:16:19.000 --> 00:16:23.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. This is now evolved into.
00:16:23.000 --> 00:16:31.000 Harvey McGivern: Giving away basically any household item or anything that's going to waste or is going to be chucked away, but can be given a second life with someone else.
00:16:31.000 --> 00:16:33.000 Harvey McGivern: Um and.
00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:52.000 Harvey McGivern: How that kind of evolved was. Basically, people were putting other stuff on the app all the time, and they were having to take it down because they were just seen as a food waste app um. But ultimately it was like, well, this is a major problem in itself. So how do we expand out so that now people can share anything they want on Ohio, um! And people can come and collect it from them.
00:16:53.000 --> 00:16:59.000 Harvey McGivern: There's also other things. They're constantly trialing new things. Um uh, like they.
00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:05.000 Harvey McGivern: Have various deal sections, this kind of things they've teamed up with um, supermarkets, that kind of stuff.
00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:15.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, but there's also a borrow section, so that people um within the app can. For basically, if, like neighbors have lawn mowers, tools, this kind of thing.
00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.000 Harvey McGivern: One of the thing I find crazy is there's like 20 streets on this house.
00:17:19.000 --> 00:17:34.000 Harvey McGivern: 20 houses on this street, and every single one of them has their own lawnmower that gets used about 3 or 4 times a summer. And it's like, just seems absolutely crazy that there's not some kind of sharing going on between the communities. Um, with those kind of things.
00:17:35.000 --> 00:17:36.000 Harvey McGivern: Um.
00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:44.000 Harvey McGivern: So to give you an idea of the scale. So basically, 8 million people have now joined Olio.
00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:51.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, 4 million of those are in the Uk. And approximately 5 million items are shared on Oleo each month.
00:17:52.000 --> 00:18:06.000 Harvey McGivern: And these collective actions have prevented an estimated 201,000 tonnes of Co. 2 emissions. So it's small individual actions. But when you group it together on a large scale, it can have a significant impact.
00:18:06.000 --> 00:18:07.000 Harvey McGivern: On the climate crisis.
00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:16.000 Harvey McGivern: So then, basically, the whole kind of concept behind earlier was about.
00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:35.000 Harvey McGivern: Strengthening communities and reconnecting people with their neighbors once again. And this leads to a number of other benefits. Well, people are making kind of new correct connections and friends. There's a lot of kind of mental health benefits, because people who have previously felt quite isolated within their communities. And now kind of.
00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:54.000 Harvey McGivern: Meeting new people through sharing through Oleo. And also it gives people a way to take immediate action on doing something on the climate crisis. The climate crisis feels overwhelming. It's like waiting for big businesses and government to do something about it. And there's so much kind of.
00:18:54.000 --> 00:19:00.000 Harvey McGivern: Talk about it. It's like, what can we do as an individual level? Well, this gives people a way to.
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:09.000 Harvey McGivern: Take immediate action, that then they kind of feel good, that they're contributing. Because when you look at grouping all those stats together, it does have a significant impact.
00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:24.000 Harvey McGivern: So another major development for Oleo was when they introduced the food waste heroes program. Um, so this was so. If we take, for example, Tesco.
00:19:24.000 --> 00:19:28.000 Harvey McGivern: They've worked with Tesco now for 3 years. Um! Previously.
00:19:28.000 --> 00:19:35.000 Harvey McGivern: Um Tesco's paid a waste company to come and take the food that was going to go off, and that food would be chucked away.
00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:42.000 Harvey McGivern: Now, what happens is an Olio volunteers. They've got a hundred 1,000 volunteers around the country.
00:19:42.000 --> 00:20:01.000 Harvey McGivern: An Oleo volunteer will go in to the supermarket, collect the food that is at that point, still perfectly good to be eaten, but might be going off. The next day the Oleo volunteer takes it back to their house and will redistribute it by the Oleo app. And people in the local community will come and collect that food.
00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:02.000 Harvey McGivern: So.
00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:23.000 Harvey McGivern: Basically, it's obviously a lot better for the climate, because that food is no longer being chucked. It's being um given away and consumed. Um. It's better for the individuals who can get access to fresh, free food um within the area. And it's obviously better for the businesses, because Tesco's no longer has to say, we're chucking this food. Um! They can show.
00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:31.000 Harvey McGivern: We're giving this food away. It's reducing this impact on the climate. And it's also going to these people in the local communities.
00:20:35.000 --> 00:20:46.000 Harvey McGivern: So yeah, this is just how it works. So like, I said, basically, so like, um, a member of staff at Tesco's will, prepare the food um set aside. An earlier volunteer. Usually volunteers will.
00:20:46.000 --> 00:21:08.000 Harvey McGivern: Either walk or cycle, and take some kind of trolley. They'll come and collect the food, take it back to their home, put it on the app, and the people then come and collect it, and earlier, will then produce a report for the business to show them kind of the impact it's had, but also testimonials from real people within the local communities who it has helped.
00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:17.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. They've worked with Tesco's 3 years, but ultimately, now they've pretty much got all the major supermarkets. Um.
00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:24.000 Harvey McGivern: Morrison's and Waitrose will be kind of announced later in the year. Same reason as they came on earlier this year.
00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:26.000 Harvey McGivern: And we're now looking at kind of.
00:21:26.000 --> 00:21:34.000 Harvey McGivern: Whilst it's expanding and getting more and more businesses. How do you also help um individual smaller businesses? So like one of the.
00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:36.000 Harvey McGivern: People I've been speaking to is.
00:21:37.000 --> 00:21:56.000 Harvey McGivern: Person who runs National Caterers Association. So it's lots of individual catering companies. I've previously worked in wedding photography. And you just see, kind of this huge amount of waste from these big events. So it's how do you um give the ability to take that food that would be chucked away or is going to waste, to be able to redistribute.
00:21:56.000 --> 00:21:58.000 Harvey McGivern: Um via the app basically.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:01.000 Harvey McGivern: Um.
00:22:01.000 --> 00:22:04.000 Harvey McGivern: So in terms of this is basically just uh.
00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:28.000 Harvey McGivern: In the 6 months I've been working with Oleo they send around a newsletter kind of to their staff each month, and it has just pages of all these kind of testimonials about people that are using the app. And it's helping a lot of it can be people who are struggling and need access to food, people who might be going to food banks. But there's kind of this stigma attached to food banks that it's seen as a handout.
00:22:29.000 --> 00:22:40.000 Harvey McGivern: Whereas Oleo, ultimately anyone can come and collect the food, and its primary aim is about tackling food waste and the climate crisis. So someone feels a lot less. Um.
00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:54.000 Harvey McGivern: Feels a lot better about getting food from Oleo than having to go to food banks and food banks can be kind of a downward spiral, whereas Oleo kind of is there to support people as they need it.
00:22:54.000 --> 00:23:11.000 Harvey McGivern: As and when and there's a lot more kind of choice on Oleo. There's been people who like there was one the other day who someone said that they had. HIV and their doctor recommended Oleo as a way to kind of get the variety of food they needed in their diet throughout that period.
00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:25.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. So then, how might parish councils and community members get involved? So earlier, basically have around 50,000 ambassadors already helping spread the word.
00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:33.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. When I say an ambassador, basically, it's someone who's gone onto the website signed up as an ambassador, downloaded the ambassador pack and share.
00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:37.000 Harvey McGivern: Um share earlier within their local community. Um.
00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:43.000 Harvey McGivern: They the they've tried lots of different things, and they've had kind of.
00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:44.000 Harvey McGivern: Um different ways of.
00:23:44.000 --> 00:23:54.000 Harvey McGivern: Trying to get the message out there. But ultimately word of mouth has throughout been the most powerful way of doing this, and still remains kind of the best way of getting the word out to people.
00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:58.000 Harvey McGivern: What we've been trying to do is kind of leverage.
00:23:58.000 --> 00:24:06.000 Harvey McGivern: Partnerships where so like an individual ambassador might go out and knock on 50 doors around their local community. It's like, How do we look at.
00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:10.000 Harvey McGivern: An organization. So we're speaking to um.
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:32.000 Harvey McGivern: The climate coalition which has, like world wildlife, federation, National Trust all these kind of people um, whereby they've got members who are obviously very interested in sustainability. So how does the Ambassador organization, such as the National Trust, share it with all their members? So that you're kind of each ambassador is getting it out there to more people and helping raise awareness quicker.
00:24:32.000 --> 00:24:35.000 Harvey McGivern: Um in that way. And that's basically the work we've been doing.
00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:45.000 Harvey McGivern: And then the one other thing to say is, whilst it's about kind of creating awareness of the app and getting people to sign up to the app.
00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. It's also making people aware of the opportunity to volunteer.
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:52.000 Harvey McGivern: As I said, they've already got 100,000 volunteers around the country.
00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:58.000 Harvey McGivern: They're bringing on new businesses all the time. Um, and so there's always opportunities to volunteer.
00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:06.000 Harvey McGivern: To be one of these food waste heroes. Basically, you go into a business, collect the food and redistribute it to those that need it within the community.
00:25:08.000 --> 00:25:11.000 Harvey McGivern: And that's it for me. So yeah.
00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:13.000 Harvey McGivern: Hope um.
00:25:13.000 --> 00:25:16.000 Harvey McGivern: Hope that was kind of clear, and, as I said, I've kind of.
00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.000 Harvey McGivern: I'm not from Oleo. I'm.
00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:23.000 Harvey McGivern: Uh community works. But we've been doing this work with Oleo. Um.
00:25:23.000 --> 00:25:26.000 Harvey McGivern: And yeah, happy to take any questions and hear your thoughts.
00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:37.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That was very inspiring, Harvey, a great story. Whilst you were talking I downloaded the app, and was astonished to discover there's 138 people around me.
00:25:38.000 --> 00:25:47.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um that I had no idea we're using earlier, or knew about earlier. So the word is is going to get spread, isn't it? I had a couple of questions about.
00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:51.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: The groups you're using to spread the word. I would have thought that children were a wonderful.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:56.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Target. You know, where you talk to Schools or the Boy Scouts, or something like that.
00:25:56.000 --> 00:26:00.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Just a thought, but I guess everyone has had those thoughts for you.
00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:08.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, absolutely. It's good that it's 1 where it's so like universities, for example, is another one where? Um again, it's.
00:26:08.000 --> 00:26:09.000 Harvey McGivern: Uh.
00:26:09.000 --> 00:26:13.000 Harvey McGivern: With schools. One of the things I've struggled with personally is like, How do you.
00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:22.000 Harvey McGivern: Rather than going to individual schools. For example, it's like, where are these organizations that you can kind of get it out to schools as efficiently as possible?
00:26:22.000 --> 00:26:23.000 Harvey McGivern: That is kind of like.
00:26:23.000 --> 00:26:27.000 Harvey McGivern: Oleo have a marketing team, but ultimately there, it's like.
00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.000 Harvey McGivern: Ah, the.
00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:44.000 Harvey McGivern: Constantly looking for new ways to do it. And it's where that can they put their resource in the best place possible. And so it's yeah trying to find a way that you could target schools, for example, that's going to get it out to as many schools as possible rather than having to go to individual schools. But you guys might know.
00:26:44.000 --> 00:26:47.000 Harvey McGivern: Organizations that can do that kind of thing.
00:26:46.000 --> 00:27:02.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Well, immediately one thinks of of the Trade unions, your National Union of Teachers, or the organizations like the Headmasters Association, whatever they're called, but they will get together several times a year, and you could spread the word very quickly that way. I would have thought.
00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:03.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes.
00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:03.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And.
00:27:03.000 --> 00:27:09.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And as an organize as a part of the world. That's just got a brand new Mp. Because.
00:27:09.000 --> 00:27:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: There was only one on the Isle of Wight beforehand. Now we have 2.
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So I wonder whether Mps are doing anything to spread the word through their parishes and.
00:27:13.000 --> 00:27:13.000 Harvey McGivern: Okay.
00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:19.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Areas.
00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:27.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I shall ask our Mp. Whether he knows anything about you, and just put it in with all my other complaints to him.
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:29.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes.
00:27:28.000 --> 00:27:30.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: About the lousy job he's doing.
00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:37.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Anyway. Let me pass on to other people, Stuart. You were the 1st to raise your hand. Please.
00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:42.000 Stuart Withington: Hi! Uh! Thanks for that. It's really interesting. Uh, I've never heard of them.
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:48.000 Stuart Withington: Uh. So to suddenly realize that there are 4 million people in the Uk.
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:43.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:27:48.000 --> 00:27:51.000 Stuart Withington: Involved in this, with a hundred 1,000 volunteers, is.
00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:52.000 Stuart Withington: But amazing.
00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:54.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes.
00:27:53.000 --> 00:27:57.000 Stuart Withington: Um, but it it did raise a few questions in my mind.
00:27:57.000 --> 00:27:58.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:01.000 Stuart Withington: Um. I I've done a little bit of work with the South Lakes.
00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:04.000 Stuart Withington: Climate Action group who run.
00:28:04.000 --> 00:28:05.000 Stuart Withington: Waste to welfare.
00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:07.000 Stuart Withington: And they.
00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:12.000 Stuart Withington: Collect um about to expire food from local supermarkets and shops.
00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:13.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:18.000 Stuart Withington: Um, and they run a community kitchen and a community cafe.
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:19.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:20.000 Stuart Withington: Uh they're they're sort of.
00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:23.000 Stuart Withington: Motto is, consume, cook or compost.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:27.000 Stuart Withington: Do the volunteers who collect all this? Um.
00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:24.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:29.000 Stuart Withington: About to expire food.
00:28:29.000 --> 00:28:32.000 Stuart Withington: Have a means of.
00:28:32.000 --> 00:28:37.000 Stuart Withington: Doing something with it if they can't uh get people to take it.
00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:41.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, so to date, basically, it hasn't.
00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:47.000 Harvey McGivern: Become an issue, because so at the moment the issue on Oleo, and where all their.
00:28:47.000 --> 00:28:55.000 Harvey McGivern: Work is going to is increasing supply of food on Oleo, because when food is put on Oleo, it's pretty much collected within 2 h.
00:28:55.000 --> 00:29:00.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. And it's there's not much that's not collected. Basically.
00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:06.000 Harvey McGivern: Um the food race heroes. They're allowed to keep kind of 10% of the food for themselves.
00:29:06.000 --> 00:29:08.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. But yes, it's.
00:29:08.000 --> 00:29:09.000 Harvey McGivern: Ah!
00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:12.000 Harvey McGivern: There's that's not been the issue to date, because.
00:29:13.000 --> 00:29:28.000 Harvey McGivern: As I said, it's the supply side rather than the demand side. There seems to have always been this demand that it will be collected and the food is always got, whereas what they want to do is increase the supply, because there's still that demand there for it. Um!
00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:31.000 Harvey McGivern: I don't know specifically what their.
00:29:31.000 --> 00:29:42.000 Harvey McGivern: Processes, for if someone does have food left over um. But knowing Oleo as I have over the past 6 months, they will have some process for that. That would no doubt be along those lines. I would have thought.
00:29:43.000 --> 00:29:46.000 Stuart Withington: Okay? And just a quick supplementary question.
00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:47.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:47.000 Stuart Withington: Um.
00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:50.000 Stuart Withington: Would it be useful for um.
00:29:50.000 --> 00:29:52.000 Stuart Withington: Distributing, garden produce.
00:29:52.000 --> 00:29:57.000 Stuart Withington: I mean, I currently have a glut of pears, apples uh.
00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:00.000 Stuart Withington: Squashes, tomatoes.
00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:01.000 Stuart Withington: Aubergines.
00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:14.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, very much. So 100. And basically I had a call 2 weeks ago with the Royal Horticultural Society about just that kind of thing. It's like people are. You often see a box outside a house.
00:30:14.000 --> 00:30:24.000 Harvey McGivern: Um with a load of cucumbers in, because people have a glut of cucumbers, whatever it is. Um, it's the perfect way to kind of distribute that um and get it out to people. Yes, completely.
00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:26.000 Stuart Withington: Excellent. I'm sold. Thank you.
00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:37.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Uh, so sorry, Peter, it's your turn big. Pardon.
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:38.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Yeah. Okay. Um.
00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:44.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Yeah, I mean, I I like it. I seem to be on your kind of mailing list. I must at some stage.
00:30:44.000 --> 00:30:45.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Um.
00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:52.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Got on it. One of the big questions I've got is, I mean, I've got a I run the East Coast Climate Action Network.
00:30:52.000 --> 00:30:55.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: I've got 400 plus people on our mailing list.
00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:58.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Do you already have um.
00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:01.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Almost like a ready made news item for me.
00:31:02.000 --> 00:31:16.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: In other words, can I have some nice pictures? Can I have it? The text all there? So all I have to do is to stick it into the newsletter to. I'm thinking that I'm going to Co. Invite people to become.
00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:19.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Um food waste champions.
00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:35.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Because it links in with my energy saving champions idea and my water saving champions idea, for which I wish to spread out into the 36 parishes, which consist of East Cambridgeshire.
00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:53.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: But you know, the biggest problem I have as a volunteer, and probably other people as well is is just having the time. Yeah. So you've got almost like an oven ready document, which actually, all I need to do is to copy and paste into a newsletter, which I do on a regular basis.
00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:54.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: That's great!
00:31:54.000 --> 00:32:09.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: If it requires anything more like searching your website for bits and pieces like that, that takes me time, and then it gets down, you know, goes down the list of priorities for me. That's kind of one question. The other thing is, how does this fit in with.
00:32:09.000 --> 00:32:11.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Um too good to go.
00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:14.000 Harvey McGivern: Um.
00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:18.000 Harvey McGivern: So on the too good to go point. So.
00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:20.000 Harvey McGivern: Too good to go. Um.
00:32:20.000 --> 00:32:26.000 Harvey McGivern: They do that. Basically, you pay. So they take some food and you buy it, or whatever.
00:32:26.000 --> 00:32:27.000 Harvey McGivern: Um.
00:32:27.000 --> 00:32:34.000 Harvey McGivern: They fit alongside each other as in both exist. There's there's other organizations like fair share.
00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:35.000 Harvey McGivern: Um and.
00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:38.000 Harvey McGivern: The neighborly. These kind of ones, which again, are kind of.
00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:54.000 Harvey McGivern: Um targeting business. So it's like, if a business or a community interest company wants to collect food from the supermarket, they would. We would, as Oleo recommend. They use fair share, because Olio is more about. It's got to be distributed from an individual household.
00:32:54.000 --> 00:32:58.000 Harvey McGivern: With all of these things. There's another one in France called.
00:32:58.000 --> 00:33:01.000 Harvey McGivern: Jeeve. That is more household items.
00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:05.000 Harvey McGivern: But ultimately, and there's like things like Facebook marketplace Freecycle. All of these.
00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:06.000 Harvey McGivern: That.
00:33:06.000 --> 00:33:20.000 Harvey McGivern: All kind of working in tandem to achieve the same mission as what earlier wants to achieve. So like with Sheave in France, we um. The earlier founders have conversations with them about, how can we partner together and do stuff together.
00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:22.000 Harvey McGivern: The 2, because they're slightly different.
00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:28.000 Harvey McGivern: Um too good to go, sits alongside Oleo in that. It's a different proposition for the supermarkets.
00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:39.000 Harvey McGivern: I don't know quite whether the supermarkets are using like Tesco, for example, are doing too good to go, and Oleo um. But as far as I understand. Um, several will be. I would have thought.
00:33:39.000 --> 00:33:42.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: You you actually mentioned that um.
00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:47.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Uh! You actually used the phrase. I think it was um.
00:33:47.000 --> 00:33:49.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Waste, hero.
00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:54.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Waste heroes or something like that, where people can go to to go to Tesco's.
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:58.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Pick up the um, the waste, and and then redistribute. It is.
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:04.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Um, I don't know. What's the phrase? Yeah. And how did that? How does that work with um?
00:33:58.000 --> 00:33:59.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:34:04.000 --> 00:34:05.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Um.
00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:24.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Yeah, with Tesco's, I'm thinking, in terms of how uh do they have to become an audio ambassador to do that? Um. And for that matter? What's the difference between audio Odeo volunteer and an audio ambassador? And and how do they then relate to collecting food? Tesco's etc?
00:34:24.000 --> 00:34:41.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, cool. So an Oleo ambassador is simply someone who's gone onto the website, downloaded the ambassador pack, which is like leaflets or posters and is spreading the word about Oleo to their local community. The food waste hero, which is the volunteer.
00:34:41.000 --> 00:34:56.000 Harvey McGivern: Is someone who's signed up to be a volunteer. They have to go through a proper training process. They have to check that. They've got the right fridge to store the food once they get it. All that kind of stuff, all the health and safety things.
00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:12.000 Harvey McGivern: Um! And then oh, you manage. There's like a team that manages all the volunteers. Um! And they will assign them where they're going on a given day to go and collect the food from a store um. They would then bring it back to their home.
00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:19.000 Harvey McGivern: And redistribute it. They put the food they've got from Tesco on the app, and people will come to their home and collect it from their home.
00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: And you provide free or audio provides free training courses.
00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:25.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: For these people.
00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:30.000 Harvey McGivern: Olio have to train every one of those volunteers from a food.
00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:32.000 Harvey McGivern: Safety perspective. So also from.
00:35:32.000 --> 00:35:38.000 Harvey McGivern: A health and safety perspective. Once the food leaves Tesco, it's Oleo who then.
00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:46.000 Harvey McGivern: Take on the responsibility of anything that happens with that food. So Olio is very careful about making sure that every volunteer is trained.
00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:50.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: And just what last point, what? What's the business model for.
00:35:47.000 --> 00:35:48.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, yeah.
00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:51.000 Harvey McGivern: Okay.
00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:53.000 Harvey McGivern: So basically.
00:35:53.000 --> 00:35:55.000 Harvey McGivern: They are a.
00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:01.000 Harvey McGivern: Private company, basically that they they looked at. I've read in depth about this because it comes up a lot.
00:36:01.000 --> 00:36:14.000 Harvey McGivern: But so they looked at charity community interest company. But ultimately they want to create massive scale. And the only way to really do this. Their aim is 1 billion only hours by 2030, which is ambitious.
00:36:14.000 --> 00:36:20.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. But uh! To. The only way to do this is to get private investment.
00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:25.000 Harvey McGivern: So they very much believers in profit for purpose, and they want to become profitable company.
00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:36.000 Harvey McGivern: They're nowhere near being profitable. Yet. So basically, the app is completely free for people to use. Although there is now a an earlier supported version where you.
00:36:36.000 --> 00:36:41.000 Harvey McGivern: You can donate almost on the app to give some money to Ellie if you want to.
00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:50.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: So just what? Just one last point, what's gonna happen when your isn't your business model gonna fall away when it becomes compulsory for local authorities to collect food, waste.
00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:43.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:55.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Or is that? Or is it really the stage before food waste? We're talking about.
00:36:56.000 --> 00:36:57.000 Harvey McGivern: Say that again. Sorry.
00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:04.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: So I was saying that I think it's 9 is 2026. All local authorities have to collect food waste.
00:36:57.000 --> 00:36:58.000 Harvey McGivern: Good.
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:18.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Now I think I'm probably um. What you're really doing is kind of pre food waste. In other words, the food which is usable is collected before it becomes food waste.
00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:20.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: So really answer my own question. There.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:21.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes.
00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:26.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, it is. And it's yeah. It's stopping food waste because you want to give it away before it becomes food waste.
00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:37.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. But the other thing on the business model is so their main source of income is. Tesco's, for example, would pay 3 years ago paid a waste company to come and chuck that food.
00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:40.000 Harvey McGivern: Tesco's now pay Olio to come and.
00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:40.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Okay.
00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:45.000 Harvey McGivern: Redistribute that food. So Tesco's are still paying the same amount of money, but that food is being.
00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.000 Harvey McGivern: Distributed in the local community rather than it being chucked away, but equally.
00:37:49.000 --> 00:37:52.000 Harvey McGivern: Oleo basically has venture capital funding.
00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:57.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. And at the moment they're running at about 30%.
00:37:57.000 --> 00:38:00.000 Harvey McGivern: Of their income. Kind of covers.
00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:06.000 Harvey McGivern: The running costs of Oleo. So it's it's moving towards profitability. But it's not there yet.
00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:10.000 Harvey McGivern: And it's going to be a long journey to get towards profitability, because ultimately everything.
00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:17.000 Harvey McGivern: Every time all the income is going towards trying to grow olio, to make it as big as possible.
00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:25.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. So the aim is to get to profit for purpose, but ultimately it's funded. The gap is funded by venture capital that isn't yet. There.
00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:27.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Great thanks.
00:38:27.000 --> 00:38:28.000 Harvey McGivern: No worries.
00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:29.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And.
00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:34.000 Harvey McGivern: Um one other sorry answer on your previous question. Your 1st question about being able to share it easily.
00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:41.000 Harvey McGivern: At the moment. There's the Ambassador pack and the stuff on the website. That is more, you'd have to go and download stuff and.
00:38:41.000 --> 00:38:43.000 Harvey McGivern: Kind of put it in together.
00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:45.000 Harvey McGivern: One thing I'm going to speak to earlier about.
00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:50.000 Harvey McGivern: And I'll come back to you guys on is almost just having that generic.
00:38:50.000 --> 00:39:02.000 Harvey McGivern: Newsletter copy, because at the moment we've kind of done it on an individual basis. So like we did one with feeding Britain last week. We're looking at World Horticultural Society and all of those, and it's kind of tailoring it to their audience because.
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:08.000 Harvey McGivern: They want it kind of tailored slightly, and it's looking at how that partnership works. But I agree, I think it needs for.
00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:15.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, like you guys to be able to just have a generic thing that you can copy and paste, because otherwise, as you say, it goes down the priority list.
00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:14.000 Peter Bates - East Cambridgeshire Climate Action Network: Yeah.
00:39:17.000 --> 00:39:20.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Thank you very much, Harvey. Hilary, would you like to go ahead? Please.
00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:23.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah, thanks. I'm.
00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:32.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: I'm I'm wondering whether I'm a sort of a bit a bit small to be to be part of this group. I'm I'm part of um.
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: A climate action group, which is a sub.
00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:40.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: It was sort of set up from a small parish council in Cambridgeshire, and um.
00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:42.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We've got.
00:39:42.000 --> 00:39:46.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: In our, in our community. We've got a project.
00:39:46.000 --> 00:39:52.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Which would, I suppose, be in direct competition with Olio. Actually, because we we um.
00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:56.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We have a community fridge.
00:39:56.000 --> 00:39:57.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: And um.
00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:17.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Need project based in Bedfordshire, which we act as a as a hub, for we've set up a project between. It was actually sort of organized between 2 churches, Baptist and Anglican churches in the village, and serves quite a wide area. People have to physically come to.
00:40:17.000 --> 00:40:19.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: The hub. It's open in.
00:40:19.000 --> 00:40:20.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Most.
00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:24.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Mornings, and some I think it's 1 afternoon.
00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:30.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: But we collect from local supermarkets, including Mark's and Spencer's in St. Net.
00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:32.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: And.
00:40:31.000 --> 00:40:31.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:40:32.000 --> 00:40:35.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We're already competing with other people.
00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um in terms of. We're not the only people picking um food.
00:40:39.000 --> 00:40:41.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Waste up from there.
00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:42.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:42.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um.
00:40:43.000 --> 00:40:53.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: And I'm I'm wondering about the sustainability of the the whole process. I mean, we're already finding that supermarkets are actually getting better at not wasting stuff.
00:40:53.000 --> 00:40:54.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We've got.
00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:04.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: You know, we're still saving lots of food waste through the community fridge side of things. And we also redistribute um local people's um.
00:41:04.000 --> 00:41:10.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Things that they they bring. You know the the allotment. People now know where we are, and so.
00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:12.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We we do.
00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:13.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Distribute.
00:41:13.000 --> 00:41:16.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Vegetables, and and so forth, as well.
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:19.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: But it's all a kind of first.st Come first.st Serve thing.
00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:17.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah.
00:41:19.000 --> 00:41:20.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um.
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:20.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: But if.
00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:43.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: The supermarkets we're dealing with, then go to somewhere like Oleo, because they think, Oh, well, that's this is, you know, it's a bigger organization, then we don't have this stuff to to distribute, which in one way is quite a good thing, because at least you know, the whole point about is, is avoiding waste. But we do have quite a few people now who rely on this as a means of of supplementing their income.
00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:44.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um. You know.
00:41:44.000 --> 00:41:52.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, absolutely. And so basically, I've had this conversation with so feeding Britain. I don't know if you know feeding Britain, they're kind of it all. They've got almost a thousand.
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:55.000 Harvey McGivern: Organizations that run kind of.
00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.000 Harvey McGivern: Front line, whether it's food, pantries, food, kitchens, these kind of stuff.
00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:22.000 Harvey McGivern: And I've had exactly that kind of conversation with them. It's more, how can Oleo supplement that basically one. So one of the things for them is. There's a lot of pressure on the food pantries to get the food and be able to provide it, and by being able to tell people about Oleo that come to the pantry. It releases some of the pressure and gives them access.
00:42:22.000 --> 00:42:31.000 Harvey McGivern: To food, because a lot of the food from Olio as well comes from individual households that are sharing it on Oleo as opposed to it, just coming from the supermarkets.
00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:33.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah, the community fridge does that, though.
00:42:33.000 --> 00:42:34.000 Harvey McGivern: From individual households.
00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:37.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Any anybody can bring things into the community. Fridge.
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:38.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes.
00:42:37.000 --> 00:42:40.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: It's, it's a, it's a national organization.
00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:48.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, but I imagine there's a so there's supplementary food on Oleo, for example, as well as what you guys are doing.
00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:51.000 Harvey McGivern: That if you, if those people also, went on Oleo.
00:42:51.000 --> 00:42:52.000 Harvey McGivern: Whilst you say it's.
00:42:52.000 --> 00:42:59.000 Harvey McGivern: People are relying on it. It gives another option as well as going to the community fridge. They might be able to get some food.
00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:56.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah.
00:42:59.000 --> 00:43:00.000 Harvey McGivern: On Oleo, as well.
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:01.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Hmm.
00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, and then in terms of the supermarket, so I don't know if.
00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:15.000 Harvey McGivern: Basically we had. This conversation with them is, is, could they almost be supplying the pantries from Oleo? And it didn't work. Basically, Oleo has to do household to household.
00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:18.000 Harvey McGivern: But so a fair share. I don't know if you guys use fair share.
00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:19.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: You.
00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:19.000 Harvey McGivern: Um.
00:43:19.000 --> 00:43:22.000 Harvey McGivern: Fair share. Neighborly are the 2 kind of.
00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:23.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Neighborly is.
00:43:22.000 --> 00:43:24.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, so.
00:43:23.000 --> 00:43:24.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: 1 min.
00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:31.000 Harvey McGivern: If you're a yeah business or a community organization, you can get food from the supermarkets through neighborly or fair share.
00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:25.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We like.
00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:33.000 Harvey McGivern: Um whereas.
00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:41.000 Harvey McGivern: And that's kind of, I guess, split out between Oleo and I don't know how that split quite works. But basically, when we're speaking to feeding Britain.
00:43:39.000 --> 00:43:39.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Hmm.
00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:43.000 Harvey McGivern: The Oleo co-founder is saying.
00:43:43.000 --> 00:43:47.000 Harvey McGivern: Like recommending that they go and speak to navy and fair share, because we can't.
00:43:47.000 --> 00:43:52.000 Harvey McGivern: Provide that service in terms of getting the food directly from the supermarket to their pantries.
00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:57.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, but the neighbourly and fair share can, as in that's the way for it to access.
00:43:57.000 --> 00:43:59.000 Harvey McGivern: But that within the.
00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:02.000 Harvey McGivern: Um feeding Britain pantries and all that kind of stuff.
00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:07.000 Harvey McGivern: And they've got lots of food deserts whereby there's no food kind of.
00:44:07.000 --> 00:44:10.000 Harvey McGivern: Within certain areas. It's, how do they get.
00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:16.000 Harvey McGivern: Potentially people to sign up as food waste heroes that can go a bit further afield and bring some of the Oleo food.
00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:27.000 Harvey McGivern: So within that local community. So it's yeah working out where there's crossovers and how it can provide an addition to and relieve some of the pressure on food banks and the pantries, and that kind of stuff.
00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:29.000 Harvey McGivern: Um as opposed to competing for it.
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:31.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah.
00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:37.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: I I must say I I'm I have my doubts about the business model in terms of being able to make it.
00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:37.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Work.
00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:39.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Financially in the long run.
00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:42.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um, because I think it it kind of.
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:44.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Could have done.
00:44:44.000 --> 00:44:48.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: A a little while ago, but it's going to be struggling because.
00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:53.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Everybody seems to be kind of getting onto this, and it doesn't in some places that you know there's no.
00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:56.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: People doing it for nothing rather than asking.
00:44:56.000 --> 00:44:58.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: You know, for a payment to do it.
00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:02.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, um.
00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:09.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, it could change, as in, I agree. Um, it's the main source of income for earlier at the moment. But they're constantly testing.
00:45:09.000 --> 00:45:12.000 Harvey McGivern: Um new ways of income streams. So they have.
00:45:12.000 --> 00:45:21.000 Harvey McGivern: 4 million people on the app. Well, 8 million but 4 million in the Uk. So they've recently introduced advertising on the app as a again, another income stream.
00:45:21.000 --> 00:45:27.000 Harvey McGivern: That they're testing. You have to be incredibly careful, because ultimately the Oleo community is built on trust, and it's.
00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:30.000 Harvey McGivern: Who are those people that are advertising.
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:38.000 Harvey McGivern: Um and annoying people with adverts is not a kind of a good business model in the sense of if it's gonna dissuade people from using the app.
00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:31.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah.
00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:39.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yep.
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:43.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Okay, well, I'm really, really interested. So I mean, so it.
00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:41.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's true.
00:45:43.000 --> 00:45:48.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: In, you know, it's in principle. It's a really good way of of getting putting people in touch. Thank you.
00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:51.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, just one. But it's it's also like.
00:45:51.000 --> 00:45:53.000 Harvey McGivern: And Alex my um!
00:45:53.000 --> 00:46:02.000 Harvey McGivern: Who I work with at community works. Again, it's like it doesn't necessarily Oleo isn't the solution in all areas. And actually, there are some areas.
00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:07.000 Harvey McGivern: That already do this incredibly well, because they've set it up in their local community.
00:46:07.000 --> 00:46:11.000 Harvey McGivern: As a way of doing it, and Alex has the same in his local community.
00:46:08.000 --> 00:46:09.000 tristram cary: Mhm.
00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:17.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. But ultimately it's, how do you take that model that is working so well in that smaller community.
00:46:17.000 --> 00:46:21.000 Harvey McGivern: And expanded out to all the communities, which is what earlier was kind of.
00:46:21.000 --> 00:46:22.000 Harvey McGivern: Providing.
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:24.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah, okay, thank you.
00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:25.000 Harvey McGivern: Anyways.
00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:27.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: This room. Please.
00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:33.000 tristram cary: Yes, um, Javi and Hilary. Actually, I'm I'm interested by in the question of sell, by dates.
00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:34.000 tristram cary: Is.
00:46:34.000 --> 00:46:57.000 tristram cary: Do you? I mean, I imagine there's a lot of food that's wasted, because when it hits the sell by date it has to be thrown away. So are you allowed, as Oleo volunteers, to sell food beyond the sell by date, because you judge it's still palatable, which I think everybody knows that sell by dates are quite conservative, and a lot of waste happens, and we certainly at home. You know, we're always eating yogurts that are a week out of date, and they're always fine.
00:46:57.000 --> 00:47:04.000 tristram cary: So what's your what's your attitude? And is it? Is there? Have you had any sort of legal problems with people complaining that you got food poisoning because.
00:46:57.000 --> 00:46:58.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes.
00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:06.000 tristram cary: You know of food they got from you.
00:47:07.000 --> 00:47:16.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. So basically, there's um something that's happening. And I, I kind of learned this from seeing the Yo Valley actually their yogurt company. But you, if there's like.
00:47:16.000 --> 00:47:26.000 Harvey McGivern: Um. I can't remember quite the terminology, but it's like used by, or has to be some. There's like the terminology you use. It kind of creates the legal basis.
00:47:26.000 --> 00:47:28.000 Harvey McGivern: On what you can do. So if it's like.
00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:34.000 Harvey McGivern: Uh must be. I can't be. I can't remember the exact wording, but it's like must be consumed by the State. Then you can't then.
00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:48.000 Harvey McGivern: Give it to other people. But if it's like recommended use by date, which is what a lot of brands are moving over to, then it relies on the individual being able to tell for themselves by opening up the yogurt, smelling it. Whatever.
00:47:48.000 --> 00:47:56.000 Harvey McGivern: Um as to whether they would use it. Oleo, as I said, takes full responsibility. Once the food is passed.
00:47:56.000 --> 00:48:04.000 Harvey McGivern: Um from the company to Oleo. They have full responsibility, for if there were food, poisoning, or anything like that.
00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:08.000 Harvey McGivern: And they've never had any incidents yet, and given.
00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:17.000 tristram cary: So is your is your guidance to your volunteers that they they can. It's up to them. Just smell the food and and take the responsibility for passing it on.
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:23.000 Harvey McGivern: The food from the supermarkets I don't know for certain, but I would imagine, is.
00:48:23.000 --> 00:48:25.000 Harvey McGivern: It's within the day. It's like.
00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:30.000 Harvey McGivern: The stuff that would be going into the trying to sell it. At the end of the day.
00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:36.000 Harvey McGivern: Um stuff, and that they would have thrown out the next day. So it'll be on its final kind of use by date.
00:48:36.000 --> 00:48:44.000 tristram cary: Yeah. But then, can your volunteer? If if in 2 days time after that, the volunteer has somebody wants it, and it's now past its recommended date.
00:48:44.000 --> 00:49:01.000 tristram cary: Are they allowed to? Are they allowed to give that food on? And if so, have they? Have you had any sort of fee? Have you had any kickback from people saying, Oh, you know you I had. I got food poisoning from your food, has I? Just because there's there's I think there must be a massive potential waste of people being too conservative.
00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:11.000 Harvey McGivern: Yes, I agree. Ultimately, it's not really an issue, because people post on the app and most of the food is gone within 2 h. Um, so it's collected so quickly that.
00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:11.000 tristram cary: Right.
00:49:11.000 --> 00:49:14.000 Harvey McGivern: There isn't that issue, but also earlier.
00:49:14.000 --> 00:49:18.000 Harvey McGivern: As as they've said in the past, have never had any kind of.
00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:21.000 Harvey McGivern: Kick back on food, poisoning, or whatever. So.
00:49:19.000 --> 00:49:20.000 tristram cary: That's good.
00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:29.000 Harvey McGivern: Given the numbers of which they're operating. I, personally haven't yet become a food waste hero. So I haven't gone through the training process.
00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:29.000 tristram cary: Right.
00:49:29.000 --> 00:49:32.000 Harvey McGivern: Um, I sure didn't. But I have 2 young kids. So it's kind of.
00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:32.000 tristram cary: Yeah.
00:49:32.000 --> 00:49:36.000 Harvey McGivern: Struggle to find the time to do that kind of stuff as well as work. Um!
00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:40.000 Harvey McGivern: But ultimately within that process. Yes, they will have very.
00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:43.000 Harvey McGivern: Stringent things of what you can and can't do. But it's about.
00:49:43.000 --> 00:49:45.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, making sure that.
00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:47.000 Harvey McGivern: Food that can be used can be used.
00:49:47.000 --> 00:49:48.000 tristram cary: Thank you.
00:49:48.000 --> 00:50:03.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Yeah, just to to follow up on that, that um. We do often get things from the supermarket, which are, you know, they're going to be out of date by the time people get them, because we're giving them in the evening, and people turn up morning. And it's the day after the date.
00:50:03.000 --> 00:50:06.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: And there is a difference between um.
00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:10.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Used by, and um.
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:22.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Display by or whatever. I can't remember exactly what it is. But um! We can put things in the freezer when we collect it. If it's a freezable things. So that's 1 of the one of those to get rounded. Um.
00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:11.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yes, bye.
00:50:22.000 --> 00:50:24.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: There are things we should not.
00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:26.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Make available to people.
00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:27.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Technically, but.
00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:28.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: If.
00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:31.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Somebody happens to come in and.
00:50:31.000 --> 00:50:33.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Take it at their own risk.
00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:34.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um.
00:50:33.000 --> 00:50:34.000 tristram cary: Hmm.
00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:40.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We've not been, but you know we're not. We have to be careful in um.
00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:48.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Because, you know, we train our volunteers. No, you mustn't do this. And one of the things that Community Fridge says is, we must not give out things with bean sprouts in.
00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:55.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: So we do do a certain amount of of composting. We, we reckon that we, we are.
00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Preventing food waste. We're preventing things going into landfill.
00:50:59.000 --> 00:51:10.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Because we will recycle the containers and um and and bin in a responsible way. Stuff that's not fit to use. I mean, our local co-OP is regularly giving us um.
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:17.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Salad things which are not fit to sell, you know they they've kept them on the shelf longer than they should have done, anyway, in terms of what they look like.
00:51:17.000 --> 00:51:23.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Um, and people sometimes take those for their guinea pigs, or whatever, but otherwise we make sure that they go into the compost.
00:51:24.000 --> 00:51:25.000 tristram cary: Thank you.
00:51:26.000 --> 00:51:28.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Harvey a a question which um.
00:51:29.000 --> 00:51:33.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Occurred to me was, Do you have any sort of measurement whatsoever on.
00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:41.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: How much waste you actually have to throw away at the end of the day. There are the people who just cannot get rid of everything, and they have to dump it.
00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:44.000 Harvey McGivern: What should be back on in terms of.
00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:45.000 Harvey McGivern: The waste.
00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:54.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Let's let's suppose you've picked up. I mean, just take numbers, 20 pounds of food from a supermarket, and you can get rid of 8 of it, but then the other 12.
00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:55.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Do go off!
00:51:55.000 --> 00:52:02.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um. Is there any measure of that, anyway? I just wondered how efficient your system is at actually clearing stuff before it has to be thrown away.
00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:05.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah. So Olio will have all those they have.
00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:14.000 Harvey McGivern: Um very detailed numbers because they've um. It's obviously all shown on the app. They speak as in the food waste. Heroes will be logging everything.
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:17.000 Harvey McGivern: As I said, like up to date, though it's kind of been.
00:52:17.000 --> 00:52:26.000 Harvey McGivern: The supply. The the reason they've been able to raise investment like they have is because the demand there is so strong that.
00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:30.000 Harvey McGivern: Pretty much all that food is being cleared and being gone.
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:31.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Wow! That.
00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:31.000 Harvey McGivern: There might be.
00:52:31.000 --> 00:52:33.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, there might be certain areas.
00:52:33.000 --> 00:52:39.000 Harvey McGivern: Where it's not, and I guess they need to reddress it, and that I said, they'll. I don't know what they are, but they will have.
00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:41.000 Harvey McGivern: Processes for dealing with that. But.
00:52:41.000 --> 00:52:42.000 Harvey McGivern: Ultimately, it's like.
00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:46.000 Harvey McGivern: All their marketing team is trying to increase supply on the app.
00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:49.000 Harvey McGivern: Because that's the issue is.
00:52:49.000 --> 00:52:54.000 Harvey McGivern: There's such high demand that they need more supply of food on the app, because it is all going.
00:52:54.000 --> 00:52:55.000 Harvey McGivern: When it's put on there.
00:52:56.000 --> 00:52:58.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Yeah, thank you very much.
00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:00.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: I don't see oops. Sorry.
00:52:58.000 --> 00:52:59.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: We work.
00:52:59.000 --> 00:53:00.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Sorry.
00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: I'm just going to say that we work through the community fridge that has a very um.
00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:06.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Clear um.
00:53:07.000 --> 00:53:09.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Process, for for.
00:53:09.000 --> 00:53:12.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: Keeping records, and we weigh everything in.
00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:18.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: I mean, it's a bit of a crude way of of measuring, but we can. We can say the weight of everything that came in.
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:21.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: And then we don't need to weigh out.
00:53:21.000 --> 00:53:26.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: What gets taken, but we weigh out anything that's um that's waste.
00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:29.000 Hilary Young Gamlingay Cimate Action group: And it's a tiny, tiny fraction of what we get in.
00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:32.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's really exciting news. I think that's great.
00:53:33.000 --> 00:53:35.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: That's very encouraging to hear.
00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:45.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um, I don't see any other hands raised. I will offer this opportunity to people, but I'm very, very wary of Claire keeping her beady eye on me about meetings that overrun.
00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:51.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So let me say, Harvey, that was really great. Thank you so much for coming to join us.
00:53:51.000 --> 00:54:03.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And usually on these occasions, I'm hugely efficient at saying next week we will be discussing such and such, and this week I can tell you that next week is still a magical mystery tour.
00:54:03.000 --> 00:54:07.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: And we have no idea who's going to talk about what, to whom.
00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:10.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So come in next week, just if you like. A bit of excitement.
00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:12.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Um.
00:54:12.000 --> 00:54:18.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: So, Harvey. Thank you very much. And uh, thank you all for showing up. See you again next week, I hope.
00:54:14.000 --> 00:54:16.000 Harvey McGivern: Thank you all very much.
00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:17.000 Stuart Withington: Thank you.
00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:19.000 tristram cary: Yeah, thank you. All.
00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:19.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Take care!
00:54:19.000 --> 00:54:20.000 Stuart Withington: Alright!
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:21.000 Harvey McGivern: Yeah, thank you. Thank you.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:21.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Bye-bye.
00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:21.000 Stuart Withington: Alright!
00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:21.000 tristram cary: Bye, bye.
00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:23.000 Lindsey Newberry: You.
00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:25.000 Graham Stoddart-Stones: Oops. There's a question from Eau Claire's hoping. Yes, okay, bye-bye.
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