Food Sharing

Food sharing technology is more than half a century old

Since their inception in the US in 1967, food banks have been redistributing unsold food to those in need all over the world. The author of the food bank concept, entrepreneur and charity giver John van Hengel was first to use food sharing in order to feed people in need. He was a volunteer at a soup kitchen when he learned how much usable food ends up in trash cans for various reasons. Wastage of food that consumes the Earth's resources for production and turning that food into waste in landfills while many people actually starve seemed pointless to John. This gave rise to the idea to connect usable unclaimed food with those who can't afford it. Van Hengel suggested entrepreneurs not throw away this food but send it to a special warehouse for storage and distribution to people in need.

This technology entered a new stage of development in Europe in 2012 and formed the basis of the public environmental movement. Food sharing activists began exchanging unclaimed food in order to change the unsustainable approach to the consumption of food and natural resources. A platform foodsharing.de created by environmental activists and innovators Valentin Thurn and Raphael Fellmer was in the center of the movement. This platform enabled food sharing adherents to connect with each other and coordinate events.

We have been developing food sharing in Russia for a decade now

Inspired by the international experience of food banks, we launched a virtual model of the first food bank in Russia based on industrial food sharing technology in 2012.

The chosen model and technology turned out to be very efficient at the stage of launching a food bank: they allowed to set up processes quickly and scale activities all over the country. We began accepting large volumes of unclaimed food and products from the warehouses of manufacturers and transfer them to families in need and pensioners via distribution points or in person.

We have also been practicing retail food sharing since 2013: our volunteers pick up unsold food from cafes and restaurants every day. We are expanding the partner categories by implementing large projects on retail food sharing technology with the country’s largest retail chains since 2022.

We launched a new area, agrifood sharing, in the fall of 2022. Agricultural enterprises hand over unclaimed fruit and vegetables to us—for example, the imperfectly shaped ones. We package and distribute them to people who cannot afford high-quality farm products.

We help both people and nature

One third of the world's food production ends up in landfills as waste every year. 17 bln kg of food ends up in a landfill instead of becoming breakfast, lunch or dinner in Russia. It could fit in 895 thousand trucks that can line up from Moscow to Vladivostok and back. Discarded products emit ~2.4 mln tons of methane and 78.2 mln tons of CO2, while financial losses exceed 1.6 trln rubles. Land, water, and energy spent for the production of this food are wasted.

There are different reasons for businesses to dispose of usable products:

• Too much food has been produced or grown in the fields but remained unclaimed,
• An entire batch was withdrawn from circulation due to a typo on the label, or
• A special item produced for an advertising campaign but has not been sold out as planned during the required period.

Food sharing helps businesses reasonably use the maximum amount of food, products, and resources. We also bring double benefits to the world:

• we improve the quality of life by supporting people with food and products, and
• we have a positive impact on the environment, reducing the total amount of waste and CO2 emissions.

We also collect animal feed and donate it to shelters.

Let’s develop food sharing together

You improve the overall well-being in the country and the quality of your own life by supporting the food sharing technology development.

Our requirements for food and products for food sharing

We strictly control the quality of food and products accepted for further transfer. We account for every kilogram and check the expiration date in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. We do not accept spoiled or expired food. We transport perishable food in vehicles equipped with refrigeration units.