The food-waste app giving good produce a good home

In spite of an ongoing need for fresh, healthy, and local produce, over 25% of all the food found growing in the UK is never eaten (https://fareshare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Context-Facts-and-Statistics-2024-05.pdf), with this surplus harvest accounting for up to 7% of our country’s greenhouse gas emissions (https://fareshare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Context-Facts-and-Statistics-2024-05.pdf). From the climate crisis to food injustice, fresh fruit and healthy veg going to waste is nothing but bad news, but our app GRO-OP is here to change the narrative…

For a green, rainy island such as our own, we are generally blessed with garden friendly conditions and fertile soils ready and waiting for crops of all kinds to flourish into food, but for those who can’t get their mitts on a hotly anticipated allotment plot, accessing home-grown organic fresh produce at a reasonable price just isn’t that feasible. We see GRO-OP as a way of bridging that gap, making it easy for neighbourhood growers to sell their produce at an affordable price, or to offer their surplus harvest free of charge to those who need a magic bean or two.

With allotment plots and community gardens racking up years-long waiting lists (https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/allotments/get-allotment/waiting-lists-allotments#:~:text=Check%20allotment%20availability&text=The%20average%20waiting%20time%20is,number%20of%20plots%20on%20site.), people are clearly keen to get planting, but don’t always have the means to access green space to grow their own. By designing a digital co-op for local gardeners, growers, and grazers, we’re also creating a place to exchange knowledge and build intergenerational and cultural connections, working hard to counter the compounded crises, be it climate or cost-of-living, that are impacting the ominous food waste landscape.

Amidst the calls for healthy habits and 5-a-day routines, food waste is a very present social issue, with the UK throwing away around 9.5 million tonnes of food waste (https://www.businesswaste.co.uk/food-waste-the-facts/#:~:text=Over%20%E2%85%93%20of%20all%20food,food%20is%20disposed%20of%20unnecessarily) in a single year, despite 8.4 million people in the UK being in food poverty. Food insecure households are far more likely to have to cut back on buying healthy foods too, with 60% cutting back on fruit and 44% on vegetables (https://fareshare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Context-Facts-and-Statistics-2024-05.pdf). Food redistribution charities like FareShare (https://fareshare.org.uk/) are doing vital work to rebalance the narrative, with 91% of the food (https://fareshare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Context-Facts-and-Statistics-2024-05.pdf) they distributed in 2022 being surplus that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Food waste is also a climate issue, accounting for up to 10% of all global carbon emissions (https://fareshare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Context-Facts-and-Statistics-2024-05.pdf), (that’s more than four times the amount of CO2e emissions produced by the world’s aviation industry!). Despite naturally degrading over time, food waste releases methane gas as it breaks down, which is reportedly 25 times more harmful than carbon dioxide (https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/overview-greenhouse-gases#methane) as it can trap heat within the atmosphere, damaging the ozone layer, and compounding the climate crisis at an alarming rate. All hope is not lost, however, as in 2023, COP28 saw the UK join over 150 countries in signing a landmark declaration (https://fareshare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Context-Facts-and-Statistics-2024-05.pdf) to bring food systems in line with climate targets. Perhaps we’ll “beet” tradition and turn over a new leaf. Who knows…

We believe GRO-OP is a potential solution to the current food waste crisis – an easy-access community cooperative connecting gardeners and local grazers with a digital platform to offer their extra peas, potatoes, or pears to those seeking fresh fruit and veg at an accessible and affordable price. We skip the compost, and redistribute those surplus veggies to good homes in a way that benefits both people and planet, whilst plotting for a peachy future of food justice and climate recovery. You in?

We spent a week as a team co-creating GRO-OP from the ground up, designing, researching, and writing puns about peas for four focused days. Our team Hackathons are a creative, collaborative, and intensive experiment that tests what we can achieve in a short period of time, building a digital solution to a real world problem that has sturdy legs and a viable business model.

If GRO-OP has tickled your taste buds, get in touch with us and continue the conversation. We’ll “pea” waiting…