The company has been donating pre-packed products, fruit and vegetables to Olio since summer 2023 as well as recently introducing cooked food collections. ESS is supporting a reduction in food waste whilst helping local people in need.
ESS is a specialist business of Compass Group UK & Ireland, operating in the Defence, Energy, Government, Infrastructure and Marine & Aerospace sectors.
Following a successful trial at a large Defence site in the south east, cooked food is now being contributed by 56 Defence sites across the country, with plans to extend the initiative into the company’s Government sector in the new year.
ESS’ partnership with Olio has already delivered ‘significant’ benefits to local communities. To date, there have been 29,683 kg or 87,170 items of edible food saved, amounting to 62,288 meals and 3,522 households fed.
Bob Gray, managing director – ESS Defence, Marine & Aerospace, said: “We’re very proud to partner with Olio and support the brilliant work the organisation does to reduce food waste and help those in need.
“The introduction of cooked food collections across our estate is a great step forward to further enhance our impact and supports the ethos of our Climate and Social promises to deliver measurable benefits to our environment and communities by 2030.”
The Olio app enables businesses and individuals to upload the details of food and non-food items that they no longer want so they can be reallocated to people who do want them, giving the goods a second life.
The app has eight million users globally and 130,000 Food Waste Hero volunteers collecting unsold food from participating businesses.
Saasha Celestial-One, chief operating officer and co-founder of Olio, added: “It's fantastic that ESS is expanding its food donation efforts by sharing cooked food with the local community via Olio.
“This means that even more families will get access to delicious, nutritious cooked meals. We hope this move by ESS will influence and inspire other caterers to follow suit and donate more food types, knowing that it's 100% safe to do so through Olio.”