Food Waste Heroes in Cornwall have prevented 34,749 meals from going to waste in the past year, thanks to a ground-breaking partnership between Tesco and food-sharing app OLIO.

In August last year Tesco became the first supermarket to partner with OLIO, which provides unsold surplus food fit for consumption to people in the community.

In the first full year of the partnership, OLIO’s Cornwall network of Food Waste Heroes saved food that people could then put to good use for themselves, their families and others in their communities.

Thirty-year-old Kayleigh from Redruth is a Food Waste Hero who joined the OLIO food app scheme earlier this year to ensure that people in need of food were getting it.

She said: “There are many positive stories that have come out of this. There was one gentleman who had two boys. He was so grateful for what we were able to give him, he left us two Easter cakes that his children had made. It was so generous, and all the more so because his boys had made the cakes.

“OLIO isn’t a replacement for foodbanks. It’s a way of making sure no useable food goes to waste – so it’s helping people and the environment.

“The past year has been difficult, with many people losing their jobs during the pandemic, so OLIO is being used more and more. It’s a great system. It connects people to make a difference – helping to build a sustainable future.”

The partnership builds on Tesco’s existing food surplus donations programme, including its Community Food Connection scheme with FareShare.

FareShare supports frontline charities and community groups working with children – from summer holiday clubs and breakfast clubs to community kitchens, and groups which supply food parcels to those facing food insecurity.

OLIO Food Waste Heroes collect food when charities supported by FareShare are unable to do so, and they can then take it back to their homes.

These items are immediately uploaded onto the OLIO app, ready to be redistributed free to those living nearby and to community groups. OLIO app users can then pick items up from an agreed, contact-free collection point.

OLIO, which has been running since 2016, has provided more than 120 million meals to charities and community groups across the UK, with more than 5 million coming from Tesco.

Claire De Silva, Tesco Head of Communities, said: “Tesco is committed to tackling food waste and we were confident our partnership with OLIO would help with that, but its impact has exceeded all our expectations.

“For our partnership to have diverted more than 5 million surplus meals from going to waste nationally shows the strength of the partnership between our store colleagues and OLIO’s Food Waste Heroes.”

Saasha Celestial-One, co-founder of OLIO, said: “Our partnership with Tesco has been a huge success this year, and we’re incredibly proud to have delivered so many meals that would have otherwise been wasted to communities across the UK. Tesco has been a true pioneer.

“But our work is far from done. We hope this partnership encourages other businesses to follow suit and consider how they can take a more proactive approach to minimising waste and supporting communities. Just imagine what we could achieve if every business followed their lead.”

Tesco has led the way in tackling food waste for many years. It has not sent any food waste to landfill since 2009, and in 2013 Tesco became the first UK retailer to publish its food waste data.