How Food Samaritans Help Supermarkets Reduce Waste

By day, Laura Gaga works as a civil servant in London. Her evenings and weekends, though, are dedicated to reducing food waste. On a typical Sunday afternoon, Gaga, 41, checks an app called Olio to find out whether her local Tesco Plc supermarket or Pret A Manger Ltd. sandwich shop have listed items for free collection. Then she zips over to round up loaves of bread, produce, and wraps not expected to sell before their “use by” date. Back home, she uploads details of her bundle to the app for neighbors to claim.

Gaga, who also blogs and produces a podcast about food sustainability, is one of 30,000 volunteers in 59 countries who use Olio. “Living in London, you don’t have to walk very far to find someone who is hungry or homeless,” Gaga says. Food waste “is unnecessary and something that we can all do something about.”