WeFood or the fight against food waste

In Europe, products that do not meet standards - with damaged packaging, any external defects, with an expiring shelf life, etc. - must be immediately sent to the trash containers, which is the reason why quite a large amount of good food ends up in the trash, which only exacerbates the problem of food waste.

Recently, supermarkets in France have been legally prohibited from throwing away products with an expiring shelf life, spoiled products, etc. (the law applies to supermarkets with an area exceeding 400 m ² ). In addition, the French authorities have prohibited deliberately spoiling products that are sent to trash bins near stores, since in this case, homeless people or other people who eat from trash bins cannot use such products (there have been cases where products were doused with chemicals). According to the new laws, French supermarkets must enter into agreements with charities, otherwise they face high fines.

European consumers are used to seeing products with certain quality standards on supermarket shelves – fruits without visible defects on the skin, packaging without dents, etc. In Denmark, more than 160 thousand tons of products are thrown out annually due to damaged boxes, expiring shelf life, incorrectly labeled products (for example, on the packaging of regular rice it says basmati), and products can also end up in landfills because they were intended as a treat for past holidays.

Taking all this into account, a new type of store has opened in Denmark – WeFood, which, unlike all others, operates on a non-commercial basis, and the employees of such stores are volunteers. WeFood donates the income from sales to the development of initiatives to combat poverty and hunger around the world.

Volunteers collect leftovers of unsaleable but quite edible products from supermarkets and sell them for almost half the price. It is worth noting that WeFood is not a social store that sells excess products to the poor. The new line of stores is aimed at all segments of the population. The head of the charity that founded the chain of such stores, Per Bjer, noted that social stores are unlikely to attract a large number of customers, since they are mostly visited by poor and extremely needy people; it is unlikely that a person with an average or high income would want to visit such a store.

WeFood was created specifically to stop the problem of senseless food waste and it is everyone's duty to take part in this initiative.

WeFood is doing well, the store only opened in February, but there is already a line on the sidewalks wanting to buy products that they would not even glance at in a regular supermarket. The organizers did not even expect such success - the store shelves are literally empty. Mr. Bjer noted that the shelves in the stores are often empty, although work is currently underway to establish uninterrupted supplies.

The reason for the empty shelves, according to Bjør, is not that supermarkets do not have products suitable for WeFood. At this stage, the process of establishing the movement of goods from supermarkets to consumers is only developing, and the organizers hope that the situation will change after relations with local retail management are settled. After that, the WeFood store network will be expanded, with plans to open similar stores throughout the country.