Olio launches partnership with multi-academy trust, Anglican learning to share free meals with local communities

• Anglian Learning, the multi academy trust based in East Anglia, working with School Catering company Innovate Food Services Ltd is the first to partner with Olio to help reduce food waste by sharing surplus food from secondary schools in Cambridgeshire and Essex with local communities
• Users of the Olio app will be able to request freshly prepared meals from surplus school lunches, for free, with the help of Olio’s ‘Food Waste Heroes’ volunteers
• The partnership comes as Anglian Learning works to significantly reduce its carbon footprint in line with the Department for Education’s Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy

Olio, the UK’s number one local sharing app, announces that Anglian Learning working in partnership with Innovate Food Services – a subsidiary of Impact Food Group – is the first educational caterer to join its impressive roster of corporate partners taking a stand against food waste.   

Following a short pilot across the Trust’s six secondary schools – which saw just under 200 meals redistributed amongst numerous local families – the announcement builds on Anglian Learning’s plans to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its operations.

Anglian Learning is set to implement the Olio scheme into the remaining nine primary schools by the end of this academic year, working closely with headteachers, school staff and dedicated onsite chef teams to support the Food Waste Heroes volunteers’ collections.

Olio users in areas surrounding Anglian Learning’s academies in East Anglia will be able to find healthy and nutritious meals leftover from school lunches and get them for free, via an easy and convenient pick-up process made possible by Olio’s network of trained Food Waste Hero volunteers.  The Food Waste Heroes collect surplus food, take it home and upload it to the Olio app, ready to be collected by those living nearby.  The scheme will ensure any surplus food from school meals will be redistributed, rather than wasted.

Charity Main, COO at Anglian Learning, said:

“We are passionate about the difference that high quality education can make to all young people, their families and their communities.  We know that a part of that high-quality experience is being an active and connected member of our community.  This partnership with Impact Food Group and Olio builds on the work we are doing even further and allows us to ensure that any of our resources do not go to waste and can be redistributed in the community for the good of our planet, while supporting local families.”

Tessa Clarke, co-founder, and CEO of Olio said:

“We’re delighted to announce this new partnership with Anglian Learning, especially at a time when the severity of the cost-of-living (and climate) crisis is becoming clear to us all.  We know our community of Olio users will be thrilled to have access to delicious food from local schools that would otherwise have gone to waste, and we look forward to building on the great work Anglian Learning is doing across East Anglia.”

Launched in 2015 with the sole purpose of tackling food waste, Olio now has more than 8 million users worldwide, and a UK network of over 77,000 Food Waste Heroes.  Alongside Innovate Food Services, Olio also has major waste reduction partnerships with caterers like Compass Group, Restaurants Associates, Chartwells and Eurest. They also work with nation-wide organisations like Tesco, One Stop, Iceland, and Pret a Manger.

Anglian Learning is a highly successful multi academy trust of fifteen academies based in East Anglia and serving pupils and learners from across the age range and a variety of backgrounds.  Formed in 2016, each academy shares the firm belief that successful learning communities are underpinned by ambitious vision, trust and strong inspirational leadership to enable dynamic, empowered learners who thrive and lead in their communities: locally, nationally and globally.

Bryan Lygate, group operations director at Innovate Food Services said:

“We are excited to be working in partnership with Olio and Anglian Learning to ensure any food that can be is distributed within the local community to help as many families as possible. We are extremely proud of how Olio enables us to help tackle food waste, protect the plant and help families.”