Foodsharing.de is an online platform for collecting and distributing surplus food in Germany , Austria and Switzerland . It was founded on December 12, 2012 and is owned by Foodsharing (Foodsharing eV). At foodsharing.de, individuals, retailers and manufacturers can offer or take away food that would otherwise be thrown away . The project's slogan is "to share food instead of throwing it away." The service is free and works thanks to the efforts of volunteers . The aim of the project is to combat the everyday throwing of edible products and to raise awareness of this problem in society.
| Foodsharing.de | |
|---|---|
| URL | foodsharing.de |
| Commercial | not |
| check in | not required, but required for active participants |
| Languages) | Deutsch |
| Owner | Foodsharing eV |
| Beginning of work | 2012 |
| Alexa rating | |
Content
History
The initial idea to create a platform to combat the throwing of products came about in the summer of 2011 by , director of the film “ ”, and Sebastian Engbrocks ( German Sebastian Engbrocks ), director of the film’s advertising campaign. In early 2012, design students Thomas Gerling and Christian Center and television journalist Ines Rainer independently came up with a similar idea. The overall project was the result of their collaboration. Between April and July 2012, they raised seed money through crowdfunding through Startnext.de . It was necessary to raise 10,000 euros, and as a result, with the help of 394 supporters of the project, an amount of 11,594 euros was raised. [2]
A beta version of the platform was released on November 16, and on December 12, 2012 the platform was launched [3] . Subsequently, on May 12, 2013, the platform was updated with a design and new search parameters appeared. In May 2013, a similar platform was also launched in Austria, initially under the name myfoodsharing.at [4] , and is currently merged with the German platform. As of February 2014, the German part of foodsharing.de has about 35,000 active users. The project received the environmental award in the Communications category on July 10, 2013 [5] .
In December 2014, foodsharing.de was merged with lebensmittelretten.de, a website founded by and Rafael Wintrich [6] . The opportunity to share food with other people was taken from foodsharing.de, while cooperation with shops and supermarkets was taken from lebensmittelretten.de.
Concept
foodsharing.de allows people to share food with each other, and also allows volunteers to take excess food from organizations [7] . Participants can keep food for themselves, distribute to friends and acquaintances, as well as distribute it through public places for storing food. The project has established cooperation both with large chains, such as Bio Company [8] , and with individual shops, restaurants, hotels and bakeries. The main goal is environmental: to reduce the emission of resources, because overproduction harms the ecological state of the planet [9] .
Differences from other methods of saving food
Other organizations, such as the German food bank Tafel, differ from food sharing in that excess food is given to people before the expiration date , while expired products can also be distributed on foodsharing.de if they are still edible and do not represent health hazards. Volunteers (the so-called “food savers”) sign a legal agreement that relieves companies of responsibility and obliges food savers to distribute food exclusively free of charge. If the main goal for the Tafel food bank is to help those in need, then foodsharing.de is only interested in saving food, regardless of the financial circumstances of the recipient.
See also
- Freeganism
- Food bank
Notes
- ↑ Alexa Internet - 1996.
- ↑ Project Information at Startnext Crowdfunding (German)
- ↑ foodsharing.de: Relaunch of the webpage (German)
- ↑ Food sharing launched in Austria (German)
- ↑ Greentec Awards 2013 - Communications category Archived on December 6, 2015. (him)
- ↑ Finding Takers for Lonely Leftovers in a Culinary Nook of the Sharing Economy - Sally Mcgrane, The New York Times
- ↑ Foodsharing sites and apps stop leftovers going to waste
- ↑ Bio Company: Raises awareness against waste (German)
- ↑ Valentin Turn's short film "Waste" in Russian .