What it is
Olio is a free app for sharing surplus food with neighbors. Users photograph food they cannot use (leftover party food, items nearing expiration, surplus garden produce) and list it for free pickup. Neighbors browse listings, request items, and collect from the lister's location. The app also features non-food household items. Olio operates a volunteer Food Waste Hero program where trained volunteers collect surplus from local businesses (Tesco, Pret A Manger, others) and redistribute through the app.
Why we picked this
Olio tackles a different slice of food waste than Too Good To Go: the household and hyper-local level. The average UK household wastes 70 kg of food per year. Olio turns that waste into a community resource. The Food Waste Hero program extends this to retail, with volunteers collecting and distributing food that businesses cannot sell but that is still perfectly edible. The social design is smart: neighbors meeting over free food builds community connections that extend beyond waste reduction.
Key takeaways
- Over 100 million portions of food and household items have been shared through the app since launch, with an average pickup time under 30 minutes.
- The Food Waste Hero volunteer program partners with major retailers (Tesco, Pret, Costa Coffee) to redistribute unsold food at the neighborhood level.
- Olio's community-based model addresses the 'last mile' of food redistribution that centralized food banks cannot reach: individual household surplus.