I've always loved listening to stories from the elders. I love the old men in the small cafes, talking to each other about the past and their youth. For a different life, a different Athens... “Back then, my child, we only ate meat during the holidays. The family was gathering at home at night on weekdays and was happy if there were tomato and bread on the table!”. These days have gone and I hope they won’t come back. We now live in times of superabundance and oversupply of goods. Unfortunately, of excessive waste too...

88 million tons of food end up in the trash annually in the EU! This is what the WWF states in a very interesting report, based on which food production has become one of the greatest threats to the environment today, contributing, among other things, to the climate crisis. While 112 million Europeans are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, it’s estimated that on average every person in the EU throws away 173 kg of food per year.

The WFP reports that 828 million people around the world go to bed at night feeling hungry, while the number of those with severe problems of food shortage has risen to 345 million, from 135 million back in 2019.

Numbers never lie, they speak for themselves.

Globally:

-1 in 3 pieces of food ends up in the trash, that means around 1.3 billion of tons of food

-30% of fruits and vegetables are rejected due to their appearance

The WWF and WRAP report, entitled 'Halving food loss and waste in the EU by 2030', evaluates past and current actions to reduce waste across the supply chain, highlights good practices and calls for immediate implementation of measures, through three main pillars:

• Measurement of waste
• Utilization of food remains
• Stricter regulatory framework

And since anything collective includes the individual element inside it, each one of us is defined by their own actions.

There must have been times when you went to the supermarket and came back with a lot of unnecessary things, things that didn't even fit in the storage areas of your house. The result? To end up in the trash. It’s up to every and each of us to stop this.

Draw up a shopping list and stick to it. But draw it up based on your real needs. Store things in the freezer and consume them later. They’re well preserved! Let's get our imagination to work. We can become creative chefs using all the food in our fridge that will "go bad" soon!

And what is not consumed, it can always be donated to others.

Up’s Go For EAT card gives you access to the food. This access is up to us not to waste it aimlessly...

"In a world of plenty, hunger should be a thing of the past."

By Danae Christodoulaki, Account Manager of our super team!