Surplus
Surplus from Chris Rodden
Surplus

Surplus is a logistics service and application that enables food manufacturers and retailers the opportunity to donate any surplus, ‘fit for purpose’ food to their partnering charities. In doing so, more food will be redistributed to vulnerable people living in food poverty instead of being disposed in landfills.

Safe to consume surplus food can be uploaded onto this application, and made visible to charities in need, as a donation. The charities will be able to know exactly how much food is available and accept any donations that would apply to them.

With the major stakeholders involved on the same platform, a unified approach is adopted to tackle similar goals, a transparency of information is created and the process is made more efficient in order to maximise the amount of food that is redirected away from landfill to those that need it most.

Feed the world. Save the world.

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Partner All users can connect and ‘Partner’ with their partnered charities online. Making it easier to see their current status and to communicate efficiently.
Donate Any food manufacturers or retailers that have surplus, fit for purpose, food can donate it. Choose a food category and enter the total weight available, a brief description and confirm whether you have the ability to delivery this donation or not. Set the expiry date to which this food must be accepted by and also share the donation on social media to access a wider audience.
Collect This is essentially a live feed. The user can visualise on a map where all food donations are available. Tap on the icon and see how much food is available, the description, how far away it is and whether it is available for delivery. This gives charities the ability to plan collection routes ahead of time.
Collate Every contribution a user makes to tackle food waste and help relieve food poverty is recorded and plotted onto graphs so the user can visualise their efforts over time. The option to share these figures online to create awareness is also available.
The benefits of Surplus are obvious. The money currently being invested into the collection and disposal of surplus food can be redirected into the redistribution of it. Therefore, with more of this food being consumed rather than disposed, the resources and money that went into the process are not going in vain. The after effects of the rotting foods in landfills are then being prevented. While all of this is being done, the people living in food poverty will be benefiting from this surplus food. While Surplus can be a solution to preventing surplus food going to landfill, it is not a solution to ending food poverty. Surplus will, however, be a valuable contributor to helping these families and individuals take the first step out of food poverty. By alleviating the strain of buying all of their food, those affected can begin to better manage and invest their money in other areas of life, enabling them to thrive rather than struggle to survive.
Scalability The possibility to increase the scale of Surplus to become a global approach is high and a global approach is needed to tackle food waste and food poverty. Surplus could eventually be used by all businesses within the food industry, through to catering and restaurants. The more businesses and charities that sign up to Surplus will only increase the amount of partnerships created and therefore increase the chances of surplus food being redistributed to those in need and not put into landfills. Surplus will create a unified community of businesses and charities working together to tackle food waste and food poverty.
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Surplus

Surplus is a logistics service and application that enables food manufacturers and retailers the opportunity to donate any surplus, ‘fit for purpose’ food to their partnering charities. In doing so, more food will be redistributed to vulnerable people living in food poverty instead of being disposed in landfills.

Safe to consume surplus food can be uploaded onto this application, and made visible to charities in need, as a donation. The charities will be able to know exactly how much food is available and accept any donations that would apply to them.

With the major stakeholders involved on the same platform, a unified approach is adopted to tackle similar goals, a transparency of information is created and the process is made more efficient in order to maximise the amount of food that is redirected away from landfill to those that need it most.

Feed the world. Save the world.

View Website
Chris Rodden
Belfast, United Kingdom