“Reducing food waste is one of the three most important things we can do to reverse global warming”

Chad Frischmann, Climate expert

We can avoid food waste by producing, buying and valuing food in a new way. If surpluses remain, we can create job opportunities by

The distribution or processing of the food is carried out by employees within the social economy. These are often people who are struggling to find a job. By supporting them, FLAVOUR created a lot of social benefits.

Thanks to the calculations of VIVES Hogeschool and Marjon University, we learned that FLAVOUR created £87 million of social value in total.

Every pound invested in the initiatives yielded more than £9 of social return on investment.

VIVES Hogeschool and Plymouth Marjon University calculated this by using an existing method: the Social Value Engine, made by the Social Value Team in East Riding, Yorkshire. Thanks to the engine, one can calculate a monetary value to improvements on a social, human and environmental level.

Examples of these benefits are: increased employability for people with a distance to the labour market, increased self-confidence for employees and volunteers, reduced social isolation for community members, etc. The results are linked to UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). For more info, visit https://www.socialvalueengine.com/

Creating social jobs while fighting food waste isn’t always easy. We discussed these challenges during out event in June 2022 (video below).

The biggest challenges remain: