Free food app - Olio

[Pippinthecurlypig]

Just incase anyone hasn't heard of Olio yet, there is loads of free food on there at this time of year!
Volunteers collect spare food from supermarkets, usually about 8/9pm, then anyone can request food from them via the app.
If you're in South East Kent you could bag these 31 packs of potato skins!

Bumping as, although I’ve never had food off there, I do use the app to give away items (paint, toys, tools etc) and my phone is always pinging with notifications about loads food on offer. It’s a shame it’s not more widely known.

I'm a Food Waste Volunteer.

I do the collection, and then list the available food. I've saved almost a tonne of food waste from landfill this year.

I've got a freezer of party food (we are allowed to keep 10% of what we collect) as well as the beef joints for Christmas. Don't think I've purchased bread in almost a year.

The free version of the app is perfectly good to use, and you don't have to be a volunteer to request food on the app - you just have to be able to collect it from the volunteer.

What a superb initiative.

Useless if you live rurally they expect people to drive 30 mile round trips for a loaf of bread. It is really good for people in large cities.

I'm in a city and have used it, mainly to give away weird store cupboard things that we don't use. But used it recently, I do remember seeing a lot of bread on our local group.

I’ve heard of it. Never used it, we live rural.

I live very rurally and drive 11 miles to get the food, same distance if I went to the super. I get absolutely loads of food several times a week. Definitely worth it for me

Supermarket*

I use it a lot. I’m lucky enough to have a volunteer living on my street so regularly get food from them. Im happy to eat some things after best before and a lot of it can be frozen anyway. I got loads this week and have a freezer drawer full of danish pastries/croissants which I’ll warm up for breakfast on Christmas morning

The idea of olio is good but it's full of grimmers who offer food from the floor sofa etc. so many rules breakers, stolen items for sale, food heroes who don't actually share or work in teams to share with just their friends. There are no hygiene rules for private (non food heroes) listers offering food.
The forum is the only thing that gets checked regularly to make sure nobody is saying anything negative.
And now they have a clothes line, also Google the founders ...... (Wonga)

Some lovely examples..... All listings that stated on regardless of hygiene rules being broken that's someone's fire place on the icing one 🤢

I've been on it a few years now. I've picked up a few food items, but also given many away. It also has non-food items such as giving away a toaster, table, pair of shoes, dog toys etc and also a wanted section.

What effect is putting icing stored inside a plastic sealed tub on a (presumably off) fireplace possibly going to have?

I was on it before covid, gave away loads, but now honestly it's dire.
Just seems full of people who constantly break the rules.
Wanted asking for food,
Selling counterfeit items fake bags/ stamps / clearly stolen make up baby socks/baby milk & booze.

In a dirty fireplace? It's grim.
Hard cleanable surface. Olio guidelines state that.

I used to use it a lot after covid but stopped and like someone else it's not what it was before. You're lucky if you have good volunteers but some of them expect u to drive 2-3 miles for one item. The timings are very late too and with young kids it's not feasible. If it works for you that's great but I won't be using it anymore.

The timings are late as the collection time is typically 15mins before shop closure so in the case of Sainsbury it is 9:45pm.

I am an olio fwh. A couple of days ago I got 251 items and shared them between 15 families. Fortunately it was predominantly best before so could be listed for a couple of days but if it is use by it has to be collected by midnight or that is it. In that 251 collection I had 43 tubs of mashed potato. Fortunately another fwh has a spare freezer and he took a lot of it off me to freeze and distribute as frozen on use by - I don't have the storage space to do that.

The use by stuff usually appears at 9pm in the case of tesco and 10pm in the case of Sainsbury. If you can't get out of an evening then yes the use by won't be possible as we can only list it when we have it which is late in the evening.

It is a fantastic resource if you have the opportunity to use it - our food bill is 25% of what it was before

I think for people who drive or are able bodied and can walk / get public transport to collect things it’s great. Not usable for anyone else unfortunately, which is a shame as often the disabled / those who can’t afford to run a car would really benefit from it.

I have a couple of people where friends do it and one person collects for both so it is possible but takes a bit of cooperation with someone else

@forgotmyusername1 that's nice I'm an ex food waste hero too. But I've seen other fwh not doing it properly. Sadly all the old ones don't do it anymore.

I mentioned up thread, that I give away far more than I get things. Its the time wasters that make me use it less and donate things to charity or just throw in the bin.

• A message such as 'mine' or 'I'll be 10mins' or I'll take'! They don't even know the exact address nor have asked for it!
• I offered a free hamster cage. 'I don't drive', so I provided the nearest bus stop details. I was travelling to near her house, so offered to drop it off and left it in the hall as described. I was given only a 3 star rating! There is a now a note on the app that people must collect the items themselves, but there wasn't at that time.
• 1 person was going back and forth with constant messages about when to collect, they were doing the school run, then they had the dentist and multiple other issues completely irrelevant to me. Finally, when we arranged a date/time/address- she said 'you have wasted my time, you live too far away! How am I supposed to get there?' The rough location is on the listing, along with how many km's away it is, so I have no idea why she didn't check that!

Used it once to see what it was like - collected a lucky dip haul from aldi

If it was lucky dip it would have been too good to go. Olio the food waste heroes list the items they have any you request which bits you want.

I agree. I signed up to it thinking it would be useful. The only FWH near me was 2 bus rides away. The shop he collected from was at the end of my road. So it was cheaper to just go and buy the yellow sticker items myself.

Could you volunteer as an olio collector and sign up to collect from that store?