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Source: DELFI / Josvydas Elinskas
In the boxes, there are other fruits, green salads, milk, meat, cheeses, spices, even non-essential products like cold or instant coffee, cookies, cheeses, cakes, cereal bars and others.
The organization estimates that they manage to save 5,000 tons of food a year, which was doomed to discard. This year alone, there are around 600 tons of these products.
“We are currently in a situation where two absurd things are happening in the world: we are throwing away large amounts of food with one hand, about a third of all food produced is thrown away, but there are people on the other side. that they are still short of food. Although being eaten all the time is basically a natural human right. In my head, this is the case, “says Dovilė Kovalskytė, Business Partnership Manager at Maisto Bankas.
Source: DELFI / Kiril Chachovsky
Delfi begins a storytelling cycle The power of support, during which readers and viewers are invited to meet different organizations working to address a variety of social and even global issues. Although we often seem too small to face challenges of this magnitude, no one has been able to do this for decades or even centuries, each of us can contribute to change. These organizations are a great proof of this, as they are all united and driven by the power of support.
Every day he visits 83 stores throughout Lithuania.
D. Kovalskytė joined the activities of this organization more than a decade ago. She is now a full-time employee, but began her career here as a volunteer. So, says the interlocutor, like most people, I thought that the main activity of the organization is promotions in stores, during which long-lasting products are collected.
In reality, however, these foods, which are often bought from us as support, do not represent even 7%. all food handled by the organization. Most of it is almost 60 percent. – are products obtained from merchants.
Dovilė says that volunteers who started work early in the morning have visited 83 shopping malls across Lithuania at noon. The interviewee laughs that he still has doubts about whether the Food Bank works on weekends. Otherwise, she says, simply to save the food, she would travel to the landfill.
Source: DELFI / Kiril Chachovsky
“Most of the food, that’s what we get from the retail chains, is actually last minute products. So yes, organizations have to consume them the same day and deliver them to people the same day. As a result, we rush to work in the morning.
What we get from other food suppliers, that is, logistics companies, manufacturers, there are a variety of options. Sometimes we receive products that are valid for months, but they, for example, decided to withdraw it from the market ”, explains D. Kovalskytė, so the food reaches their warehouses.
Source: DELFI
You make a big mistake when you think of poor quality products
If you think that only very poor quality products end up in such warehouses, you are making a big mistake. Dovilė says that products are often taken off the shelves due to, for example, bent reusable packaging – no one just buys them anymore. Food with slight manufacturing defects also arrives here. Let’s say the meatballs had to be square, but when they started their production run, an error occurred and the corners were cut off. Such disasters are no longer even shipped to stores.
The interviewee laughs that the organization often has to sell occasional products, such as Easter sweets, which are perfectly fit for consumption but are taken off the market at the end of the holidays.
“About 25 percent. All CO2 emissions are produced in the food supply chain around the world. This is more than in aviation. Everyone thinks that aviation is a big polluter, but the supply of Food is much more polluting than aviation and a third of it is wasted.
We have had an impact on the planet, we have emitted CO2, we have consumed many liters of water, we have used arable land, we are cutting down forests, species are disappearing because we are cutting down forests to grow crops or raise animals, and then we take and throw away all that food ”, – D. Kovalskytė shares data.
Dovilė Kovalskytė. Source: DELFI / Kiril Chachovsky
According to the organization, most of the products that are no longer necessary but are still suitable for consumption are fruits and vegetables, bakery products and various cereals. The organization distributes up to 8,000 tonnes of food worth around € 13 million a year to the poor. Products donated by people and European aid to those most in need also contribute to the food saved by the organization.
“It was also something very, very beautiful here, what happened in the spring, when, of course, restaurants, hotels, school canteens, and all the rest were suddenly closed to everyone. It was a very good wave of food that we received from these institutions. You have a pantry with you, you don’t know when you can open it, many restaurants gave us those foods and it was a great help.
We calculate that one euro donated to a food bank generates 15 food rations or 7.5 kg ”, says the interlocutor.
Source: DELFI
Almost no one is thrown away
According to Dovilė, almost nothing is thrown away from the collected products. It is true that not all are suitable for immediate use. The interviewee shows a kitchenette installed by the organization, where overripe fruit is turned into jams, other perishable products, canned soups or similar longer-lasting dishes.
Some of these products are also distributed to shelters and other soup kitchens that can consume this type of food on the same day. Some of the remaining products are sent to dog or cat shelters at the end of the day and are not suitable for animals to be handed over to farmers for composting.
“Not everyone knows that the food bank distributes only a very small part of its products directly to people. Most of our products are distributed to other organizations. There are about 600 of them in Lithuania. And in what kind of organization would think, we will probably work with that organization and support that organization with food ”, says D. Kovalskytė.
Source: DELFI / Kiril Chachovsky
When asked if her own life has changed since she joined such activities, Dovilė laughs that she sees the consequences more in her children. According to the woman, they are very careful about food waste.
“They try to take care of what is on the plate themselves. And what to do now mom if I don’t want to eat, hence a food waste. Well, that’s what I have to do now with that pasta, ”he repeats the children’s questions.
“What to do with that pasta?” I ask.
“Mum puts them in a box, in the fridge and then, the next day, she thinks about what to do with them, where to integrate them”, smiles D. Kovalskytė.
Dovilė Kovalskytė. Source: DELFI / Kiril Chachovsky
How to save time in the store and money on food
We all probably remember the teachings of my grandmother or my mother that bread should not be thrown away. An old Lithuanian superstition says that whoever throws away the remains of bread and does not give them to the birds will become poor.
Paradoxically, a representative survey of the population carried out by Maisto Bankas and Swedbank shows that bread is more frequently found in Lithuanian garbage bins.
Every year, around 2,000 volunteers from the organization try to save as much of the food lost in the supply chain as possible, but Deauville reminds us that we are responsible for the other half of the wasted products and offers a recipe to avoid it.
Source: DELFI
“There are two important directions that I think each of us should start moving in. One direction, of course, is how you handle food at home. The best thing that will require a little patience and concentration is meal planning. On Sunday, you sit at home and plan: beetroot soup on Monday, kugelis on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. What will I need for this and that? And I buy only what I need and plan for the whole week. We practice this in home and we save a lot of time that you can spend at the store, well what to eat here today, maybe that, maybe that, maybe a third.
What is most difficult for less creative people in the kitchen is that it is very difficult to know what to do with leftovers. I myself am not a very creative person in the kitchen and it is a great challenge for me. That is, you are either creative and know how to handle leftovers, or you just plan your meal. I choose to plan ”, the interviewee shares useful advice for everyone.
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