CITY FOOD REDISTRIBUTION

The FoodDrop Project is a collaborative initiative with FareShare and The Felix Project that addresses food poverty across London. Jat has been instrumental in spearheading this project, ensuring that thousands of individuals have access to nutritious meals. This effort alone has positively impacted countless lives across the city, having recently hit an incredible milestone of delivering 2 million meals to those in need.

Overcoming Challenges with Innovative Solutions

Through applying innovative and fresh thinking to existing challenges in food supply, The Wasu Charitable Foundation, FareShare, and The Felix Project overcame significant barriers, integrating resources for efficient food management and utilisation.

Addressing Inefficiencies and Challenges

Supermarkets have long faced inefficiency and high disposal costs for surplus food, while community members were going without essential food. The COVID-19 pandemic worsened food supply issues for redistribution charities, highlighting the need for new alliances. Reduced demand for warehouse space during the pandemic presented an opportunity to use vacant spaces for charitable activities. Transporting unused food posed logistical challenges, necessitating a collaborative approach involving supermarkets, logistics companies, charities, and distributors. The FoodDrop Project addressed all of these challenges by leveraging various stakeholders’ strengths and resources to create an efficient food redistribution system.

Reducing Food Waste and Alleviating Poverty

Jat and his project partners shared common goals of reducing food waste and alleviating food poverty. Resource utilisation was optimised, with FareShare providing free software and The Felix Project offering warehouse space. Operational integration created a comprehensive distribution framework, and ongoing contributions supported hot meal production.

Scaling the Vision

The vision to redistribute surplus food at a large scale was realised by Jat’s investment in a 20-tonne lorry, enabling the movement of over £10 million worth of food since January 2023. This logistical capability also allowed The Felix Project to scale hot meal production to 3,400 meals daily.

Lasting Impact of The FoodDrop Project

Thanks to Jat’s enduring vision and commitment to taking action, The FoodDrop Project has led to reduced waste management costs for supermarkets, increased food distribution capacity for charities (120,000 meals weekly and growing), efficient use of distribution centre space, and successful execution of the Foundation’s vision.