There were shocking images that were recently shown in a video on nachrichten.at: Huge amounts of expired meat from a large trading company that is destroyed in a biogas plant. Every third bull ends up in the garbage, said Austria’s largest dairy farmer. Around one million tons of food are thrown away in Austria every year.
However, resistance to this careless waste of valuable resources has been growing for a long time. “Food sharing, use instead of wasting” is the name of one of these initiatives. The “Foodsavers” have been on the road in Steyr for a year now.
“It’s unbelievable that food is given so little appreciation,” says Antonella Enciu. The 38-year-old school assistant from Steyr has been a food saver for a year and shortly thereafter founded the Steyr foodsharing group together with 39-year-old CPR teacher Thomas Dorl – with resounding success. The duo has now become a small “army” of 117 food rescuers in the region. In 481 missions, 4939 kilograms of valuable food have been saved from destruction.
She herself came across the topic through a friend, reports Enciu: “Before that, I always shopped as regionally as possible and avoided certain foods. But I would never have thought of collecting expired goods and recycling them.” Since then, however, the mother of a daughter has saved expired groceries from destruction, which is as certain as it is pointless, with growing enthusiasm. The aim is to collect expired goods from the partner companies, from meat to fruit and vegetables, dairy products, frozen goods or bread to pet food, and to put them to good use. In the Steyr region, the Unimarkt, the purveyors to the court, Adeg Garsten and the WOK-Kaiser are currently taking part in the campaign. You are guaranteed a 100% purchase of expired goods. Other companies that wish to participate are welcome.
“We Foodsavers certainly have a great responsibility,” says Enciu, “all of this food is still edible, we only sort out what is moldy or spoiled.” The rest is put to sensible use: “The women’s shelter, the day center, the emergency shelter, the tavern or even refugee families receive part. I divide another part among friends and neighbors or I cook it up. The nice thing about it is: I have the certainty that I’m doing something good.”
Source: Nachrichten
