Our project is nation-wide and responds to the need for strengthening organizations providing food aid or interested in such activities. In Poland, nearly 5 million tons of food is wasted, whereas one household wastes nearly 100 kilos (according to: Program for Rationalization and Reduced Food Waste). Simultaneously, due to the pandemic, the group of people forced to take advantage of food aid has increased (according to: Report of the Federation of Polish Food Banks entitled “Do not waste food 2020″). Therefore, we decided it was important to support entities which solve the problem of food surpluses and share it with those who need it as part of the system.

The objective of the project is to develop mechanisms improving operating standards and increasing funds for such organizations. The project is to support 350 small local non-governmental organizations from all around Poland – we plan to share our and our partner’s knowledge about safety management in food distribution with them, support the development of competencies of their employees by networking and professional advisory as well as develop fundraising mechanisms (from public and private funds), which will translate into better financing for such organizations.
An educational program containing tutorials, an e-book, and how-to articles will be created as part of the project. We also plan a series of webinars and a quarterly newsletter. We also predict advocacy activities in the area of the functioning of the Act of Counteracting Food Waste of 2019 thanks to the development of legal recommendations based on the evaluation conducted.
The project is conducted in partnership with a Norwegian equivalent of the Federation of Polish Food Banks (Matsentralen Norge). Its participation will allow us to obtain a larger number of solutions and good practices i.a. in the area of sustainable development and presentation of system solutions for supporting organizations during a series of (online) meetings and study tours.