One Page Summary

Food wastage is considered to be one of the most crucial issues raised in European Union nowadays. Food wastage is a situation where food resources (grain, vegetables and meat) is left to go bad or thrown away even if it is in good condition to be consumed. The project has two core objectives: 1) To minimise food waste of edible food in Tournai, and 2) To minimise the group of people who face food insecurity. The main aims of the project are to a) minimise the amount of wasted food in various levels of economic activity, e.g. supermarkets, shops, restaurants, catering services, hotels and other food industry companies, b) offer food to people who cannot satisfy their basic needs by offering them food that otherwise would be wasted, c) organize awareness raising workshops on food waste and circular economy for young people (aged between 16-25) in Tournai, since they are open-minded and could adopt new practices easier than any other age group.
A new unique mobile application will be the new innovation that will be established by this project. This application will enable food providers from Tournai or any other place in the region (or from all around Europe in a larger scale) to have easy access to a database that will connect them with organisations or individuals in need of food. The innovation of the project is based on: 1) the fact that food providers and organisations/individuals will be “connected” by a simple search in the mobile application database, 2) there are not previous attempts to train, raise awareness and enlighten the wider society for on food waste and circular economy, and 3) a new mobile application will be designed and implemented. Finally, the implementation of this project in Tournai/Belgium could been identified as a “pilot project”, in order to be able to expand it in European level.

The project will be implemented through the following tasks: 1) Task 1 - Review of the literature on smartphone applications targeting supporting older people, 2) Task 2 – Data collection and mapping (suppliers, logistics, associations, service users, volunteers), 3) Task 3 – Review of existing client/server, peer-to-peer and proximity based techniques/technologies, 4) Task 4 - Requirements and specifications analysis, and 5) Task 5 - Design and development of the smartphone application.

The project impact can be identified in various levels: 1) people with social and economic difficulties, 2) La Maison des Familles, 3) food industry companies, and 4) the wider society. More specific, impacts on people with social and economic difficulties can be summarized to the followings: 1) Get empowered with vital tools to respond to their needs, 2) Improve the quality of the services they receive, 3) Multiply the available services that could offered to people in need, 4) Find solutions to some basic human needs, 5) Minimise people’s marginalisation and social exclusion.

The project is capable of being scaled according to many different variables such as: 1) geographical level, 2) participant level, 3) language level and 4) cost level.

The Social Work Department and the Mobile Devices Laboratory of the Frederick University participate in this project. Social Work Department has been involved in numerous studies since its establishment in 2000. Most of them were funded by EU Solidarity Funds (e.g. EU-European Refuge Fund and EUIntegration Fund) and national organisations (e.g. Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour and Social Insurance). The Mobile Devices Laboratory of the Frederick University conducts research in the domains of: Mobile Computing, Smart Systems, Web and Cloud Computing, Computational Intelligence and Multi-Objective Optimization. The Mobile Devices Laboratory will undertake the task of developing an innovative smartphone application, namely SoFood (Save our Food) aiming at connecting suppliers with people in need.

The sustainability of the project can be assured due to the importance of the new innovative technology application that will be launched. The establishment of the mobile application can assure that the project can have a) long-term impact in the provision of support services to ol people with social and economic difficulties, b) will enforce the cooperation between parties interested in actions towards the protection of older people, c) there is no cost for retaining these services, and d) the use of the mobile application can be expanded in European level. The outcomes of the above actions will enable involved parties to advance knowledge and experiences in the specific field of services; moreover, this knowledge can inform further research, publication of journal articles and text books. Finally, Frederick University will remain responsible to expand the use of the mobile application to new organisations throughout Europe after the completion of the project.