One Page Summary

Over 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted per year at the global level. As per the European Commission, over 88 million tons of food is wasted in the EU each year, of which at least a quarter is edible. Belgium is one of the main European Union members wasting food. The food industry and retail are responsible for almost 70% of the food waste in Belgium.  
A recent regulation in Belgium states that supermarkets must donate its unsold goods to an authorized association. There different apps and web platforms in other countries doing something similar, but Belgian markets and associations are still adapting to this. The European Commission has set actions to prevent food waste as part of the Circular Economy Package.
The challenge we propose to solve is not just the food waste problem that affects the urban and modern world, but mainly to tackle the lack of connection between companies that have surplus food and are open to donating and the social organisations and associations that are in need.
Associations around the world are always struggling to have constant and fixed donations. There are always people willing to help and to donate, but it is not always simple to coordinate, to find the right institution to communicate.
In this sense, the solution we are proposing rests on the combination of our expertise - development of websites/ platform and digital app - and our desire to use the web for good and to have a more profound social impact.
We aim to connect and close the gap between retail and food businesses willing to donate surplus food and social associations and organisations that are in need and will redistribute the food.
The solution aims first to create awareness of both industry/business and general public, and consequently promote and foster action. With this platform, we believe we are in fact giving birth to a hub where we facilitate, not only the distribution and focus the inventory of wasted food, but also we provide authenticity and reachability to the process.
In order to make the app and its goal a reality, we will create a connection with essentially three main parts/actors: volunteers, business (e.x.: supermarkets, restaurants), receivers (charity institutions, care centres etc). All of the actors will have a personal account in the platform and will receive alerts when there is food available to be picked-up.
The idea is to develop a simple solution that can connect these different actors in one single platform with tools that will facilitate their interaction and mainly foster their participation and donation.
One of the most import aspects of the platform will be to provide traceability, mainly for the food perishables, since it’s a matter of public safety. We envision this functionality to work with the mobile application for easier integration of the different providers in the network. The app would work as a checkpoint for a particular user to stamp a point in the chain of custody. The web application, on the other hand, would provide a global view of all the goods and their state.
We want the technology behind this product to be available to the tech community. Working with an Open Source technology and making the code available, will enable the platform to be constantly improved and replicable in different cities, regions and countries.
This new product from Marzee Labs, serves as the perfect opportunity to use our expertise in web development and the intention to have a social impact. We are a socially responsible company, and for this, we encourage our team constantly to contribute to the community mainly through volunteering hours. This is actually one of the ways we aim to maintain the platform working.
The cost to maintain the platform available can be a point of struggle and for that, we think that opening the possibility to receive donations can solve this problem.