Food rescue at your fingertips
THE team behind What A Waste (WAW) believes digitalisation is the way forward to reduce the amount of good food going to landfills.

Online access eliminates certain manual tasks and allows the social enterprise to recruit more food and beverage (F&B) sellers and operators as partners.

“Having a website or e-platform will speed up the process of getting more F&B partners onboard and ease their donation process,” said WAW co-founder and chief executive officer Angela Tan.

“The same website will also generate a QR code for recipients to redeem and collect their free food,” she explains.

WAW is a social enterprise that rescues surplus food (ready-to-eat or dry) and distributes them to communities in need.

Roszlita, with some laksa for donation, commends the service as it avoids wastage and assists the needy. — Photos: IZZRAFIQ ALIAS/The Star

Touted as the first organisation in Malaysia to provide food rescue services, WAW collects leftover food from events, such as weddings and corporate functions, and sends them to marginalised people.

WAW’s beneficiaries include B40 families, welfare homes, Orang Asli, refugee communities and the homeless.

“One of our signature initiatives is called ‘Saying I Do To The Environment’.

“This service to rescue surplus food from weddings offers couples a unique green wedding experience,” said WAW co-founder and chief commercial officer Alvin Chen.

“We have done more than 600 weddings and 160 corporate events over the past five years.

“Based on our experience, a wedding with 300 guests can expect to generate a food surplus weighing 75kg to 80kg.”

Alvin said WAW’s food rescue service at weddings had attracted local corporations, multinational companies and government-linked companies.

They were drawn to WAW’s environmental cause and saw that event-based food rescue missions were aligned with sustainable development goals that met their environmental, social and governance target.

WAW measures the weight of all their rescued food to calculate the amount of greenhouse gas (GhG) prevented from being released into the atmosphere and shares the data with its corporate clients.

Citing the United Nations guideline that 1kg of food waste in a landfill produces the equivalent of 2.5kg of GhG emissions, he said the 26.82 million kilogrammes of food rescued over WAW’s five years of operations had resulted in 67.05 million kilogrammes reduction of GhG

The food rescued over the same period is valued to be over RM20mil.

According to Alvin, WAW had to date impacted 196,000 beneficiaries in Klang Valley, Penang, Johor and Perak, and worked with 130 corporate partners.

On digitalisation, WAW is trialling a beta version of its e-platform at six Ramadan bazaars, where it is offering its food rescue service under a collaboration with Subang Jaya City Council (MBSJ).

The six bazaars are located at USJ4, USJ7, SS19, Pinggiran USJ, Puchong Indah and Putra Heights.

USJ4 Ramadan bazaar

“We’re trying to get bazaar traders themselves to register as donors, since they are familiar with the type and weight of food they sell.

“The digitalisation process will make it easier when they drop off any unsold food at WAW’s counter as they just need to scan a QR code to input the necessary details, as opposed to us having to manually weigh and calculate everything,” explained Tan.

She said the number of fully registered traders on WAW’s e-platform ranged from 20% to 30% in USJ4 and Puchong Indah while in SS19 and Putra Heights it was up to 90%.

“The challenge is in the number of stalls, as it’s easier to register traders at smaller bazaars.

“After the initial few days of getting used to the process, regular contributors will send food in individually packed portions to our counter, which makes it easier for us to send to our beneficiaries,” said Tan.

As of April 2, WAW has rescued 3.086 tonnes of unsold food (excluding drinks) from six bazaars under MBSJ.

“We are seeing a decline in the amount of daily surplus food.

USJ4 Ramadan bazaar is one of the sites under WAW’s e-platform trial, where any food that goes unsold can be donated by traders for distribution to communities in need.

“This is attributed to the ‘food sharing culture’ that we encourage among the vendors when they buka puasa,” said Alvin.

Roszlita Che Roslan, a first-time trader at the USJ4 Ramadan bazaar, said she was grateful for WAW’s efforts.

“The unsold food is not wasted and it’s a blessing that people in need can have some food.

“It is also good to be charitable during Ramadan,” said the 49-year-old who sells laksa, meehoon sup and kuih.

Roszlita found the registration process easy thanks to guidance from WAW’s volunteers.

She hoped similar food rescue services would be extended to other Ramadan bazaars, such as those in her hometown of Bayan Baru, Penang.

Community leaders Zaiful Azmera Zainal Abidin and Jamal Mohamed are happy to help transport and distribute rescued food to their respective communities.

Zaiful: Rescued food can feed 10 to 15 families a day.

“It’s a small act of charity on my part but it reduces waste that would otherwise be sent to landfills,” said Zaiful, who is Pangsapuri Angsana Rukun Tetangga (RT) chairman.

“The rescued food can feed between 10 and 15 families in a day, with priority given to single mothers, families with many children, senior citizens and the disabled.”

Jamal said the kuih, noodles and rice-based meals he transported would be distributed on a first come, first served basis at Pangsapuri SS19, of which he is RT chairman.

“It is very satisfying to help other people.

“I’ve known WAW since the (Covid-19)movement control order period when they came to provide essential items to the B40 people living here,” he said.

On future plans, Alvin hoped MBSJ and other local councils would consider working with WAW on a long-term basis to curb food waste sustainably, through the digital platform and introducing a food rescue service to F&B operators and hoteliers.

“MBSJ could impose conditions or incentivise restaurants and F&B stores by getting them to subscribe to a food rescue service.

“The city council could also consider giving a licence renewal discount to businesses that subscribe.

“This would help MBSJ save in terms of waste management costs,” he said.

Alvin also hopes to work with the corporate sector in acquiring an electric car or van to add more green value to WAW’s food rescue missions.
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THE team behind What A Waste (WAW) believes digitalisation is the way forward to reduce the amount of good food going to landfills.