Is Anyone An Olio Volunteer

Frugalistamama

I have been thinking about volunteering by collecting and distributing food for Olio. Does anyone do this? What has been your experience?

elsien

I’ve not done it, but I’ve spoken to one of the area leaders about it. Her advice was to start off with a smaller shop while you get to grips with things. Having 100 bags of salad to store/get rid of isn’t something you want to be doing on your first attempt. It can also means some late nights – people around me who are listing food which is use by that day tend to say pick up by midnight. 

shykins

i volunteer for Olio.   i enjoy doing it cos i cant bear food waste but it can be hard work especially the evening collections where you have to distribute the Use By items before midnight of the same day

Use the app a bit as a requester and get used to how it works,  have a chat with the person you request from and they will tell you a bit more and you can let them know you are interested if any slots are available.   if you can start with a smaller shop  or a one off as the large tescos often have hundreds of items

shout if anything else you want to know

Rosa_Damascena

It helps to have a large fridge and also do a pre-listing on the days you are collecting, to prime your regular requesters. You want people to snap the perishables up at a time that suits you rather than have people knocking at all hours of the night. There are inevitably items you will have to find a way of disposing of, usually salads and bakery goods IME. So it's good to have a Plan B - eg homeless shelter - in your sights,

I'm not an Olio volunteer but do collect TGTG bags regularly - anything non-vegetarian or surplus to met needs go on the site. 

Frugalistamama

Yes I hate food waste too. I do use them to pick up food sometimes. I just worry what would happen to all the food you can't give away in time, I'm 
Not sure even a homeless shelter would take it off its part it's used by? 

elsien

The surplus bread, and salady stuff from one of my volunteers where I am gets advertised as animal food and tends to be collected by someone who keeps goats.
Volunteers  will also sometimes put a box out saying “free help yourself” so I might pick up a few things I haven’t wanted to request to start with because I didn’t want to be greedy. 

shykins

People are often a bit shy about asking for too much but when they come to collect i show them what i have left and encourage them to take whatever they can use.  they soon get used to the fact we have more and they dont need to be shy
it takes time to build up regular collectors but now i often have 15-20 people collecting off me and most of it goes with very little waste.   if its still in date but no one wants it I have a few people who will request and collect for their pets but i do live in a rural area so that helps 

you can give to home less shelters/ambulance/police/fire station etc but only if its still in date the day you hand it over which can mean late night visits so it depends on how close you are