Cyprus Mail 27 October 2020 - by Eleni Philippou
All fruit and vegetables deserve to be eaten says a new local initiative that delivers them straight to your door. So much of Cyprus’ fresh produce goes to waste before even reaching the consumer due to aesthetic requirements, a fact that RescuedBox hopes to go some way to reversing.
RescuedBox delivers fresh fruit and veg to smembers every Monday. It’s a family venture, run by Malvina Nicolaou, who works closely with local farmers’ cooperatives to collect produce that supermarkets have rejected because items are classified as ‘ugly’ or there was an oversupply. They are then packaged in recyclable boxes and sent off.
“We want to build a community with like-minded people that promotes healthy eating and living sustainably,” Malvina said. “We also have a target of saving 500 tonnes by end of 2021”. An impressive goal.
Around 4,000 tonnes of fresh produce in Cyprus are wasted every year, the wasted energy used to produce them only adding to climate change issues. “It’s become more evident that the climate crisis is affecting our lives on a daily basis,” Malvina explained. “We are very far from reaching our 2050 targets and governments are not doing enough. Cyprus, when it comes to food waste, is really high up on the list just behind the big guys in Europe and for our population that is shocking. I’m hoping this initiative changes mindsets and with our community we can firstly change our everyday habits then demand change.”
For Malvina, this shift began about a year ago when moved into vegetarianism. It was small changes over time that deepened her drive to combat the big issues. Her love for travelling has also contributed to her growing concern over waste and climate change. Having lived in China, one of the epicentres of carbon emissions, she realised that people are not doing enough to save the planet and that citizens are not being educated on how to reduce waste, say no to plastic and find alternatives.
During lockdown, Malvina was in London where she became obsessed with cooking – like many others – and came across a subscription-based company delivering so-called ugly fruit and veg. “These ugly but fresh fruits and veggies that were destined for landfills became my best friends,” she said “and I spent most of the time in the kitchen with my flatmates coming up with new and exciting meals. But it didn’t stop there, I started looking into waste in Cyprus and I was appalled to find how much food we throw away.” Hence RescuedBox was born.
They now work closely with farmers in Paralimni with fresh produce coming from all over Cyprus. Rescuing fruits and vegetables, with their odd sizes and shapes gives a second chance to local produce, something the farming collaborators are extremely excited for as well, as their efforts no longer go to waste either.
Each week – or every other week if you choose a bi-weekly subscription – seasonal produces arrives at your door. You won’t know what’s in the package until you receive it as the selection is based on what is fresh and needs rescuing that week. Just before the boxes are sent off, RescuedBox’s Instagram account shares what is included that week.
“We do understand that people want to know what will be included in their box and plan out their meals so an easy way of doing that is communicating this via social media. A short-term goal is to provide recipes of the week inside the box that use the fresh ingredients,” Malvina said.
Another plan for the future is to collect and reuse the boxes or either recycle at scale if they can’t be reused to avoid further waste. For the time being building a community with like-minded people who believe these ‘ugly’ fruits and veggies also deserve to be eaten is RescuedBox’s primary goal. Along with trying to eliminate hunger by donating 10 per cent to families in need.
How the boxes work is simple and the website guides you step by step. The small box, costing €10.90, rescues three types of fruit and seven varieties of veggies – perfect for individuals or couples. The medium box saves four types of fruit and eight varieties of veggies for €14.40 and is ideal for two to three people. The biggest box, for families of four to five people, delivers four types of fruit and nine varieties of vegetables for €17.90.
And Malvina said the feedback has been overwhelming: “It seems that people in Cyprus are looking for, more than ever before, alternative ways to help the environment and do their bit for our community.”
The pandemic with its rise in deliveries has surely helped in shifting perspectives and getting more people acquainted with ordering food online. “Covid 19 brought a lot of changes in the way that we think and act. The main industry that was severely hit was the tourism industry and as a result we saw a huge production of fresh fruit and veggies going to waste due to the lack of demand from hotels mainly and restaurants,” stated Malvina. “On the other hand, people in Cyprus are more inclined to purchase things online either for their own convenience or simply to avoid places with a lot of people.”
Food is undeniably a big part of the Cypriot culture, yet a lot of it is left to rot in landfills. RescuedBox aims to combat the mountain that is food waste on the island, one rescuedbox at a time.
RescuedBox
www.rescuedbox.com. Social Media: RescuedBox. info@rescuedbox.comTel: 96-776476
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