A balm for three wounds: The Support Project (1)

The Support Project, run by the Basic Needs Association, of which I am a founder, focuses on creating solutions by constructively connecting three major social problems: waste, poverty, and unemployment. We are committed to expanding the Support Project nationwide, which connects tons of needlessly wasted goods to those in need, and these people with job opportunities. In this week’s article, I primarily address the issue of waste and combating it.

 

I won’t mince words. Perhaps I’ll say the last sentence I should say right up front so the importance of this article is understood. The Support Project is a national issue. It’s a solution to some of Turkey’s most important social problems. Why? Because:

1. It’s the most serious and systematic effort to prevent waste.
2. It meets the basic needs of those in need, such as food, cleaning products, and clothing, by offering them the opportunity to shop at a high-standard supermarket, in other words, in a way befitting human dignity.
3. Most importantly, the association’s main mission is to enable people to stand on their own feet. This is achieved through the vocational training programs conducted by Destek Human Resources (Support HR) in cities. (After completing and transferring the Yırca project, TIDER will continue rural development projects in other locations outside the city in the future.)

We want to deploy the Support Project, consisting of the Support Market and Support HR, which is of such great importance, throughout Turkey. Türkiye and the world urgently need such an integrated social system. In this article, I will discuss how the Support Project offers a solution to waste and the extent of waste in Turkey and globally. To this end, I will summarize the discussions at the panel entitled An Effective Collaboration Model for Preventing Food Waste: Food Banking, which I moderated and which we organized as TIDER (Basic Needs Association) at the World Food Fair last month. This panel discussion, in collaboration with our major donors Barilla and CHEP, included executives from the European Food Banking Association (FEBA). The discussions on this panel clearly illustrate the extent of waste.

While speaking at the panel

The panel began with my presentation. After explaining TIDER and the Destek project, I gave the first floor to Barilla’s Director of Corporate Communications and External Relations, Dr. A. Hakan Göker.

“Good for you, good for the planet.”

Mr. Hakan delivered a compelling presentation, truly embracing and embracing the issue of waste. To summarize, he began by sharing Barilla’s motto: “Good for you, good for the planet.” He then shared his company’s most important principles: “Not producing anything they wouldn’t feed their children.”

Isn’t it wonderful? Frankly, since we started working with Barilla, I haven’t been able to be objective when grocery shopping. Products from a company with such a strong philosophy are very appealing to me. I choose Barilla when buying pasta.

Hakan Göker continued by sharing some important information:

1. Approximately 800 million people worldwide go hungry. Over 2 billion people struggle with issues related to excess food and unbalanced nutrition.
2. 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted annually. This is enough to feed the hungry around the world four times over. Because of this wasteful consumption, it’s impossible for the hungry to meet their needs.
3. By 2050, if we continue with this consumption model, not even three planets will be able to meet the needs of the total population.
4. The Milan Protocol, signed by Barilla, is taking important steps to address these problems. Accordingly, they aim to:

• Eliminate hunger.
• Develop a sustainable agricultural model.
• Take significant steps to prevent waste. (They have a goal of reducing waste by 50% by 2020.)

 

Finally, Göker announced that Barilla Turkey has made nearly 30 tons of edible products a part of human life and recycled them.

Following Hakan Bey, Yeşim Pekdüz Broet, Project Manager of the FEBA (European Federation of Food Banks), took the floor. Ms. Yeşim, a French woman of Turkish origin, began her speech by giving examples from Europe in her beautiful French-accented, fluent Turkish. Accordingly, she explained:

The paradox of hunger and waste

Poverty is a significant problem in Europe. Approximately 123 million citizens in the EU (one-quarter of the population) live below the poverty line. 48 million of them only eat one meal a day. Without social assistance in Europe, it would be impossible for these people to make ends meet. Yet, 55 million tons of food are wasted each year.

She then explained what they are doing to prevent waste in the EU. They work in different areas. Some of these include:

1) FEBA’s model, which has been operating for 30 years, is not to buy food for money (in other words, we are implementing the same model without informing each other).

2) Finding volunteers is difficult in some countries (it is very difficult to find volunteers in Turkey; unfortunately, a significant majority of the population lacks a concept of volunteering). The collected food is distributed to food banks.

3) 1 Euro of goods collected by FEBA members is equivalent to 8-9 Euros of goods (the same multiplier effect applies to us). This multiplier effect is created because they label products at cost, and often even below cost.

Finally, Ms. Yeşim emphasized the importance of FEBA’s work with long-term donors. The same applies to us. This work wouldn’t work without them.

Objective is ‘Zero Hunger’

The final speaker of the panel was Şafak Aktekin, General Manager of CHEP Turkey, who has made significant contributions to our association (TIDER). CHEP Turkey offers pallet pooling services. The company’s goal is to provide sustainable solutions to increase supply chain efficiency and reduce the high costs of pallet management. CHEP, the choice of major global companies for its pallet pooling services, offers sustainable solutions to increase supply chain efficiency and reduce the high costs of pallet management.

Şafak Bey touched on the following points in his speech:

He stated that one of the 18 articles of the United Nations Manifesto is the ‘zero hunger’ goal, and that this can be achieved by preventing waste. He explained that being in the pallet business, they are saddened by the waste they witness and are working with FEBA in Europe and TIDER in Turkey to address this issue. After noting that fruit and vegetable waste reaches 50%, he spoke about the support they provide and will continue to provide to TIDER:

1. They are volunteering,
2. They will not charge rental fees to food companies that donate,
3. They will donate to TIDER the number of pallets used illegally,
4. They act as TIDER ambassadors while visiting food companies and encouraging them,
5. They also support interviews and other processes at Destek HR.

 

This panel also generated significant media coverage. It received widespread coverage in local and national media. Here’s the news about the panel we organized:

 

Thanks to CHEP, Barilla, and our other important donors, thousands of people benefit from our Support Market. By doing this, we systematically prevent waste. We also work closely with organizations like FEBA and GFN (Global Food Banking Network, headquartered in the US), and we constantly share information.

We are working to expand Support Markets

Food and cleaning product manufacturers donate products nearing their expiration dates, surplus products, or products they wish to donate to Support Markets, and we ensure these products are consumed before their expiration dates. These products include packaged goods you can buy from supermarkets, foods like rice and flour, which we repackage because their packaging is intact, cleaning products like detergents, and essential items like fruits, vegetables, and bread. (It’s important to note that our packaging operations are carried out in two separate rooms for food and detergent.)

Our first pilot market in Maltepe achieved significant success. Now, it’s time to break free and move to the next level, establishing a Support Market on the Bağcılar-Esenler line, perhaps the most problematic area of ​​Istanbul on the European side.

In this article, I wrote about the extent of waste in Turkey and globally, and how the Support Market helps prevent it. Support us at the Istanbul Marathon so we can open our second-largest Support Market and take the necessary steps to prevent waste.

In my next article, I’ll write about the second of the three benefits of the Support Project: Meeting Basic Needs.

Registration for the Istanbul Marathon has been extended to 15 October. Those who would like to support us can register for the Istanbul Marathon at http://www.istanbulmarathon.org/ , then log in to the Goodness Pursuit Run (İPK) Platform and select TIDER in İPK. Thanks in advance to all those who support us.

Take care,

Tag: social responsibility