A Social Gastronomy Hub to tackle the issue of food waste

Gastromotiva will build a self-sustainable social business model that can tackle food waste and its negative repercussions in cities. With a circular economy approach we will repurpose food surplus offering alternative supply chain and consumption solutions while connecting and educating all stakeholders, enhancing our reach and impact through technology.

Do you realise that you could feed the entire world with the food wasted along the value chain?

Did you know that to produce 1 kg of meat it requires around 15.000 liters of water?  

Imagine that if food waste was a country, it would be the third largest in CO2 gas emissions. 

So here we are discussing how to end hunger and reduce emissions, while we actually have a solution at hand.

We at Gastromotiva have been working with food education and job placement in the culinary art world for over ten years, and have started to take on the issue of food waste in the city of Rio de Janeiro since the 2016 Olympic Games. We transform food surplus into healthy meals for people in need within a beautiful restaurant school, the Refettorio Gastromotiva. Now we are ready to take this Social Gastronomy Hub to the next level.

We want to show the world how to enable this solution through a 2 year city pilot to rescue and transform 42 tons of food surplus, reducing 130 tons of GHG emissions, and educating more than 500.000 consumers, while building a sustainable social business model from the angle of circular economy. 

Using the Refettorio Gastromotiva as a base, the model will include four areas of actuation: a food surplus product and food line, educational events, experiences working with food waste and an online learning and community platform to learn and exchange about food waste reduction and food innovation, while still offering free meals for people in need at night. 

The long term vision is to use technology to connect food surplus to people in need and to run as an incubator for other food waste innovations & technologies. Our pilot shall auto-sustain itself and be replicable around the world.

More than 30% of the world's annual food production is wasted (1.3 billion tons) while 1 billion people are hungry and another 1 billion are malnourished (FAO). Waste of food has a significant impact on the environment and society. The carbon footprint that is produced but not consumed is estimated at 3.3 billion tons of Greenhouse Gases. If the world food waste were a country, it would be the third country in GHG emissions behind the US and China (WRI). The production of food that is wasted consumes 1,400 mill. (28% of the agricultural area) and 250km3 of water footprint.

Gastromotiva has worked with Social Gastronomy for 11 years collecting knowledge and best practices, we have a powerful network of chefs and opinion leaders that people follow and listen to. We have a strong media network that will allow to launch any campaign or product successfully with the backing of the big players (press coverage in Brazil worth 60million). Further we have suppliers and distributers waiting for us to act and bring alternatives for the market. So now we just need to put together the pieces, build the model, launch and share with the world through an open source philosophy.

The project has direct impact on the reduction of food waste and CO2 emissions. The solution will bring healthy and sustainable food product alternatives to consumers. Education about food waste will be available to a larger audience through an online platform having an indirect impact on food waste reduction through behavioral change. Social entrepreneurs will have access to an tested model through an open source sharing of our methodology, best practices and toolboxes to reduce food waste on different levels. Rio de Janeiro will be able to showcase an example of circular economy when supported by the right policies. 

Measure the amount of food saved from food waste by transforming it into food products, calculating the CO2 emission reduction by saving that food - Reduction of 42 tons of food waste over 2 years, leading to a reduction of 130 tons of CO2.​

Track number of users signing up to the platform and number of society members reached through viewing tracker. - Reaching 10.000 new members of the online platform in the first two years that will get a certified education and tool boxes around food waste reduction to empower them to become multipliers. Reaching 500.000 society members through the campaign efforts.

Track number of products sold - 10.000 consumers buying sustainable products sold issued from this project as an alternative to what is available in the supermarkets during the next 2 years.

Gastromotivas DNA is to connect people, many urban problems can be solved creating bridges and educating people from different social backgrounds. First the developed technology will enable to scale the access to educational content around food waste reduction and nutrition, democratising the knowledge. Once the social business auto-sustains itself, the next step is to develop an app to connect food surplus to underprivileged communities, giving them access to healthy and affordable food. The solution is unique because it creates dialogue, connects people, aligns them on same goals and empowers them to help each other through win-win situations. 

In a city like Rio de Janeiro, surplus food (especially fruits and vegetables) are been discarded only a few miles from favelas that have little access to healthy food. Most of the underprivileged population have a very unhealthy diet and little knowledge on processing fruits and vegetables, conserving food and reducing food waste. Being already present in Rio de Janeiro for some years, our solution can directly be tested and implemented. The goal is to create a solid methodology, scale it with technology, pilot it in Rio de Janeiro, make it replicable and drive policy changes.

Long term change through education:

-Online courses that can be used via mobiles. 62% of Brazilians were mobile phone users in 2014 (expected 70% in 2019). The courses are free, users only pay for final exams and diplomas. When they pay they have the option to pay for someone who can’t afford the final exam.

-Consumer education through products and events

-All our profit will be reinvested in Gastromotiva’s social activities targeting people from underprivileged and discriminated backgrounds empowering them to help their families and community as multipliers. They are trained to become food entrepreneurs or kitchen assistants.

The Inter-American development Bank (IADB) agreed to invest in the project, they offered us 2 consultants for 6 months to develop the business plan and the budget and they are investing US$ 900.000 over two years.

In order to sustain the project our team takes advantage of current resources such as the Refettorio GM (RG) space to drive revenues. For example our teams in Rio are already selling the RG space for events.  

The team is currently looking for US$ 500.000 of investment to reach 100% of the investment needed for the project. The idea is already being pitched to several of our regular sponsors and new partners.

The team’s salaries are being paid by GM’s sponsors.

Various of GMs partners agreed to provide us with in-kind products and services, such as advice, consulting, legal advisory etc…

-Gastromotiva is still looking for part of the investment for the project.

-The Brazilian bureaucracy is slowing the project down.

-Most similar projects are in developed countries with very different problems from Brazil, it is difficult to find best practices that are applicable to Brazil.

-Brazilian’s political and economical crisis affecting us directly.

-Dependence on sponsors because of limited revenues, the social business should help overcoming that dependence.

-Low experience with technology, but this limiting factor is reduced through partnerships, such as the partnership with Iamthecode organising a Hackaton at the RGM in September 2017.

https://www.facebook.com/gastromotiva/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKSUTN0bhwc

http://www.gastromotiva.org/en/

GM is currently present in 4 major Brazilian cities, Mexico-city and Cape-town. The brand visibility in Brazil is strong, but the goal is to have a more global impact and visibility to influence other change makers, joining Solve would help us to gain international credibility. 

GM would benefit from Solve’s mentorship and expertise when developing the technology.

GM is interested in joining forces with other change-makers in order to increase the impact. GM can help other Solve change-maker who are developing innovative food products to enter the Brazilian market through partnerships or co-branding.

-The IADB

-Chefs network

-Hotel chains such as Marriott and Hyatt

-Food companies such as Coca cola, Cargill and Carrefour. 

-Food surplus providers who are major food distributors such as Benassi and BRF

-Global organisations such as the WEF of the World back

-The FAO

-Iamthecode for the Hackaton

Our competitors are mainly local food producers and local event venues