Finland’s first “food waste” grocery store selling only surplus food products opened its doors on 20.9.2018 in Helsinki. Finn Church Aid’s WeFood store is based on the concept of its sister organization DanChurchAid. There are currently three WeFood stores up and running in Denmark.
In Finland, 450 million kilos of edible food is thrown away every year. The production of food puts a significant strain on the environment, so it is worth minimizing the amount of food being wasted. Every product purchased from WeFood is an act of preserving the environment.
The goal of the WeFood store is to redirect around 50 000 kilos of surplus food back to good use every year. WeFood sells food products received by donation, that would have otherwise ended up as waste. Their Best before dates are approaching or they are otherwise considered as second class goods. However, all products when sold are still perfectly edible.
The store is run for the most part by volunteers. At the store volunteers serve customers, stock shelves and take care of the general look of the store. Logistics volunteers pick up donations from partner companies.
WeFood’s partners include, for instance: Apetit, Meira, SamuFoods, Arvid Nordquist, Kaslink, Heinon Tukku, Ruohonjuuri, K-Market Sörnäistenniemi, Iittala and Ecolink. Donated surplus products are transported using a fully electric Nissan e-NV200 van. The charging of the EV is provided by Virta.
The WeFood store is located on the K1-floor, in the Sköne part of the shopping mall REDI, in Helsinki’s Kalasatama area. REDI is located at Hermannin rantatie 5.
More information
wefood.fi, #wefoodsuomi
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