10 Reasons To Join Oddbox in our Food Waste Revolution
There’s plenty of brilliant businesses who Crowdfund every, single day and don’t make it, so what makes our #wonkyvegrevolution worth it?
Apart from saving the world one wonky veg at a time, we want to make sure you know the values that drives us and who and what you’ll be joining. So here’s 10 reasons why officially becoming an Oddboxer counts to a whole lot more than just wonky veg.
1. You’re helping fight food waste.
First and foremost this is the driving force behind Oddbox. Food waste affects everyone from families to farms and we want to do our bit to reduce it. Over £17 billion worth of food is wasted every year in the UK with the average family wasting £60 a month on food that just goes straight in the bin.
On a farm level, 20%-40% of produce grown here being wasted before it even leaves the farms. With Oddbox, not only are we creating a marketplace for this wonky and surplus food waste and donating up to 10% to local charities working with the hungry, like City Harvest, we’re playing a part in creating a more sustainable food system which will help everyone. It’s quite literally a win, win situation.
2. You’re helping support British farmers
Food waste isn’t just a environmental and humanitarian nightmare, it’s a financial one too. Growing a crop only to be told that it doesn’t look quite right, is no longer needed or one of the other many reasons food becomes waste can have a huge financial toll on farms who not only pay for labour but the time, water, packing that goes into bringing a crop to the shops.
We’re providing an avenue for growers to be paid fairly for that ‘wasted’ crop and while some of the surplus veg and fruit we take aren’t grown in the UK, we will always prioritise taking British produce over anything grown abroad.
3. You’ll be part of a growing market
The online grocery market is expected to double by 2022. We’re in the right place at the right time to take advantage of this and you’ll have a piece of the pie too!
4. We’re a sustainable business
A lot of companies talk the talk but everything we do from our peppers to packaging has sustainability behind it. While our main objective is to limit food waste and sell this amazing wonky and surplus produce to consumers, it’s so much more than that to us. We use 100% recyclable or reusable boxes, go plastic free wherever possible (unless pre-packaged and surplus) and what we can’t put in the boxes we donate to charity or dispose of responsibly.
5. We have a strong community of people who love our wonky veg
With a 9.6 score on Trustpilot and 1 in 5 customers recommending us to friends and family, we’ve created a strong community of wonky veg lovers who are committed to our brand.
6. You’re creating a fairer system
The system as we know it isn’t working. Our aim isn’t just to tackle food waste but to normalise the consumption of wonky produce. By joining us you can actively be a part of the #wonkyvegrevolution tackling ridiculous cosmetic food standards and plastic waste.
7. We’re a strong team committed to sustainable business practise
We are run by a founding team who have over 20 years experience in Fortune 500 companies including the Nike Foundation’s project for the empowerment of girls, Girl Effect. We have the support of advisors who have industry experience in fresh produce, PR and business strategy. But aside from the business, our founder Emilie comes from a family of potato farmers in Northern France so knows first-hand the time and effort that goes into producing food and what an effect needless waste has!
8. Helping the hungry
By buying one of our veg boxes you’re helping support people in London who are going hungry. We donate up to 10% of our produce to local charities like City Harvest, to date rescuing over 12 tonnes and providing over 90,000 meals to vulnerable people — without your help we wouldn’t be able to do so!
9. We’re healthy and convenient!
Plant based eating isn’t a trend. With our box you and your family can eat healthily and help the environment without even leaving your home. What could be better than that?
10. Saving food waste saves the planet
Rescuing food waste also has a knock on effect on the planet, saving water resources and limiting carbon footprints. Eliminating global food waste would save 4.4million tonnes of Co2 a year, the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road. And it’s estimated that if only one quarter of the food currently lost or wasted was saved, it could feed 870 million hungry people!