A pilot food waste management programme is about to be launched in Paphos, chairwoman of Paphos’ social welfare committee Mariella Theophanous has said.
The food waste programme will give families in need excess food from restaurants, cafés and bakeries, while also supporting environmental sustainability.
After businesses close for the day, they will give away the unsold food and in some cases the restaurants will cook meals specifically for the needy families.
The proposed project was unanimously approved at a plenary session of the Paphos municipal council which took place in December.
The scheme has a double purpose: to help people who struggle to buy food daily and to cut down on food waste.
The need for better management of food surpluses is more urgent than ever. The increase in social and environmental challenges, such as food waste and the empowerment of vulnerable groups is behind the idea.
“We want to set a good example by utilising surplus food to help those in need, while at the same time we are contributing to reduce the environmental burden,” Theophanous said.
Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou said earlier in December that consumers end up throwing away around one quarter of all the food they buy, urging the public to try and change their habits. According to the waste prevention programme overall, Cyprus generation of municipal waste per capita decreased from 684 kg in 2004 to 609 kg in 2020.
Paphos municipality is the first to implement the surplus food scheme.
Theophanous said that they have started their partnership with Paphos businesses such as bakeries, restaurants, grills and supermarkets. Meanwhile, during this period the pilot programme will be monitored in order to make improvements where necessary.
The scheme will begin with families served by the municipality’s counseling centre that have already been assessed.
Whereas the European Commission is taking the issue of tackling food waste very seriously, Cyprus is just beginning the work on reducing food waste. Being more efficient will save food for human consumption, save money and lower the environmental impact of food production and consumption.
The EU is taking major measures to reduce food waste. These include measuring food waste, reducing food waste targets by proposing legally binding targets to minimise food waste across the EU, food donations with surplus food redistributed for human consumption, and lastly fostering a better understanding of date marking on food for “use by” and “best before” dates.
The Paphos scheme supplements other projects on the island. ‘Zero Food Waste Cyprus’ includes multiple projects targeting local fruit and vegetable markets to eliminate food waste generation across the island. Currently, the initiative works with a market in the old city centre of Nicosia and a market in Kyrenia. There is also the ‘Life–Foodprint’ project addressing the environmental problem of food loss or waste. The project is co-funded by the LIFE Programme of the European Union. There is also the ‘LIFE-IP CYzero WASTE’, implementing an integrated waste management approach utilising a combination of complementary methods, by using resources in a sustainable way and reducing waste generation.
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