Free to Feed – case study
Background and purpose
Free to Feed is a not-for-profit social enterprise that empowers people seeking asylum and refugees to overcome barriers to social and economic inclusion in Australia. It provides training, employment, and social support, and delivers shared food experiences.
Free to Feed saw an opportunity to implement a circular catering solution to reduce 2 common waste types: packaging and food waste.
Its pilot, The round and round table, which provided catering in reusable containers, was awarded $15,290 from Sustainability Victoria under the Circular Economy Reuse Pilots Fund. It aimed to demonstrate how a container reuse system can be practical and financially viable in this catering context.
The program
The Free to Feed team updated its lunchbox menu to suit reusables. Reusable lunchboxes and cutlery were bought and engraved with Free to Feed branding. The team also bought bread crates and trolleys for delivery and collection. Catering was delivered in the reusable packaging that can double as a convenient container for leftovers, reducing food waste.
Initially, a few clients were chosen to test out the reusable service and to gather feedback from.
The team explored ways to customise its catering service to the client and event type. One option was a staffed catering service where a Free to Feed team member:
- arrived with the boxed catering
- set up the food and signage
- monitored the food service and food waste
- packed up the leftovers
- returned the reusable containers to Free to Feed.
The impact
The change was well received overall. Clients commented on the convenience of the service, particularly on not having to wash the containers before they were picked up. They also said they wanted to support a catering business tackling both social and environmental issues.
The pilot diverted 830 single-use items from landfill: 400 bowls, 400 lids, and 30 boxes or bags.
Challenges
The team learned to customise their delivery and collection methods according to service type and client. It became clear that if clients ordered from the lunchbox menu, they would likely be offsite and wouldn’t have anywhere to store the containers. A same-day container pick-up ensured a convenient process, but collection fees needed to be increased to cover this. The fee structure will be refined, but the pilot was useful in testing the market appetite.
Given the variety of menu options, the pilot identified which menu items required larger bowls, such as leafy salads and rice dishes. Styleware food-grade reusable bowls were added to the fleet of reusables to accommodate this.
There was also some initial confusion over who would wash the used containers. Clients were assured containers could be returned dirty and would be washed on return to the Free to Feed site.
Observations and next steps
It is important that reuse solutions demonstrate clear value to the clients beyond waste minimisation. Systems should be convenient, appealing, and additional costs should be kept to a minimum to avoid disengagement.
Following the pilot, Free to Feed will continue to offer the reusable packaging as a ‘by request’ option for clients. This allows the team to carefully manage the expenses related to delivery and logistics and to determine the appropriate packaging solution for each event.
The team hopes to shift to reusable packaging as the only option available, but further testing is required. Delivery fees will be reviewed to strike a balance between team capacity and accessibility for clients.