FEBA team members Ignazio Corrao and Balázs Cseh represented FEBA at the first-ever Allianz Summit of the newly established “Allianz gegen Lebensmittelverschwendung und Armut”, Alliance against Food Waste and Poverty, initiated by our member Die Tafel Österreich in Vienna. The event brought together around 100 participants to exchange ideas on reducing food waste, improving the redistribution of surplus food, and tackling food-related poverty. Over 40 organisations, companies, cities, and municipalities have already joined the initiative. The event was organised in cooperation with the FoodCLIC project.
Insights into the Future of Food Banking in EU
At the event, Ignazio Corrao and Balázs Cseh presented the future of urban food surplus redistribution, highlighting new logistics models that can enable the more effective involvement of small and medium-sized donors, such as bakeries, small shops, catering businesses, schools, canteens, hotels, and restaurants. The presentation also emphasised recent developments in the EU policy framework, with a particular focus on the revised Waste Framework Directive.
Discussing the Challenges and Solutions to Sustainable Food Redistribution Systems
The presentations were followed by World Café and roundtable-style discussions. In the workshop on Urban Food, participants discussed the opportunities and challenges of food surplus redistribution models in urban environments. Recurring topics included logistical complexity, the need for digital platforms, and the question of who should bear the costs of developing, operating and maintaining these redistribution systems in the long term. Participants underlined that more effective redistribution of urban food surplus requires stronger local cooperation, pilot projects, a more active role for cities and municipalities, together with sustainable financing for logistics and digital solutions.
Multisector Solutions Are Needed to Strengthen Equal Access to Food
The Allianz Summit provided an important opportunity for stakeholders from different sectors to find common ground and jointly explore solutions that can reduce food waste while strengthening access to food for people in need.
We want to thank Die Tafel Österreich and FoodCLIC for offering a platform for these important discussions!
