Volunteering with Plan Zheroes

By MCM UK

Article Featured image

Helping food businesses easily and safely donate their surplus food to nearby charities and community groups.

Every year food businesses in the UK waste approximately 3 million tonnes of food, while 8.4 million people struggle with food insecurity. In response to this Plan Zheroes have created a food donation platform that enables businesses to quickly and easily post their donations of surplus food online, and for nearby charities and community groups to claim food, then pop round to collect. They also work with food markets to collect and redistribute their surplus food to nearby charities, with Borough Market being their flagship project which to date has saved over 50 tonnes of surplus food going to waste, the equivalent of 100,000 meals reaching people in need.

Wok for 1000

The MCM team regularly volunteer with Plan Zheroes at Borough Market and through our association with them MCM’s Ellen and Svea signed up for the Wok for 1000 event this year.

In its 4th year, Wok for 1000 took place at Borough Market on 17th September 2019. Working in partnership, Plan Zheroes, School of Wok and over 160 corporate volunteer’s ‘wok’d’ their magic in a mammoth mission to make over 1000 tasty Asian dishes from surplus food supplies – and deliver them to those in need across London.

We were part of the team of volunteers working behind the scenes and supporting the corporate volunteers who were cooking up several stir fry dishes, a noodle dish and a TON of spring rolls (all made from scratch!) which were then boxed up and sent out to local charities. A fun day with never a dull moment; prepping, booking and serving food, washing up, clearing tables and the massive clean-up operation after the event.

In under 3 hours, the Wok For 1000 work force made:

3000 Spring Rolls
700 litres of Malaysian Curry and
120 kg of Stir Fried Noodles!

The food was then distributed and enjoyed by 12 charities in total.

Click here to find out more about Plan Zheroes.

Want to know more?

Get in touch