Yes, “Boroume” reduce food waste

After three visits to the Ilisia farmers’ market in Athens, participants in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) internship program pitched in to help the nonprofit organization Boroume (“We can”) salvage 891.5 kilograms of fruit and vegetables, which translates to 2,674 meals.

With a motto of “Every meal matters”, the Boroume team offers food and meals to organizations and nonprofits that support food-insecure populations. Through a network linking producers, volunteers, and recipient organizations, large quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown away are regularly donated.

The interns enthusiastically participated in Boroume’s initiative to collect unsold products from the farmers’ market, wearing the orange vests of the volunteers and filling and emptying their carts many times over with fresh products from the producers’ stalls. With the supplies they collected, they helped two different charitable organizations: the Home Project, which assists unaccompanied minors, and Desmoi Allilegiis, a volunteer group that supplies food to those in need.

The results are impressive from an environmental standpoint: 

The 891.5 kilograms saved correspond to 11,232.9 cubic meters of water not wasted and 7,007.2 kilograms of carbon dioxide not released into the atmosphere—an amount equivalent to the carbon dioxide emitted by a conventional car traveling the distance between Athens and Thessaloniki 127 times.

SNF has repeatedly supported Boroume, both during Greece’s socioeconomic crisis, specifically in 2012 and 2013, and as part of the Foundation’s Global Relief Initiative for the COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020.