An Online Platform for Reducing Food Waste

Food waste is a reprehensible problem, becoming even more shameful in times when an increasing number of people have to resort to a support network to be able to scrape together something to eat for themselves and their families. It is an issue that occurs at several levels and that requires practical and immediate solutions. One of these is Good Giving, a platform created through a collaboration between SDA Bocconi School of Management, Corporate Hangar (Prysmian Group) and Salesforce. It allows companies that need to dispose of food to get in touch with organizations whose mission is to help people in need through free food distribution such as, for example, the NGO Pane Quotidiano. Good Giving is a platform where companies can directly enter products to be discarded, thus allowing Pane Quotidiano logistics to intervene quickly, immediately sharing the quantity, type, expiry date and size of the product and to define the timing and methods of pick up.

"It is an important tool because it allows more available goods to be allocated to people in need," explains Alberto Grando, Full Professor in the Bocconi University Department of Management and Technology and Professor of Operations & Supply Chain Management at SDA Bocconi, who collaborates on the project. "At the same time, it allows the same companies to manage surpluses more efficiently. As part of this collaboration we have also developed an algorithm, which will be available soon, that will allow Pane Quotidiano to better manage stock and deliveries."

This initiative is part of a wider collaboration between Bocconi University and Pane Quotidiano. It is part of the activities of the Community and Social Engagement project that involves students, faculty and staff at the University.