It’s over. It’s done. This is the result of endless hours of work. We proudly present the Year End Report of Taste Before You Waste from 2016. Over the years our mission stayed the same: Serving consciousness on a platter and revolutionise the food system, one neighbourhood at a time. This blog post shows you what we have reached in the last year and what we aim for in 2017.
Looking Back
2016 was a good year. One of the biggest achievements of Taste Before You Waste in 2016 was that we were certified as an official organisation devoted to the social good. 211 activities such as the Food Cycle Market, Wasteless Wednesday Dinners, workshops, event caterings, presentations, demonstrations and charitable food donations were organized. Within all these activities we saved 11.280 kg of food that otherwise would have been wasted. Organizing all of this would not have been possible without our 14 interns. Some of them worked 10 hours per week, others up to 40 hours. They were responsible for cooking, hosting Wasteless Wednesday Dinners, activism, transportation, Public Relations, educational workshops, research, photography, or for managing our social media accounts. We are currently looking for new interns from September 2017 onwards. If you want to apply, just send a short letter of motivation and your CV to HR@TasteBeforeYouWaste.org before May 15th. You can get more infos here.
What We Achieved
The food pick-ups and cooking sessions were only feasible because of 80 amazing food ambassadors. On average 71 kg food were rescued per pick up. With this huge amount of products, we were able to organize 35 Wasteless Wednesday Dinners in 2016 where we cooked with 2.485 kg of food. During the 60 food cycle markets and demonstrations that we organised or were part of, we saved 4.189 kg food. Taste Before You Waste held educational workshops in 10 primary schools and 8 high-school classes. We managed 32 event caterings. 21 of them were only cost-covering or even came with a loss for us. Finally we became more active on different social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIn.
Food Donations
People often wonder why we do not donate our rescued food to charity organisations anymore. We did that in the first half of 2016. However, unfortunately those charities had budget reductions and therefore could not process our donated food anymore. Due to the fact that new collaborations with other charities were not feasible, we solely donate food to non-profit organisations.
Profit and Loss
In our profit and loss statement we declare our income and expenses. Taste Before You Waste gained money through sales, donations and prize money from the Amsterdamse Universiteits Vereniging. Our total income was 41.231 Euro. However our expenses exceeded our income. Expenses included for example monthly rent, wages, costs for social security, as well as marketing and office expenses. Therefore we closed the year with a negative operating result of 22.617 Euro. In order to optimize the financial situation, the employment of Luana Carretto, the founder of Taste Before You Waste, was terminated. Therefore we now have only one paid full-time coordinator, Sophia Bensch. However, Luana will become a board member in July 2017.
Looking Forward
We are…
Aiming for organizing a second weekly Wasteless Dinner. We would like to find a new location for the other dinner in order to reach out to different people.
Expanding our team and our positions.
Approaching organic shops in order to get a wider range of products.
Stabilizing our financial situation. Therefore we are working on membership programmes where people can become regular donors.
Promoting our caterings intensely to get more bookings.
Installing a vermicompost, also known as worm hotel, in the neighbourhood of our office at Planatge Doklaan.
Applying for funding to continue our educational workshops at schools.
Looking for a finance intern to keep close track of our income and expenses.
2016 was good; however we will make 2017 an even better year. The mission is to extend our impact and remain true to our current path. We will revolutionise the food system starting with one neighbourhood at a time. Be part of our movement and join us at our many activities! You are curious about the complete Year End Report 2016 of Taste Before You Waste? Check it out here.