GoodHeart | Paris Olympics food donations seek to help needy

PARIS (AP):

It is quite literally the food of champions. Paris Olympics organisers are determined that it not go to waste. Food that goes uneaten at the Games – by the athletes, the spectators and the workers – is helping those in need around the French capital, part of an effort to cut down on waste.

Paris 2024 organisers have promised a more environmentally friendly Games, featuring reusable dishes in the athletes’ village, greener construction, and recycled materials in venue seating. Besides aiding those in need, they hope the food donations will set a precedent for future Olympics and major events.

“This is part of the legacy that we’ve been working on since the beginning,” said Georgina Grenon, who oversees the Paris Games’ effort to reduce its carbon footprint by half compared to London in 2012 and Rio in 2016. “We’ve been working to try to change the way in which these Games are organised, both for us and for other events. And food waste is one of those things.”

Food waste is a source of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and even though it’s not a huge source of emissions for the Olympics, Grenon said organisers “thought it was important to be particularly exemplary on this and lead the way on showing how to do it and showing it is possible”.

They’ve aimed to reduce food waste both through careful menu planning and by collecting and redistributing uneaten food during the Games, thanks to agreements with three organisations.

With about 40,000 meals served daily to athletes from over 200 countries, feedback has been mixed: while some complaints have been voiced, many have praised the free food. Organisers have promptly addressed issues related to missing items.

Valerie de Margerie is president of Le Chainon Manquant, which translates to ‘The Missing Link’, one of the groups that is receiving food from the Olympic sites.

She said the donations help address a pressing need because there are 10 million people in France who don’t have enough to eat. At the same time, she said, the country wastes 10 million tons of food each year.

“That’s the challenge, it’s to say that we cannot continue to allow our trash cans overflow with quality products while there are people nearby who are unable to feed themselves adequately,” she said.

Her organisation has collected uneaten food from the Roland Garros tennis stadium since 2014, and since expanded that to other sites – including Bercy Arena, Stade de France, and other sites now being used for the Olympics. The logistics of collecting the food can be a bit complicated, particularly because many items are perishable and need to be consumed within days – or sometimes even the same day.

With 100 volunteers taken on to help during the Games, de Margerie’s group goes to Olympic sites at 6 a.m. and then, within hours, gets the food to other charities that distribute to people in need, including families, people who live in the streets, students and others.

They collect unsold sandwiches and salads, caterers’ food for Olympic guests and also uneaten canteen food cooked for Games workers. They have gathered about 9 tons of food so far, about 20 per cent of it fruit. After the closing ceremony, they’ll also collect uneaten raw foods that won’t keep until the Paralympic Games that start on August 28.