Reducing Food Waste

Unconsumed excess food is a serious and costly issue as it affects the nation’s economy and public health. Garda Pangan is trying to resolve the problem.

- Ulisari Eslita

Indonesia is the world’s second largest food waster, squandering nearly 300 kg of food per person each year, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. The fact that Indonesians waste so much food is ironic as millions of people in the country suffer from malnutrition. Furthermore, kitchen waste tends to decompose and produce methane, a contributing factor in the greenhouse effect and in climate change.

These issues have prompted social activists Eva Bachtiar, Dedhy Bharoto and Indah Audivtia to set up Garda Pangan in 2017, a food bank that has so far successfully managed 7.1 tonnes of food waste. It collects excess food from the hospitality industries and food service businesses and now distributes 47,000 food portions, feeding at least 40,000 under-privileged people in Surabaya, on a daily basis. Garda Pangan aims to alleviate hunger and prevent food waste by accepting large donations of consumables from the food industry and distributing them to charities that care for people in need of life’s basic necessity.

“It is simply ironic. On one side there are people who waste food, on the other there are millions of people in the country who still live in hunger,” says Eva Bachtiar, co-founder and CEO of Garda Pangan.