At The Danish Food Bank, a non-profit organisation fighting food waste and food poverty in Denmark, surplus food is being collected and distributed for the benefit of socially vulnerable children and adults. Throughout the entire process, a high level of food safety and traceability is ensured with electronic registration of goods.
Hunger, food security and the fight against food waste are the top priorities of The Danish Food Bank, which in 2018 collected and handed over more than 1,000 tons of food for socially disadvantaged in Denmark. The Danish Food Bank cooperates with a large number of food companies that donate their surplus food to the Food Bank on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
The staff consists of 250 volunteers and 14 permanent employees, of whom 7 are working full-time. The volunteers drive on scheduled routes with food for social organizations, while the employees are responsible for day-to-day operation and distribution planning.
With the huge focus on fighting food waste in Denmark, The Danish Food Bank works on a large scale - both systematically and food-safely. Traceability is therefore a crucial factor in the collection and distribution of the food.
In cooperation with Delfi Technologies A/S, The Danish Food Bank has therefore introduced a barcode solution for electronic registration of goods. In this way, The Danish Food Bank can always find out exactly where a specific batch of food has been collected and to whom that exact batch has been handed to. Product traceability is the whole purpose of the barcode solution, says Jeanette Koustrup Duus, Project Manager at The Danish Food Bank:
- With the great amounts of food, we handle on a daily basis, we need to ensure traceability during the entire process. This is also one of the reasons we use a barcode solution to detect and track all foods as well as the expiration date of the food.
The Danish Food Bank has a nationwide distribution through operations departments in Copenhagen, Kolding, and Aarhus. Distribution and route planning are handled at the operations departments, allowing the food to reach recipients such as hostels, women's centers, etc. throughout the country. Among others, The Danish Food Bank cooperates with social organisations such as the Red Cross (Røde Kors), DanChurchSocial (Kirkens Korshær) and the Christmas Seal Foundation (Julemærkefonden).
In addition, The Danish Food Bank has established cooperation with schools in socially disadvantaged areas. At the schools, there are so-called 'morning clubs' that help to create social interaction and ensure that children and young people get the most important meal of the day. Common to all collections of food is a high turnover rate.
- Generally speaking, our turnover rate is very high - over 50% of the food must be out again within five days. We are working on a 'First In First Out' principle. That means that we ensure that the food with the shortest expiration date will be handed out first in order to minimize the risk of waste. We do also not collect food that we know beforehand that will be difficult to distribute," explains Leif Romanoff, who himself started as a volunteer employee at The Danish Food Bank.
Today, Leif Romanoff is an employee at The Danish Food Bank. Among other things, he is responsible for the stock management at The Danish Food Bank. Leif Romanoff has also implemented the barcode solution from Delfi Technologies A/S, which consists of handheld terminals (scanners) and associated software for registration of goods. In the collecting and dispatching of food, all the goods are being registered to ensure traceability and effective stock management.
- Barcodes are the key. The entire solution helps to tie the logistics together and ensure product traceability. In this way, we can also create a high level of food safety. We also use the barcode solution in connection with our collaboration with festivals around the country. Here we go out and collect surplus food, explains Leif Romanoff.
In 2018, The Danish Food Bank collected a large part of the profit from the booths at Roskilde Festival. On this festival, The Danish Food Bank cooperates with the organisation 'Rub & Stub', which is responsible for the coordination between the booths.
- At Roskilde Festival we help to minimize food waste. Basically, you can do much today to minimize food waste, and then you can also let The Danish Food Bank help, says Jeanette Koustrup Duus.
The Danish Food Bank is a non-profit organisation that fight combats food waste and food poverty in Denmark. Every day, The Danish Food Bank moves surplus food from producers and wholesalers to socially disadvantaged people. The Danish Food Bank was founded as a voluntary organization in January 2008.
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