On 17th September, Team Tactics is hosting a unique supersized corporate cooking event, bringing businesses together to prepare 500+ meals for London’s homeless community in just four hours. To deliver Feed the 500, we’ve partnered with Plan Zheroes, a charity fighting food waste and poverty across London.
Ahead of our event, Team Tactics founder and MD, Tina Benson, sits down with Plan Zheroes fundraising relationship manager, Dee Vadukul, to discuss food poverty in London, the challenges today’s landscape presents for the charity, and why events like Feed the 500 are so crucial to their mission.
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T: First up, can you tell us about what Plan Zheroes does, and how the charity came to be?
D: Every year, businesses throw away millions of tonnes of perfectly edible surplus food. At the same time, millions of people across the UK face food insecurity. Plan Zheroes bridges the gap – connecting businesses with surplus food to charities and community groups that can collect and safely distribute it to those in need.
It all began in 2008 after the financial crash, when thousands of people across the country were struggling to eat and feed their families. Our co-founders, Lotti, Maria Ana and Chris, were growing increasingly dismayed hearing about the amount of good food supermarkets and other businesses were throwing away, while so many people couldn’t afford to eat. Our mission became clear: we wanted to stop good food being needlessly sent to landfill and redirect it to charities supporting those affected by food poverty.
T: Why ‘Plan Zheroes’?
D: The name was inspired by Marks & Spencer’s ‘Plan A’ sustainability campaign at the time. Our grass roots project was community-led rather than a corporate initiative, so Z was chosen to reflect our bottom-up approach. We paired this with our mission to empower people to become ‘zero food waste heroes’, and Plan Zheroes was born.
T: Clever! What kinds of businesses do you partner with — and how can others get involved?
D: We can work with any businesses that have surplus food, or non-food items, to donate. All they need to do is register with us online. Our work also wouldn’t be possible without our partners – one of which is Borough Market, who is kindly providing their facilities for the Feed the 500 event.
T: Food insecurity and poverty in London has reached record highs – have you noticed an increase in demand for support?
D: Economic uncertainty and the cost-of-living crisis has pushed more families into food poverty, and more people than ever are turning to food banks and charities for subsistence. At the same time, it’s becoming more challenging to fulfil our mission. We’ve noticed significantly less surplus food donations from businesses in recent years, and that’s why events like Feed the 500 are so important to enable us to support frontline charities and those in need.
T: We’re excited to work with you on Feed the 500! What would you say to businesses considering getting involved in our mission?
D: Do it! Feed the 500 is an incredible opportunity for purpose-led businesses looking to be a part of something special and make immediate impact.
They’ll come away with a deeper understanding of our mission and having made a tangible difference. In addition, it’s an opportunity for businesses to give back to their community and progress against their CSR goals, while building colleague connections over a collaborative, energising and incredibly rewarding activity.
To join our Feed the 500 mission and sign up your team, register your interest or get in touch – we can’t wait to have you on board!
