About a third of all food produced ends up in the garbage every year instead of on the plate.
In Germany alone, around twelve million tonnes are said to be thrown away at the latest at the end of the production chain, i.e. often by the consumer themselves: this includes bread, fruit, vegetables and meat.
In Mainz, around 1,700 food savers are currently trying to save food that is still edible in cooperation with more than 100 companies such as supermarkets, farm shops and restaurants.
It is about goods that – because the best-before date has been reached, for example – can no longer be sold, but can nevertheless be distributed to the needy without hesitation and can then be eaten by them.
Markus Schug
Correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.
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The regular rescue operations were not enough for twelve members of the community, which is mainly connected via social networks.
They had the idea for a first food-sharing café in Mainz and a suitable name for it: Café Rettich.
However, they have not yet found a suitable place to implement the initiative they have started in the city.
Meals against voluntary donation
On the other hand, there is a role model, as the team willingly revealed to interested citizens at a day of action in front of the State Theater in mid-October.
The Café Raupe Immersatt operated in Stuttgart on Hölderlinplatz is roughly what one would also like to build in Mainz.
From the idea of a crowdfunding campaign, which provided the required seed capital of 26,000 euros, to the opening in June 2019, it took the Stuttgart activists a good three years.
A comfortably furnished meeting place has long since been created there, which offers free food and biologically perfect drinks for visitors to enjoy because they were saved beforehand, which can be obtained at the counter for a donation of your choice.
In addition, and one day it should also be like this in Mainz,
Information events and workshops on the topic of "food waste" on the offer;
In addition, art and culture are occasionally on the menu at Café Raupe Immersatt.
Here as there, the coffee house operation does not want to compete with the various Tafel projects that are already active.
The initiators, who advertise their project on the Internet, assure us that only what the existing groups do not need or cannot pick up themselves comes into question for the Café Rettich.
In addition, one hopes to find enough of their own cooperation companies before the opening.
They consider Mainz to be a good location because the municipality passed a “Foodsharing Resolution” in spring and spoke out in favor of the goals of the food rescuers.
The proven motto "think globally - act locally" fits very well in this case, according to the message from the Rhineland-Palatinate state capital, which also campaigns against waste and wants to pay even more attention to the fact that no food is consumed at its own festivals and events go in the trash.