ODDBOX London’s only wonky veg box scheme is now available to homes in South East London

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Oddbox is London’s first and only wonky veg box scheme, on a mission to fight food waste. A social enterprise that started in South West London, it is growing at a rapid pace and now has started delivering directly to people living in South East London, in addition to homes in South West London.

The majority of the misshapen and over or undersized fruits and vegetables would otherwise not be sold, be sold in wholesale markets for very low prices or sold for animal feed or processing. Oddbox are able to buy the produce at a fair discounted price and pass on the discount to their customers.

The estimated annual food waste in the UK is around 10million tonnes and valued around £17billion (source: wrap.org.uk) and this waste happens in our homes, our markets and our farms.

Oddbox co-founder Emilie Vanpoperinghe, 36 explains “Odd produce is just as nutritious and delicious as standard fresh produce. They do not see supermarket shelves because of restrictions placed by supermarkets like size, shape or colour or because they are surplus to requirements”.

Oddbox visits local farms and markets (it now has 20 local suppliers) to source seasonal produce that will not be stocked in supermarkets. As part of their picking and packing process, it runs rigorous quality checks and packs them into fruit and veg boxes before delivering them to directly to homes in South London. It has also started delivering wonky fruit boxes to health centres, workspaces and offices in Central London. It also donates 10% of its surplus produce to food charities like City Harvest (http://www.cityharvest.org.uk/) and People's Fridge Brixton (https://www.peoplesfridge.com/)

Oddbox thinks that all fruits and vegetables should be eaten, and just like people, fruit and vegetables come in different shapes, sizes and colours. It wants to encourage its customers to eat a variety of seasonal produce, whilst creating awareness around food waste. It offers a choice of 6 different box types and plans to offer recipes and keep food fresher for longer tips to help customers waste less in their homes.

About Oddbox:

A husband and wife team, Deepak Ravindran and Emilie Vanpoperinghe, founded Oddbox.

Our founders were inspired by a campaign that Intermarchè, a major French supermarket, launched in 2014 to promote wonky produce in a fun and smart way. This was followed by a trip to Portugal's street markets, which enlightened them to some serious ugly tomatoes that tasted insanely good - a real eye opener and the catalyst for things to come.

Once back in the UK it didn’t take an awful lot of research to discover that very minimal steps had been taken to reduce food waste and bring this delicious misshapen produce to the consumers.

They visited a major fresh produce supplier, which highlighted the extent of the issue and expressed huge willingness to drive this movement. Alarm bells were ringing!

Website – Oddbox.co.uk.

Email – hello@oddbox.co.uk


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About OddBox

LONDON'S 1ST & ONLY WONKY VEG BOX IS HERE. Social enterprise delivering misshapen and surplus veg boxes to London's homes and Wonky fruit boxes to London's offices and businesses. We fight food waste, help local growers get a fair price and donate 10% of our produce to local communities and charities