Together to promote the training on food banking

Banco Alimentare has always believed in the importance of collaboration with all the players dealing with the prevention of food waste and the recovery of surplus food. We are aware that all the profit and non-profit business operators of the food supply chain need to increase and improve their knowledge about food waste prevention and food donation. We have been collaborating with Politecnico di Milano for several years now and we started cooperating with the Italian Society of Preventive Veterninary Society almost two years ago. Today thanks to these collaborations, we are working on two innovative tools aimed at facilitating the training on food banking.

1. On 2 October Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus and Politecnico di Milano launched a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) on “Share Food, Cut Waste”. From words to action: surplus food management to tackle food poverty and food waste.
   This course is addressed to producers, food transformers, distributors, HoReCa enterprises, public authorities, non-profit organizations as well as consumers, students, and citizens. It provides insights on issues such as the food waste hierarchy, food donation, healthy and responsible patterns of food consumption, and food banking. The course also offers operational guidelines, best practices and conceptual models to managers, employees and volunteers who want to get proficient in the recovery and redistribution of surplus food.
   Click here to read the course description, watch the trailer, and discover the teachers. This course is in English, completely online and free. It is possible to enrol until 26 November.
2. On 12 October in Rome the Lazio and Tuscany Institutes for the Prevention of Animal Diseases and the Italian Society of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, organized a training course on “Surplus Food Management and Fight against Food Waste". This course aimed at training veterinarians and doctors of the National Health System who can in turn train the food business operators of the charitable organizations or similar associations, in accordance with the provisions of Law No 166/2016 as regards the correct conservation, transport, storage and use of food.
   “The collaboration among all the different players involved in the recovery of surplus food represents a “leverage effect” in the management of surplus food. This result has often a low visibility, but it is definitely a great achivement of Law No 166/2016, the so-called Gadda Law” – Marco Lucchini, Secretary General at Fondazione Banco Alimentare, said in his intervention. “The possibility to rely on the competence of Veterinarians for Preventive Medicine helps us to ensure that all the players of the food supply chain can become the key subjetcs of a true social responsibility, leading to new forms of innovation in the field of surplus food recovery and collaborating for the common good of our community”.
   Before Rome, the first edition of the course took place on 14 September in Milan. The next edition will take place on 16 and 17 November in Naples. Given the great interest expressed by veterinarians and doctors of the National Health System, further editions are expected in other Italian cities in the coming months.