Wonky veg box scheme Oddbox has announced a range of measures aimed at engaging better with consumers in its fight against food waste and climate change.
Since its inception in 2016, the business has distributed over two million boxes in London and the South East, rescuing a combined 13,400 tonnes of fresh fruit and veg. Oddbox hopes its latest activity will help it meet its target of saving 35,000 tonnes of produce per year by 2025.
The business delivers surplus or wonky fruit and veg – the produce deemed ‘too big’, ‘too ugly’, ‘the wrong colour’ or simply ‘too many’ – directly from growers to people’s doors.
Its new look and feel has been masterminded by designer Alex Green to express the Oddbox brand personality and its ‘business unusual’ ethos across its boxes and digital channels.
Alongside this, an enhanced consumer experience has been developed to help people ‘be the change’ in the fight against the climate crisis as they ‘eat good, do good and stay odd’.
Updates include an enhanced library of recipes created by long-standing Oddbox community members who are talented home chefs, seasonal eating guides and tailored meal plans with accompanying shopping lists in each box.
‘Oddboxers’ will receive tips and tricks to fight food waste at home, insights on issues affecting the planet, and a personalised impact report in their inbox, so they can see just how many kilos of fruit and veg they’ve rescued, as well as the volume of CO2 emissions and litres of water they’ve saved.
Long term, the aim is for these insights to appear on an online ‘dashboard’ on demand, so users can track the good they’re doing in real time, alongside total community figures.
The activity forms part of Oddbox co-founders Emilie Vanpoperinghe and Deepak Ravindran’s mission to build a powerful community to help rescue unwanted food from farms across the UK and beyond and help fight food waste.
Responsible for eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, food waste is a major factor in the climate change crisis.
While 81 per cent of Brits agree that climate change is a global emergency, it has been reported that only 30 per cent see the link between climate change and food waste. By joining Oddbox, consumers can make a tangible impact on this crisis, the business said.
Since Oddbox sold its first box in 2016, the community has rescued 13,400 tonnes of fruit and veg between them. This has helped prevent 15,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which could power 3,450 UK households in a year, as well as 1.5bn litres of water, the lifetime drinking needs for 25,127 people.
Commenting on the relaunch, Vanpoperinghe said:“In starting Oddbox we wanted to make a measurable, concrete impact in the world – something that could really help to tackle the climate crisis.
“We know that people care about it, but Covid has meant many people have shifted their focus – to the here and now, and life at home. With that in mind, we have worked on improving the Oddbox experience to make it as easy as possible for our existing and new users to play an active part in our weekly fruit and veg rescue mission, and do even more good in the fight against food waste.”
Ravindran added: “Our inbox is always open, as we ask people to challenge our approach. We call this ‘business unusual’ and it’s an attitude that we have had from the start as we set out to challenge the current food system and build a unique supplier-led model.
“Long term, we even have ambitions to develop an advisory board, The Bunch, to help build Oddbox into a company that our whole community can be proud of, even if it is a little odd.”
Oddbox veg boxes start at £10.99 for up to 13 varieties of fruit or veg.
