Milan's city administration has announced the creation of three new hubs in the city, by 2024, to combat food waste and poverty.
The national day for the prevention of food waste on 5 February was the occasion for the administration of the municipality of Milan to present new actions against waste in the city. The deputy mayor with responsibility for Food Policy and Agriculture, Anna Scavuzzo, announced the opening, by 2024, of three new neighbourhood hubs for the recovery and redistribution of food surplus to the most vulnerable, as well as the strengthening of the five already existing hubs.
In Milan, then, over the course of this year, the Food hub Cuccagna (Municipio 4), the hub Selinunte (Municipio 7) and the hub diffuso (Municipio 2) will be created, joining those already active in the city: the hub Isola (Municipio 9), the hub Lambrate (Municipio 3), the hub Centro (Municipio 19), the hub Gallaratese (Municipio 8) and, finally, the hub Foody Zero Sprechi, established within Milan's Mercato Ortofrutticolo, for the recovery of fresh food. In this regard, the intention is to increase the involvement of twenty municipal markets, with the aim of collecting around 200 kg of fresh surplus per day.
Furthermore, the entire management of the neighbourhood hubs will be improved through the digitalisation of the supply chain, which will make it possible to better map surplus and available resources and to develop a shared, integrated logistics system capable of optimising storage, collection and distribution, and ultimately reducing environmental impact as well.
This set of actions is the fruit of a year of collective work involving 36 sector organisations and 12 partners from both public and private bodies, as well as research institutions and businesses, through workshops, needs analyses and co-design roundtables organised following the city's win, in 2021, of the Earthshot Prize, a prestigious international award launched by Prince William of England and naturalist David Attenborough. An award dedicated to the best solutions for protecting the environment, which granted the municipality of Milan one million pounds sterling (700,000 euros) to invest in further expanding the project.
"Milan is reaffirming and stepping up its commitment to combating food waste – declared deputy mayor Scavuzzo – the prize made resources available to us to give fresh impetus to the co-design of the hubs together with many organisations across the city. Part of the funds will be used to consolidate the network, the other part to reach a total of eight hubs."
"There is great enthusiasm but also real concreteness, and that is the style with which we are trying to move forward. We also need the ability to look at the lived experience of our city in every neighbourhood, because each hub has developed differently from the others. I think, for example, of the hub in Gallaratese, which pays particular attention to the youngest and to those who have lost their jobs, or the hub in Lambrate, which works together with Avis with a parallel between food donation and blood donation, or again the hub in the centre, inside which a bakery has opened. I still hold the image of when we inaugurated the hub Isola, which arose in the middle of skyscrapers: it is the symbol of our desire to be among the people, but also to look upward towards great goals," the deputy mayor continued,.
The neighbourhood hub experience — collection and food storage centres — was launched in 2019 by the Municipality of Milan together with Fondazione Cariplo, Programma QuBì, Assolombarda and Politecnico di Milano to encourage the recovery of food surplus from various retail outlets and large-scale distribution and the redistribution of food through a local network of third-sector organisations, which in turn direct the food to people and families in need.
A project to combat food waste, but also to tackle food poverty: in 2023, more than 615 tonnes of food were recovered, of which 574 tonnes from the five neighbourhood hubs currently active in Milan, to which are added 41 tonnes from open-air markets. Hundreds of thousands of surplus items that were redistributed among approximately 27,000 vulnerable people, equivalent to around 1,230,000 donated meals.
According to data from the Osservatorio Waste Watcher, in Italy the figure goes from 524.1 grams of food thrown away per person per week in 2023 to 566.3 grams per week in 2024. This represents 8.05 per cent more waste compared to a year ago. In 2024, food waste in Italy costs around 290 euros per household per year, approximately 126 euros per capita each year. Waste is higher in cities and large municipalities and lower in small towns; households without children waste more, and consumers with low purchasing power waste considerably more. Waste is higher in the south (+4 per cent compared to the national average) and lower in the north (-6 per cent compared to the average). The total value of food waste in Italy stands at over 13 billion euros: household-level waste accounts for over 7 billion and 445 million, waste in distribution is worth around 4 billion, while waste in the field and in industry is more contained.