Eatly

Over het initiatief / About the initiative

Eatly

In welke fase zit jouw initiatief? / In what stage is your initiative?

Startupfase

Heb je jouw initiatief al gevalideerd? / Did you validate your initiative?

Yes

Meer informatie over jouw initiatief / More info about your initiative

EATLY is a student initiative led by students from different faculties of the University of Maastricht with the goal to fight food waste by bike delivering crooked (too small, too big or just ugly) fruits and veggies to Maastricht dwellers. We work closely with farmers from around 30km to collect what’s called class 2 products, which retailers refuse because they do not fit the customer standards or leftover greens from the market which did not sell. EATLY then prevents those misshaped veggies from going to waste, ensures an additional revenue to farmers who could not sell those products and encourages people to eat more healthy veggies. Finally, we also strive to educate people about consuming local, seasonal and “ugly but tasty” products. EATLY sells bags/boxes to customers but also supplies local restaurants. We had 561 customers, served 5 restaurants. but most importantly saved over 4000kg of fruits and vegetables and are really proud of it!

Wat zijn jouw volgende stappen om het verder te ontwikkelen? / What are your next steps to develop the initiative?

Our next steps are divided into the three pillars of sustainability, developing concrete strategies over our summer break:

Social

We are enlarging our customer base to families (currently mostly students by our bags/boxes). We want to cooperate with schools in the Maastricht region to facilitate workshops about food waste and healthy eating to kids as well as gain customers (their parents). We also aim to establish “pick-up points” at those schools, where we deliver the boxes/bags and the children can bring them home to their families. 

Ecological

We are researching to broaden and diversify our farmers by prioritizing more on biological produce and concentrating on locally and seasonally greens. 

Economic

Other economic goals include cooperating (gaining customers & pick-up points) with more local restaurants, diversifying our products by offering a “choose-your-greens-composition” option on bags and boxes, and try to collect wholesaler’s leftovers as a new supplier stream.

Wat heb je nodig om (nog meer) impact te maken met dit initiatief? / What do you need to make (more) impact with this initiative?

To make a bigger impact in the community of Maastricht we need:

• a stronger network in the agriculture business (Limburg area, e.g. farmers, wholesalers)
• expertise/mentorship in food waste reduction, sustainability education

Tangible things to be more impactful are:

• electric cargo-bike
• fridge
• shelves for our packing location

Last but not least, as students, we need more time besides studying to invest time in all the activities.