Page 8 - U4SSC Case study: Reducing food waste, June 2020

• all food systems being sustainable;
• 100% increase in smallholder productivity and income; and

• zero loss or waste of food.

The year 2015 marked the end of the monitoring period for the two internationally agreed targets
3
for hunger reduction. The first was the World Food Summit (WFS) goal. At the WFS, held in Rome in
1996, representatives of 182 governments pledged ‘... to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an
immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later
than 2015’. The second was the formulation of the First Millennium Development Goal (MDG 1), which
includes among its targets ‘cutting by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015’.

This has been followed up by UN Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG2), which includes among its
targets ‘ending hunger in all its forms by 2030’. Food is an important resource for sustenance of any
society or city. It is against this backdrop that the initiative of Roti Bank or Food Bank undertaken by
Dabbawalla Association of Mumbai, in India assumes importance. The purpose of this case study
is to highlight how this initiative helps to meet the objective of overcoming hunger, and also how a
resource like food, which would otherwise become waste and a challenge to address, can be used in
a circular economy perspective in a city to meet a major SDG.

Challenge and response

Mumbai is the second largest city in India after Delhi with a population of 22 million. The space in the
city is limited and the population has been growing steadily. A lot of economic activity happens here
and consequently many people from the hinterland get sucked into this city. With limited scope for
housing and other such amenities, 41 per cent of people are forced to live in slums. A lot of people
find it difficult even to have a square meal.

The influx of people who get sucked into Mumbai City because of the lure of employment and a good
future is quite large, and this makes the limited resources within the city insufficient to cater for the
requirements of these new additions to the population every day. Intense economic activity also results
in many people eating out and a lot of food becoming surplus to requirements at the end of the day in
restaurants and eateries; this has to be sent to piggeries or get wasted. In fact, disposing of this surplus
food also becomes a challenge at times.

The solution to the problem has been found by Dabbawala Association of Mumbai. They have a Six
Sigma quality certificate and a global business fan club that includes Prince Charles and the owner of
Virgin Group, Richard Branson. About 5 000 Dabbawalas have been in action for over 125 years and
deliver nearly 200 000 lunches every day. Their unique operational method is a subject of management
study in global business schools. Roti Bank is an NGO supporting them in their latest not-for-profit
initiative.

3 http:// www .fao .org/ wfs/ index _en .htm

2 Case study: Reducing food waste, June 2020