A team of student social entrepreneurs have begun working with Waitrose to pilot their social enterprise which aims to reduce food waste in supermarkets.
The Biggest Tree is a student led social venture which transforms surplus fruit and vegetables into dried snacks, increasing the shelf life by more than six months. The students will be working with Waitrose Portswood to develop the project, with the hope of launching their final product in the store later this year.
Annie Wilkes, a third year anthropology student, and Zoe Goodwin, a second year geographer, originally worked on the project as part of the Social Enterprise module, led by Dr Pathik Pathak and Josie Francis. After finishing the module, the two students were selected to continue to develop the Biggest Tree.
Josie Francis, the programme manager for the Social Impact Lab, said:
“This is a really exciting opportunity for our students to engage with a real-world problem. Supermarkets are under huge pressure to reduce waste in their processes and the Biggest Tree has the potential to make a real difference to the way that Waitrose uses its surplus fruit and vegetables.”
The Biggest Tree was recently recognised at the Sustainability Action Awards, winning the outstanding staff/student partnership category. For more information, please contact Josie Francis, Social Impact Lab Programme Manager – [email protected].