ne’ma, The National Food Loss and Waste Initiative in UAE, signs a memorandum of understanding with “HeroGo”, the first grocery delivery company that is dedicated to revising the current grocery ecosystem where one-third of food grown globally is wasted. This partnership paves the way for attaining ne’ma’s strategic objective of halving food waste by 50% by 2030, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Goals 12.3. It also cements the collaborative efforts from key stakeholders aimed at changing consumption patterns to address the problem of food loss and waste.
The memorandum of understanding was signed by Khuloud Hassan Al Nuwais, Chief Sustainability Officer at “Emirates Foundation” and “ne’ma” Committee Secretary General and Mr. Daniel Solomon, the Founder of “HeroGo”, on Thursday 15 December at Emirates Foundation headquarters in Abu Dhabi.
Al Nuwais commented: “Through this fruitful cooperation with “HeroGo”, we aim to support the national food loss and waste reduction goals and contribute to the national food security strategy. We are working on consolidating efforts to bring together key stakeholders who are keen on filling systemic gaps, scaling positive solutions and policies, leading behaviour change, and raising awareness.”
Al Nuwais added: “Through scaling up home-grown ideas, innovations and technologies, “ne’ma” has a goal to enable systematic changes and drive behavioural change by raising awareness about sustainable food consumption and food waste reduction.”
Daniel Solomon, the Founder of “HeroGo”, stated: “We are pleased to sign the memorandum of understanding with “ne’ma” which is a token of our joint efforts to reduce food waste. We will collaborate on raising awareness, educating, and engaging with community members to inspire and reconsider their food consumption behaviours, cherish food, and understand the value of reducing food waste.”
Solomon added: “Through our sustainable practices, this year “HeroGo” has contributed to a water saving of 98 million litres – that’s equivalent to 39 Olympic-sized swimming pools; reduced 142,340kg of CO2 from being emitted – which is enough to power one home for 35 years; and provided around 26,000 meals to those in need. We also have pledged that for every box delivered, “HeroGo” will provide two meals for two people in need.”
The cooperation with “HeroGo” represents a significant step towards consolidating efforts and collaborative initiatives aimed at enabling food waste reduction. It also represents an opportunity to connect with key stakeholders, design collaborative initiatives, pilots, and projects to develop constructive solutions and reinforce positive consumption behaviour to reduce food loss and waste under the umbrella of “ne’ma” initiative.
