11 ton Haidilao food donation goes through the VietHarvest Nourishing Hub

Last May, VietHarvest received a large-scale food rescue project: thousands of boxes of products that were still usable, but at risk of going to waste. This is part of a project with Haidilao over the past two months. In total, we have collected around 11 tons of food donations including a variety of instant food products such as hotpot meals, porridge, rice, and cooking condiments.

VietHarvest’s new Nourishing Hub gave us the infrastructure to receive, check, sort, coordinate and redistribute these large and complex rescues safely and responsibly.

People sometimes ask: Why would a food business waste this much? Waste can be due to a variety of reasons: A change in business direction, or a change in packaging. The food is still safe and valuable, just no longer “commercially usable”.

To food businesses: when surplus happens, call VietHarvest. Behind every rescued box is food that still has value, and communities that can be nourished by it. In a world where food waste is sometimes inevitable, food rescue needs more than goodwill. It needs a system.