Under the National Effort to Reduce Food Loss and Waste
- Khuloud Hassan Al Nuwais: “Through scaling up home-grown ideas, innovations and technologies, ne’ma has a goal to enable systematic changes and drive behavioural change to raise awareness about sustainable food consumption and food waste reduction.”
- Daniel Solomon: “Here at “HeroGo”, we embrace unwanted food and rescue it from being wasted. By following a mechanism that ensures the delivery of fresh natural food products, we have partnered up with local farmers and food importers to reclaim high-quality fruits and vegetables that are considered ‘ugly’, close to expiring, or excess produce and re-sell it to customers, thus diverting food from landfill. “
Abu Dhabi, UAE, December 20, 2022: “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.
About Emirates Foundation
Emirates Foundation was launched on 12 April 2005 as an initiative of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It is chaired by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
Emirates Foundation is a national organization set up to facilitate public-private funded initiatives to unite social responsibility across the UAE, by implementing research-based programs that meet the country’s needs towards sustainable community development.
The Foundation works with public and private sector partners to meet national goals, respond to society’s most pressing challenges and in the development of national competencies through digital smart platforms and defined through data-driven social needs.
About ne’ma
ne’ma the National Food Loss and Waste Initiative, is a reflection of UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, vision and call for action to address over-consumption and building a UAE-wide social norm around responsible and sustainable consumption, bringing back UAE’s rooted traditional values of social responsibility and good stewardship of national resources.
ne’ma is a collaboration between the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Emirates Foundation and the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court, that will promote and align shared action by key national stakeholders including government, private sector, NGOs and communities to address food loss and waste across the whole value chain, from production to consumption, covering farms, producers, distributors, retailers, restaurants and households with the aim to tackle current behaviors and attitudes to build new national social norms around responsible consumption that contribute to food loss and waste reduction
About HeroGo
Launched just 12 months ago by entrepreneur Daniel Solomon, HeroGo is a company on a mission for good as the UAE’s first grocery delivery company that eliminates food waste. From fighting food waste, to saving resources and providing meals for the hungry, the company has achieved amazing results in its first year.
