Introducing: Foodsharing Taiwan

Foodsharing Taiwan was founded in late 2015. Inspired by foodsharing in Germany we thought, that something similar might work in Taiwan as well.

We basically started with contacting a bunch of bakeries in Taipei to ask them, if they were generally willing to let us pick up some of their surplus bread. At the same time we created a facebook page and group to organise the pick-ups and held a kick-off meeting to gather interested people.

We finally found a bakery and a restaurant who offered us to pick up their surplus food daily. As required we set up a legal arrangement in accordance with Taiwanese law and designed our own foodsharing IDs, so that people can identify themselves as foodsharing members. People get their IDs at meetups, where they sign the legal arrangement.

In summer 2016 we also installed a public fridge, at a coffee shop, not far from the stores, where we pick up the food. The fridge was donated by a friend and the owner of the coffee shop was generous enough to cover the electricity fees.

We got a lot of attention for the fridge and gave some interviews to newspapers, magazines and even TV shows. Thus quite some people contacted us, offering to help. Also a company offered to donate fridges. Thus we were able to cooperate with a group of students and set up another fridge on campus early in 2017.

The facebook page has about 1200 likes at the moment and the pick-ups continue. We hope to make the concept of foodsharing more popular in Taiwan, find more cooperation with food retailers and set up fridges all over Taiwan. Hopefully lots more to come-stay tuned!