Municipality of Halandri | Introducing the Food Loss and Waste Prevention Unit

ACR+ new member Municipality of Halandri, Athens’ metropolitan area (Greece), is introducing its Food Loss and Waste Prevention Unit. The Unit is set to combat food waste generation at all levels of the food supply chain by engaging civil society and local stakeholders in prevention and reduction initiatives promoted by the Unit. Established in October 2022, the Food Loss and Waste Prevention Unit has received support from three EU-funded projects: FoodRUs (H2020), ToNoWaste (Horizon Europe), and Food Connections (Erasmus+). As part of the FoodRUs project, ACR+ has collaborated with other European regions to assist the municipality of Halandri in setting objectives for targeted food waste reduction actions among actors in the Horeca sector.

The Unit is led by Prof. Gerasimos Lyberatos, City Councilor for Circular Economy, Food Waste Prevention, and Recycling. The Unit’s key objectives include:

• Assessing the city’s food waste generation baseline;
• Building stakeholders’ managing capacity based on the learnings from EU-funded projects where the unit participated in;
• Establishing collaboration with food retailers and consumers;
• Developing food waste prevention and redistribution strategies;
• Saving fresh food from markets and stores and redistributing it via food donations;
• Creating food upcycling pathways.

The waste management department of the municipality of Halandri works with the public social grocery store, local schools’ canteens, the National Technical University of Athens, citizens, and the HORECA sector to tackle food waste and build stakeholder capacity.

Research, awareness campaigns, and activities like zero-waste cooking sessions, school workshops, and open learning labs. Highlights include the publication of the "Cook Smart and Save Food" (part of the FoodRUs project activities) and recognition through awards like the Greek Green Awards 2023 and Bravo Awards 2023.

The municipality has engaged 130 businesses (retailers and restaurants) as stakeholders, and the impact is moderately estimated to reach 10,000 citizens within the municipality and beyond. In April 2024, efforts to explore the potential for reusing by-products of food manufacturing have led to the development of B2B collaborations in the field of food upcycling. This initiative has also fostered voluntary business-to-city collaborations focused on food upcycling. As Greece's first city in the Alliance for Reducing Food Waste, Halandri's Food Loss Unit serves as a powerful model for combating food waste.