Contact Information:
Scholars of Sustenance
Michele Felder, Global Marketing & Communications
Mobile/WhatsApp: +66-99-417-7594
Bangkok, Thailand, 24 October 2024 – At the recent celebration of World Food Day 2024, the Scholars of Sustenance Foundation (SOS) announced a milestone achievement of serving over 55 million meals across Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, significantly surpassing its goal of 50 million meals by 2025 from rescued surplus food.
Surplus food rescue is a practical and low-tech solution that addresses two global challenges: hunger and climate change. There are eight (8) billion people in the world producing enough food for 10 billion. At the same time the World Health Organization reports that 2.33 billion people experience moderate or severe food insecurity, and 864 million suffer from severe hunger. Meanwhile, food loss contributes significantly to global climate change through methane emissions produced by food waste in landfills. Every year, a third of the world’s food goes to waste, contributing 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Since 2016, SOS has been committed to addressing food insecurity and reducing environmental impact by rescuing surplus food and redistributing it to vulnerable communities. Scholars of Sustenance is now the largest non-profit food rescue organization in Southeast Asia. To further its vision and expand sustainable and equitable food systems across Asia, it is ramping up outreach to potential funding partners within the environmental and humanitarian foundations; food & beverage businesses, food manufacturers and distributors that can donate surplus items; as well as government agencies that can enable large-scale food rescue and volunteer-based distribution initiatives.
“Our success across Southeast Asia demonstrates that food rescue is a practical and scalable solution. With strong multi-stakeholder support, we continue to expand and deepen our impact on both people and the planet. By addressing food waste, we’re taking steps towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2, Zero Hunger, and SDG 13, Climate Action,” said Bo Holmgreen, Founder and CEO of SOS.
During World Food month, SOS celebrated this success with trusted partners and communities across the region.
In Thailand, SOS and key partners worked with the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority to collect food for 40,000 meals, distributed to communities in 12 districts.
SOS Thailand collaboration with Bangkok Metropolitan Authority In Indonesia, several international schools conducted a food drive delivering three (3) tons of food which was converted into 12,986 meals.
SOS Indonesia school food drive In the Philippines, 400 volunteers from 12 different companies prepared 7,000 meals throughout the month of October.
SOS Philippines Rescue Kitchen event with volunteers in Manila
** Scholars of Sustenance Foundation (SOS) is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit environmental organization operating since 2016 to tackle food waste and food insecurity in three countries in Southeast Asia. SOS rescues good quality surplus food from restaurants, hotels, retailers, farms and food manufacturers seven days a week and distributes it to vulnerable communities in need. SOS has distributed 55 million meals and reduced CO2e emissions by 33 million kilograms through continuous expansion of operational efficiency and capacity, and through collaboration with government and industry. Learn more at www.scholarsofsustenance.org or follow on Facebook @sosfoundationthai to support our mission of Zero Hunger and Zero Food Waste.