Garda Pangan Presents Social Innovations to Solve “Food Waste” Problems

Garda Pangan is a social startup that wants to solve problems “food wastein the Surabaya area. The solutions presented utilize technology to connect with related industries – such as hotels, restaurants, etc. – which often have excess leftovers. The main vision of the Garda Pangan is to present "sustainable and responsible food waste management".

Founder of Garda Pangan Eva Bachtiar said, Indonesia is the second largest food waste disposal country in the world. The average person can throw away 300 kg of food per year.

In carrying out its operations, Garda Pangan utilizes the site as a one stop service. There are several features on the website, including food pick-up requests, recipient recommendations, partner registration to distribution location reports. To maximize business processes, his party is currently developing applications mobile devices for food pickers.

Started operating since June 2017, Garda Pangan has successfully collaborated with various restaurants, tenant food, wedding planner, fruit distributors, bakery, and an organic market in the Surabaya area. So far, Garda Pangan has collected 52.685 portions of food -- equivalent to saving 7,9 tons of wasted waste. They have also successfully distributed to 43.590 recipients.

Problem "food waste" and the impact

There are three effects of food waste highlighted by the Food Guard. The first is the economic impact, because throwing away food waste means wasting the resources needed to make the food. The second impact is the environmental impact, this cannot be separated from the food waste that is piled up in the landfill, releasing methane gas which is one of the gases that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.

And the next impact is social, because it will be an irony if someone throws away food but on the other hand there is still hunger.

Departing from it all in the end Garda wants to minimize food waste and eradicate hunger through the technology it has developed. Garda Pangan offers a solution called "food rescue", trying to save food from potential wasted.

"Decent food will be repackaged, then distributed in a dignified manner to underprivileged communities in need, while unfit food will be processed into animal feed and compost," explained Eva.

With innovation social enterprise Presented, Garda Pangan has won several awards, including Go Startup Indonesia 2018 (1st Place), Best of the Best Talent Scouting NextDev 2018, and Startup with Best Social Impact by Tempo in 2017.

"In 2019 Garda Pangan plans to grow the business by attracting as many new clients as possible from the industry hospitality and the food industry. The innovative approach offered by Garda Pangan is a very new thing, so it requires intensive promotional channels to improve exposure and interest from the industry to start shifting to more responsible food waste management," said Eva.

He further explained that currently Garda Pangan continues to strive to be able to advocate for the Surabaya city government to take care of issues food waste. Eva and the Garda Pangan team believe that the government's involvement will be able to encourage a more conducive climate for businesses to join this movement.

The solution from Garda Pangan is very likely to be applied in other big cities outside Surabaya. It's just that at this time Eva and the team don't want to rush to expand, even though there is a dream to bring the benefits of the Food Guard even wider.

"Of course we have a dream that the Garda Pangan movement can develop in all cities in Indonesia. However, we also don't want to rush it. We realize that the Garda Pangan is still very young, and we want to first strengthen the foundation in the Garda Pangan Surabaya before opening it. branches in other cities. We are also still focusing on collecting best practice which can later be applied in other cities," concluded Eva.