Content Section

Costa Cruises And Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus Take The Battle Against Food Waste To Sea

Thepartnership between Costa Cruises and the Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus setsoff from Savona, allowing surplus food on board cruise ships to be retrievedand reused for the first time to help society.

Savona, 22 July 2017 –Costa Cruisesand the FondazioneBanco Alimentare Onlus present their partnership project that will allow surplus food onboard cruise ships to be retrieved and reused for the first time to helpsociety. The project is being officially launched today on boardCosta Diadema, the Italian company'sflagship, during its call at Savona,and it involves collecting food on board that has been prepared but not servedin the ship's restaurants and distributing it to a local organisation thatprovides assistance to children in need.

The launch was attended bythe Hon. Maria Chiara Gadda, promoter and sponsor of the Italian Law 166/2016in favour of donations of surplus food and the Senator Andrea Olivero, Italian DeputyMinister of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.

"Being here today shows that the law againstfood waste, in force since last September, is bearing fruit and that thegovernment has acted promptly and effectively, and most importantly hastriggered a cultural change on the issue of the battle against food waste andsupport for those in poverty. We must be aware of the widespread responsibilitythat this issue brings with it and that involves everyone, to different extentsand in different ways, be they institutions, citizens, volunteers or thebusiness world, because everyone can play their own part to help change things,"said Deputy Minister AndreaOlivero.

"I'm thrilled, and it's a great source ofpride for me to see that the innovation introduced by Law 166/2016, approved bythe Italian Parliament with an overwhelming majority and strongly supported bythe government, is bearing fruit. This is proof that politics is useful, andvery much so: Parliament has been able to put needs and good practices intoorder.Today, this ambitious project is sending out an important message: retrievingsurpluses even in the most complex situations is not just a pipe dream, but itis genuinely achievable if everyone takes on their share ofresponsibility," said the Hon. Maria Chiara Gadda.

"After the Gadda Lawagainst food waste came into effect,"said Andrea Giussani, President of the Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus, "we worked with Costa Cruises for eightmonths to organise a food surplus management procedure that would allow us to salvagehigh-quality and high-nutritional value food. Today we are very happy to knowthat this food will not be wasted but will be given to an organisation that providesassistance to children, at a time when ISTAT tells us that child poverty inItaly "has risen from 3.9% in 2005 to 12.5% in 2016. From now on, we will befocussing on extending this best practice to other ports in Italy, and we hopethat all stakeholders will collaborate, as has happened in Savona."

"We are very proud of thisinitiative: it is something that is brand new for the cruise sector andsomething that Costa has been very keen to see take place. The Banco Alimentareis an authoritative partner and a point of reference in the fight against foodwaste, and it will allow us to donate surplus food to the people who need itmost. We are beginning with Savona and our flagship Costa Diadema, but thecommon goal is to involve more and more ships and ports in Italy and theMediterranean. Since preparing food for disembarkation is a unique occurrence,it has led to the direct participation of the Customs Agency and Maritime HealthOrganisation Agency in putting the finishing touches to the procedures for delivery,and it shows that it is possible to turn the opportunities provided by Law 166/2016into something worthwhile. All this is a starting point for anyone who wants tojoin us in the maritime sector," said Neil Palomba,President of Costa Cruises.

All year round Costa Diadema sails on one-week cruises in theMediterranean that call at Savona on Saturdays. Every Friday, before the shiparrives in Savona, at the end of dinner, all dishes prepared in the restaurantsand not served to guests (the "ready to eat" meals) will becollected. They will be placed in special aluminium containers that will besealed and labelled to ensure that they can be traced, and then stored in therefrigerators on board. The next morning, after the ship docks at Savona, thecontainers will be unloaded and delivered to the Banco Alimentare volunteers, whowill take them to Varazze (a town near Savona), to the Fondazione L'Ancora, which runs accommodation that is home to 20 children,as well as providing food aid to over 280 people in need, including refugees.

"The social impact of the Gadda Law is very important for organisationslike ours," says Fausto Romano, Directorof the Fondazione L'Ancora Onlus, "that assistspeople in need in overcoming the most difficult phases in their lives.The FondazioneL'Ancora ONLUS has respondedenthusiastically to the collaboration with Costa Cruises and Banco Alimentareto devise a plan for collecting and distributing food surpluses, which means wewill receive varied and excellent quality food. Lastbut not least, from an educational perspective, the issue of reducing waste andof food as a gift is an important communication and growth tool for thechildren."

The Costa Cruises and Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus project, aimedat assisting those affected by poverty and social exclusion, has also beenpossible thanks to Law 166/2016 against food and pharmaceutical waste promotedby the Hon. Maria Chiara Gadda that came into effect on 14 September 14 2016.The law restructures the regulatory framework concerning donations of unsoldfoods with simplification, harmonization and incentive measures, making iteasier to donate any type of food in a controlled and safe way like before, butmost importantly it gives priority to retrieving food to be donated to thepoorest people in our country.

Fondazione Banco AlimentareOnlus

Since 1989, Banco Alimentare has been retrieving undamaged and non-expired foodthat would otherwise have been destroyed, as it was no longer saleable. Having saved it from the being thrown into the waste, itbecomes valuable once more and becomes a resource for those in need. TheFood Bank Network works throughoutItaly every day via its 21 Food Bank Organisationsacross the country, coordinated by the Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus.Last year Banco Alimentare distributed over 66,000 tons of food. This includes 1,100,000 cooked food dishes and 326 tons of bread andfruit retrieved every day from catering establishments, corporate canteens,hospitals and schools. Every day, food is redistributed free of chargeto 8,035charities who help approximately 1,600,000needy people in Italy, including 135,000children aged 2 to 7. BancoAlimentare's work is possible thanks to its 1,800 plus volunteers.

CostaCruises is anItalian company that is part of Carnival Corporation & plc, the largestcruise group in the world. For 69 yearsthe ships in the Costa fleet have been taking their Italian hospitality andauthentic Italian-style holidays, with exquisite food, fine wines, uniqueshopping experiences and a huge selection of famous Italian brands, across seasaround the world. Currently the Costa fleet comprises 15 ships in service, all flying the Italian flag. In 2019 and 2021two new next-generation ships are scheduled to be delivered, fuelled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), the"cleanest" fossil fuel in the world.The Costa Cruises sustainable developmentstrategy pays great attention to the issues of nutrition and food production. Over recent years, on board the Italiancompany's ships, highly effective measures have been taken to minimise foodsurpluses, and these will be developed further via a series of initiatives thatwill aim to get the ships' guests involved.

For further information:

FondazioneBanco Alimentare Onlus

LauraBellotti - Press Office – mob. 340 2411074- ufficiostampa@bancoalimentare.it

Costa Cruises

Gabriele Baroni – CommunicationDirector – mob. +39 349 7668013 - baroni@costa.it

Davide Barbano – Media RelationsManager – mob. +39 334 6525216 - barbano@costa.it

Kaleidoscope powered