METRO Campus restaurants now also serving via "Too Good To Go"

On the occasion of this year's World Food Day organised by the United Nations on 16 October the METRO restaurants will start offering excess meals via the app "Too Good To Go". Registered users can see on the app which surplus food and foodstuffs are available from traders, restaurants and many other providers in their vicinity, issue a binding order and pick up their orders for a small fee. "Too Good To Go" has been online since 2015 and is used by 850,000 people in Germany on a regular basis. "Our aim is to effectively fight food waste in a way that is simple and convenient for the user", says Benjamin Wolf, Country Manager of Too Good To Go.

On 16 October METRO in addition will offer a "Care & Share Meal" at the restaurants on the Düsseldorf Campus. METRO employees who choose this lunch menu automatically donate 50 cents of the meal price directly to the UN World Food Programme (WFP). METRO will then double the donations collected during the campaign.

On the evening of 16 October representatives of the UN World Food Programme, the foodbank Tafel Deutschland, food-outlet SIRPLUS, the start-up company tsenso, which enables seamless monitoring of cold chains via a cloud solution, and METRO will deliberate about the question how innovative partnerships can help reduce hunger and food waste - and how this can contribute to reaching the second sustainable development goal of the United Nations (SDG 2) - zero hunger. This goal goes hand in hand with the UN's call for using resources sparingly and for actively fighting food loss and waste. METRO has actively committed itself to this goal: until 2025, the company's food losses in own operations are to be reduced by 50%. To this effect, the wholesale company also relies on partnerships and cooperations. For more than 20 years already many METRO stores have been partners of the regional Tafel foodbanks and METRO AG has been the main sponsor of this organisation for the past 12 years already. In addition, METRO cooperates with partners and start-ups along the complete supply chain to reduce food waste on the way from farm to fork. In addition, METRO has been engaging in a close partnership with the UN World Food Programme for many years. Some METRO countries are particularly active in this regard. METRO Italy, for example, is organising a two-week campaign at its wholesale stores this year around the World Food Day during which the purchase of certain articles will directly support the work of the UN World Food Programme.

"We are firmly convinced that the fight against hunger and food waste can be successful if we develop an awareness for these challenges. The fact that, also internally, this day has become so important for us shows that our more than 150,000 METRO employees around the world are assuming responsibility - by organising small and large activities", says Veronika Pountcheva, Global Director Corporate Responsibility and Senior Vice President METRO AG.

Zero Hunger, the second of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on its Agenda 2030, is an enormous global challenge. According to the World Hunger Index 2018, 821 million people around the world are currently suffering from hunger, especially in war-torn and crisis-ridden regions.

The World Food Day is to draw attention to a careful and conscious way of handling food. In Germany, we are still throwing away at least 55 kilograms of unused food per capita every year. METRO supports the hotel, restaurant and catering sector in their fight against food waste with various options: in the "Beste-Reste-Box" [best leftovers box], customers can take home meals that have not been sold. With the help of digital tools and ideas of innovative start-ups, restaurateurs in addition have the option to plan their purchases and menus in a smarter way and thereby gradually reduce their food waste. At lunchtime, today, METRO presented inter alia the smart tool Menukit, which the company is currently testing in cooperation with restaurateurs, in the framework of a conference in Düsseldorf. With this tool, restaurant owners can precisely analyse their offering. They can see at one glance which dishes are going down particularly well with their customers. In addition, they can use this tool to continually improve their recipes and optimise their sourcing on the basis of the demand registered: intelligent menu planning to help fight food waste in the kitchen.

METRO is a leading international specialist in wholesale and food retail. The company operates in 35 countries and employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. In financial year 2016/17, METRO generated sales of around €37 billion. The company provides custom solutions to meet the regional and international needs of its wholesale and retail customers. With its sales brands METRO/MAKRO Cash & Carry and Real as well as delivery services and digitalisation initiatives METRO sets the standards for tomorrow: for customer focus, digital solutions and sustainable business models.