Roma Cares continue fight against food waste with new Olimpico initiative

Sharing and supporting the values of the World Food Programme (WFP), in conjunction with Rome’s ACLI Provinciali, the club and its charity arm are continuing their drive to address the issue wherever they can.

During Sunday’s home game against Sassuolo, a new initiative was started that saw all unused food from the hospitality areas at the Stadio Olimpico collected by Roma Cares, with assistance from ACLI Provinciali, to be redistributed and used in other settings.

The initiative will continue to take place during all of the club’s home games this season.

For each game, ACLI Provinciali Roma will help identify associations and organisations for the distribution of the excess matchday food.

Those entities will receive the delivery on the same day for all games that kick-off at 18:00 local time or earlier, and the following day for all later kick-offs.

The food will be collected at half-time during each match.

“We know how important sport can be as a medium for us to raise awareness of the WFP activities and our overall mission to fight against hunger,” said Professor Vincenzo Sanasi d’Arpe, President of WFP Italy.

“In this instance we would like to thank AS Roma and Roma Cares for their support of our #StopTheWaste campaign, one of the most important WFP initiatives – and one that WFP Italy is very focused on.”

Lidia Borzi, President of the ACLI Provinciali di Roma, added: “By working together, the ACLI and AS Roma hope to help address the twin problems of food waste and food poverty in one targeted campaign.

“This initiative arrives at a hugely important moment, in which the pandemic has had such a profound impact – not just on healthcare, but economically and socially too.”

“We are extremely proud to be able to take an matchday event that involves our fans and our partners at the Stadio Olimpico and turn it into an opportunity to help those who are currently facing different struggles,” said Paolo Monguzzi, the club’s Head of Venue Business.

“We hope to be able to do our part to fight against both food waste and hunger, following the principles we share with the WFP.”