The aim of his company is to decrease food waste, says Haciibrahimoglu. “Doing something good is a number one priority. There is so much hunger in the world while here we throw a lot of food away.” Earning money is number two, he says. Because even though in the merely six weeks that his company has existed, he has already had quite a lot of clients – about fifty customers, mainly students, but also the popular take-away restaurant Cato by Cato –, no profit is being made so far. “I don’t think that is important yet. I am learning a lot and enough is coming in for me to cover the costs.”
How does it work? Haciibrahimoglu – and the nine “indispensable” students who help him – buy these so-called ‘B-class’ vegetables and fruit from farmers in the neighbourhood. “Mainly from farmer Geert, who has a farm just on the border near Aachen, but sometimes from other businesses.” From these, they make four types of parcels, which they sell online. People can pick up their orders at the UM’s ‘sustainability hub’ at Tapijn or Cato by Cato. Also, Haciibrahimoglu and his colleagues get on their bicycles once a week to deliver their parcels. Anything that is left over, goes to the food bank.
Delivery is a problem, he says. “We do it all by bicycles.” The 600 euro that Eatly won with the student competition will therefore go into a piggy bank. Haciibrahimoglu has set his eye on a tuk-tuk that costs 3,500 euro. “Electric, because that is sustainable.”