With the temporary closure of food kitchens and other food serving initiatives, charities in Norway struggle to find ways to be able to provide food to the increasing demand from people in need, many of whom don’t even have access to a kitchen. In average, charities went from collecting 270 kg of food per visit to the food bank (pre-corona times), to 350-400kg per visit during the COVID-19 crisis.

To be able to make the most out of these large-scale household products and at the same time, facilitate the redistribution of surplus food, Matsentralen Norway have launched a pilot project called “Matsentralen Kitchen” (MSK) in collaboration with the organizations Unikum and Matvett.

The goal of MSK is to create healthy and nutritious ready-made meals that are suitable for distribution, both in portion packs (about 500 g) and family packs (1.5-2 kg). By being able to redistribute serving portions, partner organizations can reach out to even more people in need, while at the same time reduce food waste and support a healthier diet for people in need, whether they have access to a kitchen or not.

The goal of the pilot is to have two production days a week from April to June, with a weekly volume of 500-600 servings of food. After the pilot, the goal is to upscale to at least 1000 servings per week in Oslo and to introduce the model to other cities that have a food bank nearby. Funds for this pilot have been granted by the Kavli Foundation.