OLIO - Food Sharing Revolution
Connect with neighbours and local shops so that surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. For your convenience, OLIO can also be used for unwanted non-food household items, too.
Whether you’re a household or business, adding food and other items to OLIO is easy. Simply snap a photo, add a brief description and provide pick-up details. A lovely neighbour will be delighted to take it off your hands.
Just browse what is available near you (most of it is free or heavily discounted), request anything that take your fancy and message to arrange a pick-up. It’s as easy as that.
Examples of items shared on OLIO include fresh homegrown veg from gardens, artisan bread from local bakeries, over catering from events, and many other home and kitchen items, too.
If you love food, hate waste, care about the environment or want to connect with your community, OLIO is for you. Download today to join The Food Sharing Revolution.
Other features include:+ DISTANCE – see how near each item is to you+ NOTIFICATIONS – get notifications when you receive a message from another user or when new food near you is added to the app + CONTROL – decide whether you want the pick-up to be at your home, at one of our convenient drop box locations, or in a public place. You choose when and to whom you disclose your address+ MY OLIO – see any items you have added or requested, and access the messages for these items+ SHARE – OLIO will work better the more people who use it. So please share on Facebook and Twitter, or use our refer a friend feature
Food can currently be added/requested anywhere in the world, so please install today!
WHAT THE PRESS SAY ABOUT US:
"The process is simple and just like Freecycle but for food."
- Lifehacker
"This app will stop you chucking good food out and give it to your neighbours instead"
- Metro
"OLIO aims to match up unwanted food with eager consumers. Think Tinder for your tins, or a fostering service for your fridge and fruit bowl'
- Telegraph
OLIO is supported by the iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini and is optimised for the iPhone 5 and higher. We do not recommend using OLIO on the iPod Touch. Download OLIO now and join The Food Sharing Revolution!
Category : Food & Drink
Reviews (30)
It's so easy to request and give away items safely, securely and reliably. Olio also gives you the option to report no-shows, which is great because it encourages people to communicate properly. I also love that you can see how much you save with each collection and that they have a cute little karma points system where you can receive points for giving/sharing items and giving a good rating to other olio users.
It is a great idea. However, please add filters for type of objects (or categories). Now it's hard to search for specific things I need. Also, the messaging is super laggy. One user waited an hour to pick up my item and then left because I didn't respond. Actually, the messages were not delivered. Update: super lag messaging. One user only able to see my message a month later! Pls fix!
I really like this app. It give the opportunity to share food and item's preventing waste and saving money. The only thing I don't like is how inconsistent the notifications for messages are. I missed a person collecting an item as I did not get the notification with the message they had arrived. I had to go to the app and noticed that I had a new message. I sometimes get the notifcation, but most times, it's either missing or late.
It's been very handy. The app is a bit buggy at peak times and could do with some automation. For example, the address should be given automatically when the collection is confirmed and have a link to Google maps ect. What happens is you are looking through the old archive messages unless the delivery address is supplied each Time with every item that is given.
Too many intrusive pop-ups when I'm trying to quickly upload a listing. Needs a search function to find specific items in your area. New message notifications don't automatically clear when you read messages. Too many notifications about Tesco collections near me. No way to modify notifications on a granular level. It's one notification group for many notifications.
Originally this was a great app... now when I do get a notification it is 15/20 minutes after the listing and everything has already been requested. More recently I might not get a notification until an hour later!!This is even when I have only had one item in the past 7 days.. I give up as the notifications were discriminatory if you had more than 7 items but now I still am getting nothing!!
It's a great idea that has helped me give away lots of stuff. I can only give 3 stars because the notifications are bad. It waits one hour to tell me someone has sent me a message. No good if the person collecting is outside my door messaging me to open up for them! I set up notifications to be immediate and yet... Huge delay.
The idea is great! The app can do with some help. Auto Sharing of contact/address details once pickup is confirmed, integration with maps/citymapper to check travel, etc. Also when listing, maybe ask to put approx weight/dimensions, etc. Could be helpful too.
Brilliant concept, and so thankful it exists - lifesaver for many (me included !!) Recently there's been a software change which has caused several weeks of issues for Food Waste Heroes who are trying to do a good job. Also the recent/frequent glitches mean that for anyone covering someone else's collection as a favour, they have no option to list items agaistt the store & have to list as personal. They then get a very demoralising message from Olio telling them they haven't shared food :(
WONDERFUL IDEA AND NEW ERA WITH A NEW GEN! LOVE IT! Instantly listed a free item and will do a lot. A bug report: when the user refreshes the free items in the area listy the view counter increases 😁😱🤣 so you can boost your own listing by refreshign it...
This app is amazing for bringing together communities in the fight to reduce waste. The Food Waste Heroes are exactly that- heroes for making sure all food collections are distributed fairly and all in their own time. Yes, the app is a bit glitchy at times, but there is a forum to ask questions so no one is left not knowing where to turn if they need help. Wish I had known about this sooner ❤
Easy to use app. Friendly peoples helping each other with food and none food items. Message board very convenient for both sides, along with kind reminders from the admin. Overall, highly recommend this app!
Fantastic app, works in many ways. Enables you to reach out and give away items you no longer need, passing them to others in and around your community. If something is being given away that you are looking for then you can request that item, often more than one thing from another user, particularly food. It's main initiative is reducing food waste, in this you can either just request items you would use or become a volunteer to collect from shops and redistribute via the app.
Love the idea and how well it works. Easy to use. BUT way too many notifications. There is no way to turn off general notifications and only get notified by new messages. Also too many pop-ups in the app itself, really annoying.
The concept is amazing but the app is rubbish. So many glitches and problems and pointless karma men jumping up and down at you. Olio really need to sort out the bugs. I would give 5* if the app was to work properly. Camera slow to upload photos. Multiple user names so difficult to distinguish between users. ( EXTREMELY DIFFICULT WHEN TRYING TO BAG FOOD FOR MULTIPLE PEOPLE)..... The glitch list goes on and on.
Recently (these few weeks) I have problem completing my listing. The apps keeps freezing while i key in my description and i have to restart numerous times. I knew the bug and i alway copy my text a few times during keying. Today i restarted 5x before i successfully input that few sentences. I tried to restart, clear cache. All does not work. It was all good just 2 months ago and i have shared with 84 olio members . My version is 2.91.0
Great for food and non food items when sharing with others, but the food waste heroes need some work. Often they'll only offer an item till midnight the day they collected it and for things like bread it would have been fine to eat. Also lots aren't very responsive so why take the food from the supermarket if you can't distribute it. Takes the blame of the food waste from the supermarket but the waste is still there
I love the concept of the app and I have met some really amazing people but the notifications are atrocious, sometimes messages come through and I am not notified. Makes it very frustrating when arranging for pick ups, I usually provide my mobile phone number or ask them to WhatsApp me to arrange.
Good all great concept but doesn't seem to refresh until after items have gone. Will check it and there will be nothing available then check 1 hour later and 6 items were listed 2 hours ago and requested 30 mins ago that wernt showing when Ive previously checked. Great concept but a little frustrating when it doesn't update correctly and you miss out.
Highly recommend this app to anyone and everyone! I have shared with 42 people so far in just over a month, helping reduce food waste and save money 😊 as well as getting and giving free food, I have also received some lovely toiletries from lush which someone else didn't want. It's helped me feel closer to my community and is so important to help out others in the current circumstances. This app has grown so much over the last few years, definitely check it out
One of the apps that helps fight waste in this wasteful world we live in. You can get a lot of what you need for free and stop needless purchases. I owe a lot to this app, fantastic idea and they keep adding useful features!
Waste of time. Wanted to post some free stuff, but it is impossible to upload photos. The app stops working after selecting the photos to upkoad, jist returns to home.screen. And unable to submit the posts without photos.
It's a great app to both get and give away stuff for free. I've used it a lot to help declutter and also when moving house to give away furniture quickly. It also allows you to report people who don't show up so others can know.
Experience good, I'm currently new to the app at present. I do think the app seems to be for young children in some sense (the app offers achievement badges). I think the app could do with an on/off setting for that as it is not everyone's cup of tea (achieving badges).
Fabulous place to lost or collect free food or non food items. A lifesaver for those needing it in these hard times, but also a great way to save food from going to waste by becoming a FWH and collecting food on their behalf to list on the app. Love it.
It's fine, an identical concept freecycle and freegle pretending to be new and cool. The app is pretty easy to use, but the volume of notifications is a pain, however you can turn them off
Excellent idea, fantastic app, unfortunately not enough availability in my area. Never any available pickup slots or available listings. (Closest 9.6miles away). Focus areas seem limited. Will continue to use but my ability to contribute is limited.
Help! I have tons of excess food I want to give away but I can't get past the phone number verification! When it comes up, its set up for a UK number or something and after I delete the 44 and put in my area code I can no longer press the "get code button" no matter how many times I type in my number the button won't even light up for me to press it.
The concept and the idea of the app is wonderful. I love the idea that everyone can share and collect food or non-food items. The software of the app needs massive improvement. At present it's not user friendly for food volunteers that has to list 20+ items every evening for the food to be collected by midnight. It takes ages repeating the same action. The profile shows only the last 20 items listed, irrelevant of their status. That means anything listed earlier is no longer visible.
Currently feeling frustrated and annoyed. Downloaded the App onto my phone several weeks ago and all seemed fine. Then last week it asked for a password. Tried to set up a password and the screen contained four fields, none of which responded when I tried tapping into them. Deleted then reinstalled but no different. Plan "B" download onto laptop but find I am going around in circles and getting nowhere. Here I am an hour later still trying to download the App. Even says I have already downloaded it, presumably onto this PC but I can't find it so obviously can't log on. Oh why do developers feel the need to update/improve things. They never seem to work afterwards. Hey guys, if it works, just don't tamper with it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I will now spent a limited amount time trying to find why I am having no success, then move onto something more productive. Goodbye Olio, it was good while it lasted but my patience has its limits.