Page 39 - EarthHeroes

That September, she gave up her job and moved back to Lisbon, feeling nervous and excited, ready to work on her new project.
Along with two friends, Isabel set up Fruta Feia. The prize money wasn’t quite enough to cover their costs, which included creating a website, hiring a member of staff and buying a van to transport the produce from farms to the city, so they decided to ‘crowdfund’ the rest using social media. One hundred and seventy- six people gave small sums of money, and soon they had 5,000€ – enough
to buy a big, bright yellow van with the Fruta Feia logo on the side. Then they travelled to visit farmers to ask if they would sell their imperfect produce. Isabel was surprised to find that many farmers were suspicious. Who would want to buy produce that they normally threw away? One even yelled at her, saying that for 40 years he had been told his greens had to be perfect, and now she was asking for the ones with marks on? They thought Isabel and her friends were really government inspectors coming to check their farms. It was a challenge, but eventually Isabel persuaded 10 farmers to sell their unwanted produce to Fruta Feia.
Next they needed customers. The team emailed friends, family and supporters, asking them, “Who eats ugly fruit?” hoping to find the 40 people they needed to start the scheme. Isabel was amazed and delighted when a total of 100 people signed up to be Fruta Feia customers in just one week. Each agreed to pay 5€ to join the club and to buy a weekly box of ugly fruit and vegetables.
At the start of each week, Isabel and her team drove to the countryside to buy ‘ugly’ produce, which they brought back to Lisbon. They were given the use of
a community centre, free of charge, and every Tuesday afternoon, volunteers met there to fill boxes with all the produce. The volunteers were mainly students and retired people who wanted to support the project against food waste, and in return they were given a box of fruit and vegetables to take home. Then in the evening customers came to collect their boxes. The scheme launched in November 2013 and immediately became a huge success.
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