Charoen Pokphand Foods PLC (CP Foods) and its partners - Scholars of Sustenance Foundation (SOS Thailand) and GEPP Sa-Ard Co., Ltd. – have turned surplus food to 74,906 delicious, clean and safe meals for the disadvantaged in 85 communities in Bangkok and neighboring provinces. 

The collaboration is part of the “Circular Meal…This Meal Changes the World” Project that enters its 2nd year. Branded as Thailand’s first integrated model for surplus food and packaging management, the project is aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and introducing the closed loop packaging, whereby packaging can continually be reused and recovered. 

Wuthichai Sithipreedanant, senior vice president for Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Development of CP Foods, said that the three partners jointly launched the “Circular Meal…This Meal Changes the World” Project to support the vulnerable groups in the aftermath of COVID-19 outbreak. These people lost their jobs but still shouldered expenses. The project also provided meals to volunteers that fought against COVID-19 in urban areas and were stationed at vaccination centers in highly-populated areas. Since June 2020, the project has delivered 74,906 meals to 85 communities in Bangkok and peripheral provinces. All the meals contained high nutrients, with proteins contributing 92.5% of volume. They were expected to be a main source of energy for the vulnerable groups. Aligned with the Zero Food Waste Policy, the project turned surplus food to edible meals which hence reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with landfills by 39,996 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent. 

"The “Circular Meal…This Meal Changes the World” Project is the first integrated model for surplus food and packaging management in Thailand. It reduced the volume of food waste to landfill in the supply chain from farmers to consumers and recovered food packaging,” Wuthichai said.  

All the three partners forged the collaboration as guided by the Circular Economy concept. CP Foods and SOS outlined the operational strategy and specified target areas. As CP Foods gathered surplus food from its distribution centers and delivered the surplus to SOS, the foundation handled the transformation of the surplus to ready-to-eat meals. Meanwhile, GEPP Sa-Ard took care of the recovering of plastic food packaging (Takeback system) for recycling, to relieve communities from plastic waste. Since 2021, more than 6,000 food containers have been recovered and non-recyclable parts were tackled properly to reduce waste to landfill.