JAKARTA – In a typical Indonesian wedding, it is common to have hundreds, even thousands of guests in attendance.
It is also common for guests to be offered huge amounts of food, with much of the leftovers going to waste after the ceremony.
A new programme from wedding vendor directory Bridestory allows couples celebrating their special day to have their cake – and donate it too.
Called “A Blessing to Share,” the programme aims to donate uneaten food from a wedding party to those in need. The programme is a result of a collaboration between Bridestory and FoodCycle, a nonprofit organisation that focuses on distributing food to help those in need.
According to Indonesian news agency Antara, the programme is based on concerns about wedding ceremonies that waste food by providing too much for the guests. When the ceremony is over, much of the food is simply thrown away.
“Through ‘A Blessing to Share,’ we encourage brides and grooms to share a little bit of their prosperity on their happy day by donating surplus food,” said Kristi Joviani, the programme’s project leader, in a press release. “Therefore, their special moment can be other people’s happy day too.”
In order to participate in this programme, couples need to register, fill in the form and specify who is going to be the person in charge for leftover food on the wedding day.
The person in charge will then communicate with the Food Cycle team on the kind of food left over. After the ceremony, Food Cycle then sends the leftovers via the programme’s delivery partner, Indonesian ride-hailing giant Go-Jek’s Go-Send or Go-Box services, to pick up the food directly from the venue and bring it to Food Bank of Indonesia.
Known as an institution that distributes donated food, Food Bank of Indonesia then prepares the food by first checking the quality and then dividing it into portions, before finally distributing it to underprivileged people.
For now, the programme only accepts excess food from couples who hold their wedding on weekends and in Jakarta. In addition, only halal food will be accepted and distributed.
“Food Cycle realises that this programme is still in its early stages, but we hope it can raise people’s awareness of a huge social gap and (realise that) we all have a responsibility to solve this problem,” said Astrid Paramita, a food technologist from FoodCycle.
