How do Sainsburys collections work?
As well as working with Olio, Sainsbury’s works with charities to share as much of their surplus food as possible. This means we share a master schedule of daily collections with lots of different organisations and charities collecting from Sainsbury’s. 🧡
Olio will be collecting mainly chilled (use-by) items from Sainsbury's. However, if a charity is unable to complete their collection which is scheduled for earlier in the day, Olio will be able to collect all food types. Please respect what is offered by store colleagues and come prepared to collect all food types. 🛍
Below is how Olio and Sainsbury’s systems communicate with each other during the food collection process:
Sainsbury’s colleagues will be using Olio Collect - this is a tech system that sends a confirmation message on whether there is food available or not by store colleagues clicking a button.
⏰ 1 hour before the scheduled collection time, Sainsbury’s will send a message confirming whether there is food to collect or the ‘no food available’ message. Our system automatically recognises this and sends a message to the store letting them know if we have a FWH assigned to the collection slot. A message is then sent in the Squad Chat to let FWHs know if there is food/no food available.
❌ If you don’t receive a confirmation message, this means that the store hasn’t let Olio know if there is food available to collect or not. If this occurs, we do not recommend attending the collection.
Packaging: what your collection should be in
Sainsbury’s store colleagues should not be donating surplus food of any type of refuse/sack bags. We know this sometimes happens, sorry if it’s happened to you 😓.
You should expect your collection to be provided in a produce box or a store crate.
If your collection is given to you in bags, here’s what to do:
Yellow bags: these are typically used for loose bakery items. Please refuse these items as explained here.
Any other bags: ask a store colleague whether the bagged food is intended for donation.
If yes, please ask them to unpack the items so you can collect them in your own bag/containers.
If anything is visibly unfit for donation, please decline it.
Any refuse/bin bag (any colour): do not accept it. Please report this to Olio so we can escalate it with Sainsbury’s.