1. Is this going to affect my evening Sainsbury’s collections?
No - your existing evening Food Waste Hero collections will continue as normal 🎉
Food Waste Heroes will continue to collect Use by surplus in the evening, 15 minutes before store closing time, and charities will continue to collect Best before surplus during the day (12:00–17:30).
2. Will charities replace Food Waste Heroes?
Definitely not - we absolutely still need our wonderful Food Waste Heroes!
As outlined above, charities will collect from Sainsbury’s stores during the day, and Food Waste Heroes collect in the evening. Both roles remain essential in rescuing all of Sainsbury’s surplus food.
3. Can I claim a daytime collection slot?
In some cases, if no charity is available to cover a daytime collection, Food Waste Heroes may have the opportunity to claim that slot as a one-off collection, via the Volunteer Hub.
However, not all stores will have daytime slots available for Food Waste Heroes.
If you don’t see any changes for your store, that’s completely normal.
4. Why can I see charities in my Squad Chat?
As Sainsbury’s stores start to transition to this new approach, you may notice charities joining your Squad Chats.
Charities won’t be required to proactively communicate via your Squad Chat (as their notifications will be turned off by default), and Squad Captains and Food Waste Heroes don’t need to oversee charities that join, or monitor their collections.
They’ll be uploading items to the app using a slightly different process to normal. Unlike Food Waste Hero collections, charities are only required to add one listing onto the app to confirm their collection has taken place.
Charity listings will not be published to the Olio community, but will only be visible to the Olio team. This allows us to keep an accurate record of their pick-ups.
If you notice several charity volunteers using one single charity Olio account, don’t worry - that’s how we intend charities to use the app.
5. What happens if both a charity and a Food Waste Hero arrive to collect at the same time?
Sainsbury’s collections now operate in two windows:
Daytime (12:00–17:30) – Charities collect Best before ambient food (with Food Waste Heroes filling gaps where needed).
Evening (around 15 minutes before close) – Food Waste Heroes collect chilled Use by items.
During the transition period, there may occasionally be overlap – particularly where a charity is still getting used to the new process, or on days when stores close earlier (like Sundays) and collection windows are closer together.
If this happens, please follow the guidance you’re given by the in-store team when you’re at the collection. Sainsbury’s colleagues have been trained on the collection windows and will help where needed.
To avoid clashes, please only collect at the time shown in your assigned slot and check your store notes (on your action card) before arriving.
Any early teething issues should settle as the rollout completes 🧡
6. Do Squad Captains need to manage charity collections?
No. Squad Captains are not expected to oversee, monitor or follow up on charity collections or chat activity.
Charities also aren’t required to proactively communicate via your Squad Chat, so if they seem quiet - don’t worry!
The Olio team is managing charity collections and activity centrally.
7. Why is Olio making this change?
By adding the ability to manage charity collections in Olio, we can give Sainsbury’s oversight of all their surplus food redistribution, bringing their food donation efforts all neatly under one roof, for maximum social and environmental impact.
8. Do I need to do anything?
No – there’s nothing you need to do.
We’ll continue to keep you updated via Squad Chats and the forum as stores transition and charities join the platform, so you’ll always know what’s happening.
9. I know a charity that collects from Sainsbury’s – what should they do?
If they haven’t already been onboarded, they should email [email protected] to make themselves known and begin the process.