As a thank you for volunteering, you can keep 10% of what you collect without listing it (with the exception of Save Me collections). It's yours to use however you like: for yourself, your household, friends, or a neighbour who doesn't use the app. If you collect fewer than 10 items, you can keep 1.

The other 90% must be listed on the Olio app and offered to the community as fairly and widely as possible. This keeps every donation traceable for our business donors (for things like product recalls and impact reporting), and means surplus food reaches as many people as possible. 🌍

Our systems can flag patterns that suggest food from collections isn't being shared properly. Reports from other members of the community will also prompt a check. A member of our team always reviews the evidence before deciding what action needs to be taken.

We look at the overall pattern of your activity, not just one collection.

We will check what you've listed against other information we have about your collections. For example, we compare it with the business's donation records, with what that store usually donates, or with what other members of your squad usually list from the same store. If your listings are much lower with no clear reason, we will look into it further.

For example, giving most of a collection straight to neighbours, friends, or groups instead of listing it. Your 10% can go to anyone you like, but the other 90% has to go through the app, even if you mean well.

Only mark an item as “Pick Up Arranged” when someone has requested it through the app and is coming to collect it.

Don’t mark items as “Pick Up Arranged” just to increase your saved food numbers. If no real pickup happened, this counts as abusing the system.

If someone said they’d collect but didn’t turn up, don’t leave the item as “Pick Up Arranged”. Change the status so someone else can request it 😊.

If nobody requests an item, please let the listing expire.

Your community needs a fair chance to see and request your items, so the longer your listings stay up, the better. If your listings are regularly on the app for less than 2 hours with no good reason, we may look into it further. A good reason could be a very late collection, where items need to be shared quickly before their use by date.

Replying to requests is a big part of sharing fairly. If you regularly get requests on your listings and don't reply to most or all of them, the food isn't really being offered to the community, and we may look into it.

We'll not count requests that are unreasonable, such as someone asking to collect at 3am or asking for food that is past its use by date.

Please share widely, with lots of different people, and not with the same one or two people every time. If one person, or a small group, regularly gets most or all of your listings while other people are passed over or don't get a chance to request, we will look into it.

For example, someone who lives at your address requests your listings, or you mark them as picked up by that person. Your household already benefits from your 10%, so they shouldn't request your listings. A household is everyone at the same address, including family, flatmates, lodgers and other HMO residents. Different flats in the same building count as separate households.

What we do depends on how serious the issue is, how consistent the pattern is, and your history on the programme.

A friendly message to remind you of a rule we think isn't being followed. A reminder isn't a formal penalty, but if the behaviour continues, we will take further action.

We send a warning when we first spot a pattern that needs to change. A warning stays on your account for 6 months. If you're a Squad Captain, you'll lose your Squad Captain roles. If you get a second warning within 6 months, you will be suspended.

We suspend for repeated issues, or for a clear and consistent pattern even without an earlier warning. During a suspension:

Your FWH account is restored automatically after one month, and you'll need to complete a quick ID verification 🪪 before you can collect again. If you're suspended 3 times in 6 months, you'll be suspended from the programme for 12 months.

We ban when there's strong evidence that someone is deliberately keeping more than their 10%. Examples include not listing anything across several collections, falsely marking items as picked up, or continuing to share with their household after a suspension. A ban can happen without an earlier warning. You'll still be able to use the Olio app as a regular user.

Yes. Every warning, suspension or ban email explains which rule we think was broken and the evidence we used. For example: "In the past 30 days, 57% of your listings were available to request for less than 2 hours."

Every penalty includes a link to our Appeal Form. It's the official way to ask us to review a decision. Please tell us anything that might explain what happened, such as a collection with no food, a very late collection, or a requester who lives at a different address. We'll review every appeal fairly and, where it's justified, reduce or reverse the decision.

Thank you for all you do to help your community and fight food waste! 💚