BOROUME SAVING FOOD SAVING LIVES

Their core work

Boroume ("We Can" in Greek) is a Greek NGO that operationally rescues surplus food — from supermarkets, restaurants, farms, and events — and redistributes it to charities and people in need across Greece. In EU research projects, they function as the civil society practitioner: the organization that actually runs food waste reduction at scale and brings a real donor-recipient network into consortium work. They contributed to a project building ICT-based community platforms for collective food-saving action, and to an educational initiative developing social innovation skills in citizens and practitioners. Their value in any consortium is bridging the gap between digital tools or educational models and on-the-ground implementation in the food sector.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their earliest EU project work (2016-2018) centred squarely on the food waste problem itself — using ICT networks, online communities, and pro-social behaviour to reduce food waste at a systemic level. By their second project (2017-2021), the emphasis had shifted away from food waste specifically and toward the educational scaffolding behind social change: how to teach social innovation skills, enable co-creation, and design interdisciplinary learning through real-world experimentation. This suggests Boroume moved from being a food-sector operator contributing to a digital tool project toward becoming a practitioner voice in broader social innovation pedagogy, drawing on their food rescue experience as a case study rather than the central topic.

Boroume appears to be broadening from food-specific digital solutions toward social innovation education and capacity building — making them a potential partner for projects that need a practitioner NGO with experience in citizen engagement, co-creation methodology, or real-world testbed environments, not just food waste projects.

How they like to work

Boroume has participated exclusively as a consortium partner across both projects, never taking a coordinating role — consistent with an operational NGO that brings domain credibility and real-world reach rather than project management infrastructure. Their two projects involved a combined 19 unique partners across 9 countries, suggesting they work within medium-to-large international consortia. This profile fits an organization valued for what it does on the ground, not for driving project administration.

Boroume has built connections with 19 distinct consortium partners spanning 9 countries through just two projects, pointing to broad European networks despite their small project portfolio. Their geographic footprint extends well beyond Greece, though their operational base and real-world impact remain domestic.

What sets them apart

Boroume is one of very few EU-funded NGOs whose core operational model — food rescue and redistribution at national scale — directly matches the research problems they join projects to address. Unlike universities or consultancies that study food waste, Boroume manages it daily. That makes them an unusually credible real-world testbed and civil society validator for any project involving food systems, digital community platforms, or social behaviour change.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SavingFood
  Their largest funded project (EUR 160,375) and the clearest match between Boroume's operational mission and the research objective — directly combining ICT platforms with food waste reduction through collective community action.
• NEMESIS
  A longer project (2017-2021) that signals Boroume's expansion into social innovation education, showing they are valued beyond food-sector contexts as a practitioner voice in experiential and interdisciplinary learning.