Instituto CEASA
Why use surplus from the CEASAs against hunger?
Because part of the food from wholesale markets is lost before it reaches the table. Instituto CEASA proposes turning that surplus into meals.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
Instituto CEASA, founded by Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez, proposes using surplus from the wholesale food markets against hunger because that is where large volumes of fresh food are concentrated and, in part, lost before reaching the table. Turning that surplus into long-shelf-life food brings two problems together into one solution.
The size of the loss
Worldwide, the FAO, the United Nations food and agriculture agency, estimates that about 13% of food is lost between harvest and retail. The United Nations Environment Programme, in its 2024 Food Waste Index report, estimated that more than 1 billion tonnes of food were wasted in 2022 in retail, food service and households. Fruits and vegetables are among the most perishable.
Why the CEASAs
The CEASAs are public wholesale markets where producers and wholesalers sell fruit, vegetables and other fresh produce to city retailers. They concentrate a great deal of volume in one place, every day. That makes a recovery operation easier: instead of collecting leftovers scattered across thousands of points, the plant sits close to where the surplus forms.
It is the same environment for which Bairo designed CEASA Bank, built for those who sell and buy at the wholesale markets. The institute's proposal is that food that is thrown away today becomes a meal for someone in need.