Savouring Our Future - Give surplus a second life and turn 5.8 million bread to smile

Maxim’s Group's Surplus Bread Donation Program has donated more than 5.8 million surplus bread.

Aurea Yung, Head of Operations of Foodlink Foundation.

A simple bread matters

The Foodlink Foundation is one of the founding members of Maxim’s Group’s “Surplus Bread Donation Program”. In 2009, surplus food donation is still premature in Hong Kong, Maxim’s has pioneered to partner with food banks like Foodlink to start donation of surplus bread. It was not an easy start, considering the stringent quality control measures in selecting the suitable products for donation, evaluating the storage facilities of the food bank, and recruiting volunteers to pick up the surplus bread. However, with the collaborative effort of many different partners, all the challenges were tackled in 9 months’ time. And now, everyday we have volunteers collecting surplus bread from over 250 Maxim’s Cakes and Arome shops, donating to the needy and reducing food waste.

During a charity visit, Aurea Yung, Head of Operations of Foodlink Foundation saw an elderly appeared to be very excited after getting her bread. "I found out that she was given a sweet potato bread. It turned out that she has always wanted to try it, but she just could not afford it." Aurea was shocked that a bread could make a big difference. "Another memorable incident took place on a hot day in July, I saw a mother taking a child to the center to collect bread. The two of them were sweating a lot and they looked exhausted. She walked in the heat for 20 minutes just to save money.”

In addition, many ethnic minority students did not receive money from parents to buy breakfasts, some of them did not even have dinner, and fainted when they went to school the next day. We can clearly see that there are still some people in society who can't even afford a single piece of bread. This is a great opportunity to teach children the concept of cherishing food.”

Leung Kin Fai, Project Director of Feeding Hong Kong.

The mission of saving food

“One night, we saw a bakery in the neighborhood threw a tray of perfectly edible bread into the trash can. At that moment, we decided to rescue them immediately and donate the bread to a Asylum center." That night just marked the beginning of our mission of saving food. Leung Kin Fai, Project Director of Feeding Hong Kong, shared with us that he worked with Maxim's to study how to rescue surplus bread, with particular emphasis on food safety.

Edmond stressed that there are more and more corporations willing to contribute. "Maxim’s Group’s Surplus Bread Donation Program is still very popular, especially when parents encourage their children to participate for educational purpose. We will continue to make more people aware of food waste and cherish food together.”

Foodlink Foundation hangs tin cans engraved with the names of partnering organizations on the wall of their office reception area. It symbolizes food and kindness being linked together and spreaded out.

Cherish food and help the needy

Aurea believes that in addition to collecting surplus, it is very important to know how to properly handle and distribute them to those in need. Otherwise it will be "secondary food waste”.

Aurea said that during the pandemic, business has been disrupted, resulting in a drop of 80% in food donations. At the same time, due to the rise in unemployment, the number of requests for help has continued to increase. "We have to come up with new solutions. One of them is to provide frozen food packs. After cooking the food, vacuum it and put it in the refrigerator, so that service users can take it home and reheat it."

Through Maxim’s Group’s Surplus Bread Donation Program, we make every piece of bread count.

Maxim’s Branded Products uniforms are made with 100% sustainable fibre, upcycling 16 plastic bottles in each piece. Showcasing Maxim’s professionalism while advancing the sustainability agenda.

Curbing the use of plastic and virgin raw materials

Maxim's Branded Products unveiled a new uniform which debuted in Mainland China, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and Southeast Asia in 2023. The new shade of burgundy is produced entirely with Repreve, a sustainable material. With 7,000 shirts procured, the equivalence of upcycling over 110,000 plastic bottles, was part of our effort to bring a happy and green mid-autumn festival to our beloved planet and everyone living on it.

Apart from the Branded Products Department, other departments have also been gradually incorporating sustainable elements into their uniforms and utensils starting from 2021, slashing plastic usage along with the demand for virgin material, as a means to better utilize resources and contribute to the circular economy.

Repreve is a sustainable polyester made from recycled plastic bottles. Its production is less polluting and carbon intensive. Uniforms and tools used in commercial settings need to be extra durable since the frequent cleaning is necessary for maintaining good hygiene, which in turn renders them more prone to wear and tear. The material also has to be soft, comfortable on the body and suitable for multiple wears. Repreve is a perfect candidate that checks all the boxes.

To help dealers and colleagues better understand the intention behind it, labels and tags are attached to indicate 'upcycled from plastic bottles'.

The plastic-bottle-uniform goes global

Mr. Patrick So, Chief Operating Officer (Branded Products and FMCG, Cakes & Bakery (Mainland China)), believes sustainable uniform is a trend in the global community that aligns with Maxim’s values. The use of Repreve weaves together the spirit of sustainability and innovation, giving birth to comfortable uniforms that do not require ironing. Be it for colleagues working indoors or outdoors, they all feel refreshed and proud wearing these thoughtfully produced pieces.

"Sustainable uniforms are not just mere clothing items, it is also a pleasant gesture to our planet and contributes deeply to Maxim’s long term vision sustainability." says Mr. So.

Sustainable uniform serves as a testimony to Maxim’s commitment to sustainable development and an example for our dealers and partners

What does Maxim’s Branded Products team think?

It’s awesome!
Can’t believe it’s made of plastic bottles!

Vietnam Team

Everyone at the company strives
to be greener and less
carbon intensive.
Wearing it makes me proud!

Mainland China Team

It’s iron-free,
convenient and
makes us look sharp.

US Team

It feels like an usual uniform
but turns out it’s made
of green materials.

Hong Kong Team

Maxim’s Group also uses upcycled renewable materials or Repreve in:

The staff t-shirt at MX.

The Arome aprons at Arome Bakery.

The chef pants at Peking Garden.

The tablecloths at COVA.

The volunteer t-shirt for the Japanese restaurant team.

Coffee BOB catalyzes circular economy

According to the Environmental Protection Department, 3,255 tonnes of food waste are disposed at landfills every day, accounting for one third of total municipal solid waste in Hong Kong. In addition to taking up valuable landfill space, its decomposition process also brings odour nuisance and releases methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide—the harm brought by food waste is much greater than what’s usually assumed.

About 30% of the waste disposed at landfills every day is food waste, which releases a greenhouse gas more destructive than carbon dioxide: methane. Taking that into consideration, upcycling food waste into new products not only creates value, but also eases global warming.

Rescuing 2.6 tonnes of surplus bread

In 2021, Maxim’s Group began to join hands with Breer, an award-winning local start-up founded by HKUST students, and launched the BOB (Bottle of Bread) label. The team replaces barley with surplus bread as an essential brewing ingredient, turning what would have been wasted into local craft beer. Over 2.6 tonnes of surplus bread have since been rescued.

Coffee grounds is one of the most common kinds of food waste produced by restaurants. Except for a tiny amount that is being recycled as a handicraft material, most of it is being thrown away to government food waste processing facilities or simply to landfills, like any other trash.

After months of testing and fine-tuning, Maxim’s Group successfully turned the grounds collected from its restaurants into a beer brewing ingredient, and launched “Coffee BOB”, the second BOB product. While the Original BOB pale ale has a delightful citrus note, the new beer is a stout with more robust flavors brought by coffee grounds added during the brewing process, with each bottle containing 4 grams of grounds. The intertwining dark chocolate notes and roasty flavors bring forth a delicate balance between sweetness and bitterness.

To ensure freshness and avoid exposure to humidity, sunlight, dust and germs, surplus breads would be sent to a cold room as soon as they are collected and be used in brewing the next day. Moreover, the high temperature produced during the brewing is enough to kill off any left-over germs, making sure every bottle is absolutely safe and tasty.

The Original BOB and the Coffee BOB contain 25 grams and 15 grams of surplus bread respectively, while the latter also contains 4 grams of coffee grounds. Barley is entirely replaced as a brewing ingredient.

“Buy Six Plant One”—let’s all take part in waste and carbon reduction

With the brilliant idea of “upcycling bread into beer”, BOB echoes with the Sustainable Development Goals proposed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) by incorporating waste reduction and circular economy into people’s daily routine. The innovative products invite consumers to play a part in resource conservation and the endeavor to achieve the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C.

For every 6 bottles of BOB sold, Maxim’s Group will sponsor social enterprise EcoMatcher in helping tree farmers to plant one tree in Asia. The growth of these trees can be observed on corresponding website and smartphone application. In this sense, each BOB purchase is contributing to tree farmers and their communities.

Innovative ideas and practices of sustainable development are ingrained in every facet of life. Enterprises, start-ups and consumers should work hand in hand to create greener consumption habits that benefit our communities, the environment and the earth, and that is exactly what BOB does—it brings together different stakeholders with the common pursuit of a brighter future.

[Note 1]: EPD’s Food Waste Challenge https://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/tc_chi/environmentinhk/waste/prob_solutions/food_waste_challenge.html

Hong Kong Solid Waste Monitoring Report 2020 Statistics https://www.wastereduction.gov.hk/sites/default/files/msw2020tc.pdf

[Note 2]: UNEP Bread to beer: an unlikely sandwich cast-off https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/bread-beer-unlikely-sandwich-cast

More information: https://www.maxims.com.hk/bob.html

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