A primary school teacher dubbed the Whoopsie Queen for only buying reduced price food has rescued 60,000 items worth thousands of pounds from being binned in just 19 months before distributing them to people for free. Disgusted by the amount of food thrown away when she worked as a cook at a fast food restaurant in 1999, while studying primary school teaching at university, mum-of-four Deborah Doloughan, 41, has been passionate about fighting needless waste ever since.
A yellow-sticker reduced food shopper for the next two decades, during lockdown in November 2020, she saw someone post online about Olio – an app that orchestrates the distribution of surplus supermarket produce destined for the bin to people for free – and promptly trained to become one of its ‘food waste heroes’.
Now, with the help of her husband James Doloughan, 43, a carer, and four children, Millie, 11, Jacob, 10, Luke, seven, and Isaiah, one, Deborah, of Middlesbrough, Tyne and Wear, collects the food and hands it out, saying: “This app was made for me! I became so passionate about food waste and shopping in the reduced section that my friends started calling me the Whoopsie Queen.
