Toast was founded in 2015 by Toastmaster Tristram Stuart. He’s an award-winning author and campaigner on the environmental and social impacts of food production – check out his TED talk here. He also set up the charity Feedback, which aims to put a stop to food waste. Tristram met the guys behind the Brussels Beer Project and their bread-based Babylone inspired him to create a global movement using beer to tackling food waste.
Back then, we were a small team with limited brewing knowledge, but a deep understanding of the challenge and the potential to have a positive impact. Louisa led the ground work to set up the business. She was an sustainability consultant with a diverse business background in finance and marketing. Julie and David both had retail backgrounds and understood the marketplace into which we were entering. Rob was a social entrepreneur, setting up his own organisations and leading others like Ashoka UK. He began as our advisor, but within a year joined us full-time as CEO. We were fortunate to also find Derek, a brewer with over 40 years experience, who worked with us in a voluntary capacity at that time. He’s now a permanent fixture, and the team has grown to 15 people in the UK!
We brewed our first batch in Hackney, London and launched to coincide with being featured on Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty’s Friday Night Feast in January 2016. Since then we’ve been featured in many press articles in the UK and beyond, covered by TV shows such as The One Show, Food Unwrapped and Sunday Brunch and gone viral on social media with video content by CNN, the World Economic Forum and Now This. We have also spoken at events all over the world and met many of the people who are passionate advocates for what we’re doing. Lots has happened, but it still feels like the start of the journey…