Bancalimentos was created as a bank where people who experience food insecurity can exchange their recycled waste for food. In Bancalimentos, the currency to do transactions is the waste. The organization provides three different services: Food Savings Accounts where users can save their waste and in exchange obtain points redeemable for nutritional food; Emergency food credits, in which the users receive the food and later pay for it in installments with their waste; and finally Food Insurance, which provides food security in times of unemployment, economic crisis or work incapacity.
Bancalimentos also found that waste can provide additional access to services. For that reason, they have formed partnerships with universities such as the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia (Open and Distance National University), which offers the possibility to study a professional career by paying the tuition fee with waste and Colpensiones, the Colombia's state entity in retirement savings, to provide savings for their retirement.
