Associacao Prato Cheio is a non-governmental organization certified as an OSCIP entity (Civil Society Organization for Public Interest).

Founded in 2001 by a group of graduate students who identified a great volume of food that was being wasted at the Mercado Municipal in Sao Paulo and led them to collect and distribute what was wasted to charities.

The mission of Prato Cheio is to promote access to adequate food for people at social risk and vulnerability, by fighting food waste and enhancing nutrition education, contributing to environmental development.

Prato Cheios action is based on the Colheita Urbana Program, a concept developed by Food Chain, which is a North American and Canadian network of NGOs. It's based on collecting fresh food in a safe manner and further transferring them.

Aligned with the Millennium Development Goals, Prato Cheios projects contribute to:
-Hunger combat;
-Nutritional value added to meals;
-Reduction of food waste;
-Reduction of organic residues inappropriately disposed;
- Development of partnerships for a sustainable socio-environment.

The main Projects of Associacao Prato Cheio are the Solidary Route Project and the Nurturing with Health Project.

The Solidary Route Project promotes access to adequate food for people in vulnerability and social risk situation through food wastage reduction and nutritional education. The Solidary Route Project is based on the safe collection of food that would be wasted and its subsequent transfer to the institutions and their beneficiaries in social vulnerability situation. Sustainable solution to responsibly dispose foods that lost commercial value but which retains their nutritional properties preserved, and industrialized that are close to expiration. It has no cost to the donor and also offers savings in disposal of waste, reduction of waste of natural resources and promotes the quality of food to needy people.

The Nurturing with Health Project promotes cooking workshops for cooking professionals of the institutions that are beneficiaries from Solidary Route Project and the general public. The workshops are free for charge and are held in the Faculty of Public Health - USP.
With 3 actions the project Nurturing with Health promotes nutritional education about:
-Whole Utilization of Food (utilization of non-conventional parts of the food (seeds, stems, leaves, bark);
-Reduction of Food Waste;
-Health and Safety in the Kitchen.

In 2020 more than 415 tons of food were collected and distributed to 52 institutions. This food donation provides the complementation of meals for almost 17,000 people every day.

Since the beginning of its foundation, 20 years ago, Prato Cheio has collected and distributed more than 3,300 tons of food.

In 2019 Associacao Prato Cheio offered 12 workshops for 272 cooking professionals, which are responsible for preparing the food for these vulnerable beneficiaries. And 22 courses and workshops were offered to more than 800 people in schools and companies.

With the pandemic, Prato Cheio started to offer online courses and workshops for the cooking professionals.