Saasha Celestial-One – Favourite Things

Saasha Celestial-One is Co-Founder & COO of OLIO, a free mobile app that encourages communities to share unwanted food items to reduce household waste and provide surplus food to those who need it. Since 2016, over 5 million people have shared over 30m portions of food in 59 countries on OLIO. Before OLIO, Celestial-One founded London’s first pay-as-you-go high street childcare provider, and prior to that spent 13 years at Morgan Stanley, McKinsey and American Express. 

These are a few of Saasha Celestial-One’s favourite things…

Corn on the cob

I am from Iowa, which is the corn capital in the world. I was back there for two weeks in August, and I had about five years of corn, freshly picked, every day. I like boiled and plain at room temperature; it is so sweet. Summer in Iowa is hot and humid, with thunderstorms in the evening and the constant sound of crickets. Corn on the cob symbolises summer in Iowa for me, and it is one of my favourite things. 

OLIO Love

Something I really like to do is go on the OLIO app, and into the forum section where there is a filter for different categories and one is called OLIO Love. This is where people talk about how happy they are with the app and how grateful they are that it connects people in the community. It is just really cool and affirmational testimonials and gratitude. When I need a pick me up, I don’t go to Twitter or Instagram, I go to the OLIO stories. Sometimes things get hard, and it feels like we are pushing a boulder up a hill and are never going to get to the scale we need to really have an impact and mitigate the impact of the climate crisis, but OLIO stories remind me of the impact we are having on real people’s lives. It is the place I go to get a shot of inspiration.

My L-shape sofa

We moved into a new place in April 2019 and got an L-shape sofa on eBay for £350 (which looks like it is worth ten times that). During lockdown, it became our favourite place. My son, partner and I spent so much time in and around that sofa, playing board games, watching movies, cuddling and playing cards. Now that I am back to travelling, networking and meeting people in the real world, I haven’t had enough time there lately, and I miss it.

Running in a new place

I love going for a run somewhere I have never been to before. I am not usually a big runner, and I would rather do yoga. But whenever I am in a new place, I love running because you get exercise and feel like a kid in a candy shop; everything is interesting in a new place, even mailboxes, menus and street signs.

Excel

Excel is my favourite tool of all time. When I graduated from university, I worked at Morgan Stanley, where they put me on a six-week extensive excel training course. My whole life now runs on excel, whether it is work or organising a wedding or a birthday party. It is such a useful tool, and I do it without needing to touch the mouse because I know all the keyboard shortcuts. Going through my computer I have hundreds of excel spreadsheets named everything from “New Year’s resolutions” to “new diet plan”. I use it for everything. 

Enjoyed Saasha Celestial-One’s favourites? Explore the full Favourite Things archive here.