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Good enough to share... the food that was heading for rubbish tip
AT A Mencap care home in Leeds, the residents are busy helping to put away a large delivery of food. There are trays of mixed vegetables, punnets of blueberries, several bunches of bananas and a whole box of cream crackers.
It's all fresh and nicely packaged, and yet, all this perfectly good food could have ended up in a landfill site had food charity Fareshare not stepped in.
Since it began nine months ago, Fareshare in West Yorkshire has distributed more than 100 tonnes of food to around 25 charities across the region.
Now the charity is running a Christmas campaign to raise more funds to help a further 75 charities benefit from these redistributed food parcels.
Fareshare's Jo Warmington explained: "It works through getting surplus food donated into the network from national and local food manufacturers.
"There's nothing wrong with the food. It might just be that they've over-stocked on something or sometimes we get things that have been put into the wrong packaging. It works for the food manufacturers because they're saving on sending food to landfill."
The charity, which is part of a national campaign, takes in the surplus food from companies such as Asda, Nestl and Taylors of Harrogate. It is brought to Fareshare's redistribution warehouse in Holbeck, Leeds, and then delivered across West Yorkshire.
Food waste has become a mounting problem in the UK. Fareshare claims nine million tonnes of surplus food is produced in Britain every year, and much of this is thrown away. At the same time four million people are trapped in food poverty.
But it's not only the food manufacturers who are tossing good food into the bin. Fareshare says the average household throws away six kilogrammes of food every week and at Christmas this increases by a staggering 80 per cent.
The cost to the environment is enormous. Food rotting in landfill produces methane – a greenhouse gas 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide.
WRAP, the government-funded organisation set up to tackle food waste, claims that if food that could be eaten isn't thrown away, we could save the equivalent of at least 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
A spokeswoman for Asda said its surplus food which goes to Fareshare does not have a long enough use-by date to send out to home shopping customers.
"It's a good way for us to give those products some use rather than sending them to waste. We have a range of environmental initiatives to deal with surplus food, but a supermarket always has a certain element of waste and it's important that we keep that waste down."
She added that Asda is also looking at a trial to give surplus food away in store.
Ms Warmington said: "Part of it is reducing food wastage and rescuing food from landfill, but the main focus of using the food is to feed people in food poverty or deprivation."
Fareshare is operated by Create, a community enterprise which works with people who have experienced homelessness or drug addiction. The enterprise offers training and work experience and employs 25 people.
"We rely on fund-raising to operate Fareshare," said Ms Warmington, adding that they hoped to raise the money to buy a second van next year.
"What we are asking for with the Christmas campaign is for companies to sign up to encourage their staff to donate the cost of their lunch for the day to help towards the running of Fareshare. Within the next few years we're aiming to be delivering to over 100 different charities.
The kitchen at the Mencap care home is one of the final links in the long and complex food chain. Every week the Fareshare van pulls up at the residential home in Chapel Allerton and delivers the fresh food in exchange for a nominal fee to cover costs.
"It does save us money," says deputy manager Jane Busby. "We pay for the petrol per year, but this is far less than the food is worth. It really does help."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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