In the UK, nearly 3 million tonnes of food waste is produced by manufacturers, hospitality and food service, and the retail industry. It is already a sign of a broken food system that so much food goes to waste, but given the current cost of living crisis, the fact that this food is going to landfill rather than onto people’s plates means that more people will struggle with food insecurity.
TAWS has been commissioned to lead on a project by Birmingham’s Public Health team to is to maximise the availability of surplus food in the city.
There are already well-established organisations that deal in the interception and redistribution of surplus food so that it is still eaten before it becomes waste. Organisations such as Fareshare and Incredible Surplus for example. However, there are gaps because there isn’t a co-ordinated approach across all of the main sources of food in the city. For example; markets, hospitality and grower. This project is key in beginning to plug the leak in our food system and helping food be diverted from landfill onto people’s plates. We want to ensure that food waste from a wide variety of sources is systematically captured for consumption by Birmingham citizens.
This will include scoping, exploring, and capitalising on opportunities to obtain surplus food from a range of settings, identifying potential sources, building relationships and facilitating food capture.
Food projects across the city are experiencing decreased supply and increased demand. Surplus food from supermarkets is decreasing as they seek to tighten margins due to inflation and increased costs, and people are donating less money and food to charitable causes as the cost of living crisis impacts their budgets. However, given the amount of food going to landfills across the food cycle, more food being diverted to communities and individuals would prevent food leaking out of the system, increasing the amount of food organisations can provide and decreasing food waste, find out more about the Food Justice Network.
For more information on donating surplus please contact Vicky on 078 1077 5959 or email [email protected]
And did you know…….?
The government commissioned WRAP to create a food and drink waste hierarchy: It states that where possible, edible waste food should be redistributed to people ahead of the other methods such as animal feed, composting, anaerobic digestion etc.
That is where we come in, to help businesses find ways to redistribute edible surplus food safely in accordance to food safety regulations.
A bit about us!
Vicky Hemming the Head of Food at The Active Wellbeing Society (pictured left) and Florence Cadge the Food Justice Programmes Co-ordinator at The Active Wellbeing Society (pictured right) are leading on the surplus food project.
They are both experienced in the world of surplus food redistribution and have backgrounds in business, catering and logistics.
How it works
