It’s zero waste week! In February, we launched a marketing campaign with our founder and private finance knowledgeable Jasmine Birtles to legalise Freeganism within the UK. You may signal our petition and assist struggle meals waste here.
Freeganism is outlined as: “Another philosophy for dwelling, primarily based on minimal participation in capitalism and traditional financial practices, in addition to restricted consumption of capitalistic assets.”
Put merely, Freeganism goals to finish the waste of meals and assets by giant firms. For instance, it is rather possible your native grocery store throws loads of contemporary fruit and veg away weekly as a result of it’s previous the ‘use by’ date. However in actuality, many of the meals and objects thrown away are nonetheless nearly as good as ever.
With the price of dwelling at an all-time excessive, and inflation the biggest it has been in 30 years, many individuals will battle to feed their households. Meals poverty was already on the rise as a result of struggles of the pandemic, and Freeganism can be one approach to alleviate this battle.
However it is going to take greater than legalising Freeganism to cease meals waste and assist feed our nation. That’s why we have now put collectively a listing of among the teams across the UK working exhausting to struggle meals waste and put meals on the desk for a lot of households throughout this tough time.
FareShare
Maybe one of many largest and most well-known teams with a mission to struggle meals poverty is FareShare. They work nationally to redistribute meals, and they’re made up of 18 impartial organisations throughout the UK. They take the highest quality surplus meals from all corners of the meals business and distribute it to greater than 10,500 frontline neighborhood teams.
These teams embrace college breakfast golf equipment, homeless shelters, neighborhood cafes and older individuals’s lunch golf equipment. Each single week, FareShare present sufficient meals to make a million meals for weak individuals.
England Worldwide footballer Marcus Rashford has additionally been an envoy of FareShare since March 2020. Since he started, he has not solely raised consciousness of kid starvation inside the UK, however he has raised sufficient cash to allow Fareshare to have delivered 21 million meals.
Yow will discover out extra about FareShare here.
WRAP
Chances are you’ll not have heard of WRAP, however you’ll most positively have heard of their well-known Love Food Hate Waste marketing campaign, launched in 2007. It is a well-known marketing campaign which raises consciousness of meals waste and gives steps on how people can cut back their very own meals waste.
They consider in difficult attitudes, behaviours and mindsets to make sure everybody is aware of the worth of meals. They encourage individuals to solely purchase what they want, eat what they purchase, and retailer their meals appropriately to forestall waste.
You may learn extra about WRAP and their campaigns to struggle meals waste here.
Meals Works Sheffield
Food Works Sheffield declare to avoid wasting 500 tonnes of meals a yr from going to landfill – an unimaginable feat. To do that, they use high quality surplus and domestically grown elements to make scrumptious foods and drinks. Additionally they accumulate and share this surplus for his or her market, the place you’ll be able to accumulate a field of meals day by day.
By way of their very own farm, additionally they assist in native meals manufacturing and participate in neighborhood rising. They state the significance of rising meals domestically, not solely to cut back the necessity for transportation, storage and preservatives, however to enhance the meals cycle.
Yow will discover out extra about Meals Works Sheffield here.
The Felix Mission
Arrange in 2016, The Felix Project is a London-based redistribution charity which goals to deal with meals waste and meals poverty. They rescue good, nutritious surplus meals that can’t be offered and would in any other case go to waste. The nice factor is, they satisfaction themselves on getting plenty of contemporary fruit and greens, salads, meat, fish and baked items.
They obtain meals from over 539 suppliers. These suppliers embrace supermarkets, wholesalers, farms and eating places. It’s then sorted and delivered to a whopping 1,00 charities, colleges and vacation programmes throughout the capital metropolis. Meals from the meals business which might have in any other case gone to waste is as a substitute given to weak individuals, homeless individuals and individuals who can’t afford to purchase common meals.
Learn extra about The Felix Mission’s work here.
FoodCycle
FoodCycle have had a imaginative and prescient to make meals poverty and meals waste a factor of the previous since 2009. Each single week since they opened, they’ve nourished and fed hungry individuals of their communities with scrumptious meals. Additionally they hope to fight loneliness, offering nice dialog throughout these meals.
They’ve a number of quite simple and nice goals. Not solely do they want to nourish the hungry, enhancing vitamin and decreasing starvation by cooking meals for these in want, however they assist to assist psychological well being and wellbeing on the identical time, creating welcoming areas for individuals from all backgrounds and walks of life.
Discover out extra here.
Plan Z Heroes
Plan Z Heroes was established in 2011, when the founders determined to place an finish to meals waste. They created a meals donation platform which permits companies and the meals business to shortly and simply submit their surplus meals donations on-line. Close by charities and neighborhood teams can then declare this meals and accumulate it from their London base.
Their platform at the moment has over 1,000 companies, charities and volunteers. Additionally they work with companies throughout the availability chain – growers, producers, caterers and bakeries. Plus, over 50% of the meals they redistribute is contemporary and nutritious, comparable to fruit, greens, meat, fish and dairy.
Discover out extra about Plan Z Heroes’ work here.
Meals waste apps
Too Good To Go
One of the crucial well-known apps combating meals waste, Too Good To Go permits eating places, cafes and bakeries to listing their leftover meals that might in any other case be thrown out. Customers can browse the map to see what is accessible domestically to them and decide up a bag of products – generally known as a ‘magic bag’ – for a really low value.
Karma
Karma is just like Too Good To Go, in that meals is obtainable at a closely discounted value. Customers are in a position to rescue contemporary meals from eating places, cafes and bakeries close to them. Nonetheless, as a substitute of getting a shock bag, customers can see precisely what is accessible at every location. To date, Karma has rescued over 4 million meals and saved 1,800 tonnes of CO2. They’ve 1.4 million app customers in 225 cities worldwide.
Olio
One other well-known meals waste app is Olio. Olio permits individuals to share undesirable meals and items with neighbours and other people of their native space. Individuals are free to share something from undesirable items to meals that received’t get eaten, and even produce from native supermarkets that’s on the final day of its use by date. Olio additionally companions with catering, hospitality and retail companies to select up surplus meals 24/7 and ship it out into the local people.
FoodCloud
That is one other nice app. FoodCloud connects supermarkets and companies within the meals business with charities and neighborhood group to donate their surplus meals. These teams embrace household assist companies, homeless shelters and extra throughout the UK. An outline of the meals obtainable is uploaded, and charities get a notification that meals is accessible to be collected.