Latest news with #surplusfood
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Charity warns of unprecedented food demand
A food redistribution charity says it is struggling to cope with demand for those who need help across Cumbria. Fareshare supplies millions of meals for communities across the country which are given out for free or at a reduced cost. Three hundred tonnes (300,000kg) of surplus food was delivered across Cumbria last year, the charity says. Naomi Winter, a Fareshare coordinator, said help was needed to get more vans on the road to meet demand in the region. She said the need for free and heavily discounted food since the Covid-19 pandemic had been "unprecedented." "For Carlisle in particular, two vans come on a Wednesday because there's such a need here," she said. "We would like to be able to put six more deliveries to the Carlisle area because we do have a few requests for that, but we don't have any space in our vans to achieve that at the moment." Fareshare redistributes to charities and community groups food that would otherwise go to waste. For Leanne Hackett, who has a five-year-old daughter, it makes a difference. "I'm a single mum and I live on my own, it's just me and my daughter so it really does help," she said. "You have just got to budget, I am quite good at budgeting anyway but you just cut back on things and get on with it." Diane Snedker is also a regular user and the food helps her offset the rising cost of living. She said: "I come because it helps out, I know things are getting harder. "I live on my own but sometimes I have the grandkids so I have to feed them as well." The charity is appealing for help from local charities and businesses so they can get three vans on the road to reach more people who need them in Carlisle and Cumbria. Ms Winter said: "We need more charities to come on and we also need more food from the Cumbria area because we've had to reduce the amount of food that we give to each charity because supply isn't meeting demand anymore." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Charity chosen to save food from being wasted Food hubs expand to help feed struggling families Project to donate household goods to families Fareshare
BBC News
05-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
'Food demand in Cumbria is unprecedented'
A food redistribution charity says it is struggling to cope with demand for those who need help across Cumbria. Fareshare supplies millions of meals for communities across the country which are given out for free or at a reduced hundred tonnes (300,000kg) of surplus food was delivered across Cumbria last year, the charity Winter, a Fareshare coordinator, said help was needed to get more vans on the road to meet demand in the region. She said the need for free and heavily discounted food since the Covid-19 pandemic had been "unprecedented.""For Carlisle in particular, two vans come on a Wednesday because there's such a need here," she said."We would like to be able to put six more deliveries to the Carlisle area because we do have a few requests for that, but we don't have any space in our vans to achieve that at the moment." Fareshare redistributes to charities and community groups food that would otherwise go to waste. For Leanne Hackett, who has a five-year-old daughter, it makes a difference."I'm a single mum and I live on my own, it's just me and my daughter so it really does help," she said."You have just got to budget, I am quite good at budgeting anyway but you just cut back on things and get on with it." Diane Snedker is also a regular user and the food helps her offset the rising cost of said: "I come because it helps out, I know things are getting harder. "I live on my own but sometimes I have the grandkids so I have to feed them as well."The charity is appealing for help from local charities and businesses so they can get three vans on the road to reach more people who need them in Carlisle and Cumbria. Ms Winter said: "We need more charities to come on and we also need more food from the Cumbria area because we've had to reduce the amount of food that we give to each charity because supply isn't meeting demand anymore." Follow BBC Cumbria on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
Times
03-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Don't be afraid to be ambitious, whatever that looks like for you
As one of the UK's youngest CEOs, Sophie Tebbetts took charge of charity FoodCycle aged just 34. The organisation helps transform surplus food into healthy meals in a community setting helps guests save on food and electricity bills. Here are Sophie's tips to gain your own place at the table. 1. People often undervalue what they are capable of. Don't be afraid to be ambitious, whatever that looks like for you. If the worst outcome is that you tried and learnt a lot, then that ambition has paid off. 2. Don't let perfection stop progress. Plans are important but don't be too rigid. Trying to devise a 'perfect plan' can sometimes stop you getting started. Moving forward allows you to learn, which will lead to better outcomes. 3. Community is essential. Strong support networks are so important for wellbeing. Creating a culture where staff feel supported and part of a community with shared values creates environments where people can learn from each other and develop ideas. 4. Everybody eats — find a connection. Discovering those points of commonality with people allows you to build open relationships, sparking ideas and challenging your own assumptions. 5. Have a laugh, it's not all about work. Try to inject humour where you can and remember smiles are infectious. Allow employees to balance their own personal and professional responsibilities. It shows that you recognise life outside of work is important, which builds trust and loyalty. 6. Listening is underrated. You'll get the best insight into your operations by listening to people you interact with, whether that's colleagues, beneficiaries or stakeholders.
The Sun
02-07-2025
- Business
- The Sun
I tested a food waste app for a week – it cost half as much as my usual shop but there was a big downside
I TRIED to survive off nearly-scrapped meals for a week through a food wastage scheme offering wonky veg and restaurant leftovers at bargain prices. The app definitely saved me money - but there was a big downside. 5 Here's how it works... You open the Too Good To Go app and set the location radius from between 1km and 30km to scout out the options in your area. There are establishments offering meals and groceries, as well as bakeries and shops selling breads and pastries. Each shop will have a surprise bag (or box) of surplus goods that are about to go off, and will set a pick-up window for collection. You won't know what you've got until you open your bag - which is all part of the fun, but can be quite annoying as I learned. Even with the same shop, what you get will change with each order on a daily basis. What you receive depends on what is left over at the end of the day, although the app does tell you what you can expect as a rough guide. Days 1 & 2: A box of limp veg Day one and my first problem arose - trying to find a Too Good To Go option that I could pick up outside of my working hours. Fortunately, I found a £4 surprise bag from Petit Village, a nearby green grocers roughly a 15 minute walk from my house. It was the last one left, and had a decent collection time between 12pm and 6pm. From worm bread to mealworm kebabs... could eating bugs and insects in everyday food be the future? I dashed off after to work to go collect my bounty. While some establishments will need to cook or pack your food once you arrive to collect your order, others - like Petit Village - will have your surprise bag ready and waiting. I showed the man behind the counter my collection code, and confirmed in the app that I was collecting, before being handed a crate full of vegetables. I got a bag of cherry tomatoes, three larger tomatoes, two avocados, a head of lettuce, a green pepper, four red chillies, seven carrots and a fistful of beets. Now, these vegetables were pretty limp, one of the avocados was squishy, some of the carrots were bendy and the lettuce had certainly seen better days. But that's the whole point, right? They were all edible (apart from a funky-looking carrot I composted). And as another example of technological brilliance (or laziness) I used ChatGPT to conjure meals with those exact ingredients. You can do the same, with my prompt: "Please give me five recipe ideas using at least four of the following ingredients..." and then list your produce. You can even throw in a few bits you might already have in your cupboard - like pasta or cous cous, or some stuff lurking in the freezer. All the options sounded great, and I reworked a roasted vegetable salad suggestion into a Moroccan-style cous cous, and whipped up a spicy tomato salsa and guacamole to have with some chips. The lettuce went into a salad along with the second avocado and some more cherry tomatoes on Day 2, which paired nicely with a fishcake I had in the freezer. When it comes to making meals with surplus goods - time is of the essence. You don't have long until these veg are deemed inedible. That's when I start looking for my next meal... 5 Days 3 and 4: Monster lasagna At this point, my box of veg is running low - and it's all getting too limp for my liking. The night before, I tapped 'buy' on a £3.99 surprise bag from The Laundry, a popular restaurant in London's Brixton that is a two minute walk from a friend's flat. It's a lovely restaurant that my friend and I have been meaning to try for a while - where a main costs between £18 and £26. So, £3.99 is a steal - and the generous portion of lasagne with a side of carrots and roasted butternut squash tasted really good. It even had a decent collection slot of between 10am and 11:40am - which I could dash out to as I wasn't working that day. This was my lunch on Day 3, and even on Day 4 - the portion really was of monster proportions. One surprise box from this place could honestly feed two! WHAT OPTIONS ARE THERE? There are all kinds of shops, bakeries, cafes, restaurants, and supermarkets giving food away for cheap on the Too Good To Go app. Shops include: Aldi, Morrisons, Co-op, Budgens, Londis, Nisa and even M&S. Restaurants and cafes include: Greggs, Pizza Express, Fireaway, Costa, Starbucks, Pret, Cafe Nero, Gail's, Yo Sushi, Carluccios, Harvester, Toby Carvery and more. Some train stations even have options. Plus, there are tons of independent cafes, restaurants, bakeries and delis if you want to try something new without breaking the bank. You will have more options in large towns and cities, like London. Although some quieter parts of the capital do seem a bit short of choice. Smaller places and villages might not have any retailers listed - and when they do, you could have some competition. 5 Days 4 and 5: Mid Mediterranean Now even though I have lunch lined up for Day 4 - I need to be alert to what my options are for the rest of the day. All the best deals get snapped up quick. So on a hot day, I opted for a £5.20 surprise bag from Paella Street, a stall at Tabard Street Food Market, just a 10 minute walk from the office. It was supposed to be a post-lunchtime deal, and gave me the smallest collection window I had encountered yet: between 2pm and 2:15pm. I received two very sweaty boxes of vegan paella - which wouldn't have cost much more to have fresh. And to be honest, the state of them left me Googling how to revive old paella. However, once successfully revived on the hob at home, just one box of the two made a very nice dinner. The other I stuck in the freezer for a rainy day. Day 6: Out of options At this point, I'm running out of options. I have a choice to make: eat baked goods for dinner (not ideal), or wait until 10pm to collect a meal suitable enough for tea (also not ideal). This is where I had to draw the line and go to an actual supermarket. But it taught me an important lesson about the best time to buy surprise goodies on Too Good To Go. The verdict I have spent a total of £13.19 in five days, over three payments. That's about £4.40 on average - nearly half what I would usually spend on eating per day. I usually spend around £170 a month on groceries, across an average of 19 transactions - which is nearly £9 on average every time I go to the shops. So it does work out cheaper - but is it worth it? Pros: Good variety of food Pushes you out of your comfort zone Great if you can be spontaneous Even better if you use to supplement a slightly smaller weekly shop Cheap way to try local restaurants Reduces food waste Cons: Often inconvenient in terms of collection hours or location Not good for people with allergies or dietary requirements 5
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Community shop boosted by influx of strawberries
A community shop which 'rescues' surplus food has been given a boost after receiving a huge influx of strawberries. The Vital Village community shop in Thames Ditton sells surplus food to the community at discounted prices from various places, including supermarkets and warehouses. Earlier this week the shop received "about 3,000 berries" from partners including Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Sainsbury's. The shop's founder, Vicky Zadeh, says the inundation of strawberries has proven "super popular". She said: "They are bringing people from far and wide from around Thames Ditton. Many haven't even seen us or used us before - and it's changing the perception of what we do." The community shop forms part of a community centre leased to Vital Village last year. Ms Zadeh said the shop provides food for anyone, "whether your reason is from a financial perspective, or whether you want to rescue some food and do your bit for the environment". The shop is run by almost 90 volunteers, including Alison Barnett, who said interest has been "phenomenal" since the berries arrived. She said: "We've had people who say, 'well I've lived in Thames Ditton for so many years and I didn't know you were here until the berries news got out'." An M&S spokesperson said: "We work closely with our suppliers to reduce food waste at source and in-store, through our partnership with redistribution platform Neighbourly - making sure any edible surplus food reaches those who need it most in the community. "Last weekend, we had more strawberries left than usual so our team donated them." Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, on X. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. New start-up to take over community centre Vital Village Community Hub
