Waste food scheme restarts in south Leeds: sign up now!

Like good food? Hate waste? Want to save money? South Leeds residents are being invited to sign up for large weekly boxes of so-called ‘freegan’ food (good quality food that would otherwise have been binned), delivered to a local collection point, for just £13.50.

The family-sized crates have different contents each week, but will include a mix of staple and luxury products, and fresh and packeted food. They are sourced and delivered by Leeds charity Food Revival – a spin-off from the Real Junk Food Project.

Food Revival is one of a growing number of organisations working to end the needless waste of surplus food. They intercept food that’s heading unnecessarily for landfill, and distribute it through a network of cafes, ‘sharehouses’, schools, and popular community box schemes such as this one. A successful pilot box scheme ran in Beeston last year (reported here), but the organisation didn’t at that time have the capacity to make it full-time: they do now.

This scheme will initially run in Beeston, with participants collecting their boxes each week from Rowland Road Social Club – although talks are afoot to set up a second scheme in Hunslet. But both schemes are dependent upon enough local households signing up – so residents are encouraged to sign up ASAP, before the opportunity passes!

Local resident and community campaigner Ed Carlisle, who is helping to bring the scheme to south Leeds, commented:

“Loads of people locally struggle to afford good quality food – and in the meantime, countless tons of good food is being chucked away across the country: madness. But this scheme breaks the mould, and gives us great food for cheap – whilst reducing waste, and helping to save the planet. Please sign up, and spread the word too – this could make a massive difference in our communities.”

For more info, click here. To sign up, email boxes@foodrevival.co.uk, or contact them otherwise here – and state that you want to sign up for the south Leeds scheme. Once enough participants have signed up, you will be asked to set up a £13.50 weekly direct debit – to cover the cost of collection, storage and assembly of the food. (You can also donate more, on a zero obligation ‘Pay As You Feel’ basis, if you’re able.) The boxes will be available to collect during a 6pm-11pm window one evening per week from Rowland Road; details of any future Hunslet scheme are yet to be agreed.

The Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) – a UK charity and campaign body – estimates that 1.9m tons of food is wasted by the UK food industry every year, with about a fifth of that (400,000 tonnes) suitable for redistribution.

One Reply to “Waste food scheme restarts in south Leeds: sign up now!”

  1. This is such a good idea, and a great scheme. It’s surprising when you see the amount of perfectly good food being crammed into one of these food boxes: fresh fruit and veg, cartons of fruit juice, soups, boxes of cereal, pastries… I signed up for them last summer and you never quite knew what would be in that week’s box, but there was masses of good food and rink for your money. Even had a whole birthday cake in one one week!
    Well worth signing up.

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