Food campaign having impact

Efforts to reduce food waste in Perth and Kinross are having a“positive impact”.

According to the waste services team at Perth and Kinross Council, a campaign called‘waste less, save more’has seen the community make lasting changes and learn new skills such as budgeting and ultimately reducing food waste.

The project, which began last year, is set to continue until the end of October 2018.

The success of the project has been welcomed by Cllr Angus Forbes, convener of environment and infrastructure at the council.

Cllr Forbes, who also represents the Carse of Gowrie, said:“We cannot judge the results only in terms of food waste reduction, as we would be missing all of the other benefits of the campaign.

“For example, people taking part in the activities have reported benefits including learning new skills and managing to eat healthier meals on a budget while reducing food waste.”

In Kinross-shire alone, a number of projects have taken place, including a six week challenge to encourage householders to reduce their waste - and funds raised by increasing household recycling in the area went straight to the charity Broke Not Broken’s community food bank.

Some of the challenges included‘dads and lads’ cooking workshops, soup, smoothie and juice making workshops, a recipe competition and school talks at three Kinross-shire primary schools. Welcome packs have also been made available to new council tenants by Perth and Kinross Council.

The packs include a kitchen handbook and new kitchen equipment to help families get started when moving into a new home.

And in Blairgowrie, a harvest project has been working to reduce the waste produced from local fruit farms and orchards.

By working alongside Blairgowrie Climate Cafe, the waste services team have been running jam and jelly workshops to reduce fruit farm waste, and an apple press was hired to juice local apples at the Blairgowrie community market.