Supermarkets’ waste is helping the hungry
Innovative food-sharing scheme success
A PROJECT taking supermarket waste and putting it on kitchen tables could help stop families going hungry this winter.
Belville Community Gardens was one of the first in Inverclyde to recognise the need to tackle the mountain of food left at the end of the day in local stores.
In a bid to dramatically reduce our carbon footprint and help fight back against food insecurity, they have been running a food share scheme which is slowly but surely winning the war on needless waste.
Now it is also set to play a crucial role during the cost of living crisis, as demand for help grows.
Sue Harris, who leads the food share team, said: “You can see there is a real need out there but at the same time the stores are starting to get to grips with waste and cut back accordingly.
“What we try to do is make sure there is no waste.
“We have families who rely on us to bolster their shopping and we are starting to see more mums with young kids come to us just now.”
As well as growing their own produce in the gardens, Belville runs a soup kitchen and outside their base is a food share table full of staples such as bread, fruit and vegetables which would have been for the chop because of dates.
Every day Sue goes round local stores like Aldi, Lidl and M&S taking the food that can no longer be sold.
She is joined by volunteers like Wilma Hunter, who first started coming to Belville to help during the pandemic lockdowns.
Wilma was one of hundreds of volunteers putting food parcels together for those in isolation.
The 64-year-old, who lives on her own, says it feels great to be making a difference to people who are struggling.
She said: “I feel like I am part of a community when I am here.
“It was great getting out the house and it helped me so much and I have carried on volunteering.
“It is a great place and we help people who come here every week to the food share.
“It is a terrific project.”