The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Food charities both feed the hungry and solve farm waste
This week I’ve been interviewing people about food poverty for a podcast that I host. The statistics make extremely difficult listening. Last September, close to 10 million UK adults and four million children were experiencing food insecurity – defined as having smaller meals, or skipping them altogether, because they could not afford to eat.
FareShare, a charity network, collects and distributes over 53,000 tonnes of food to over 9,500 UK food charities. Its aim is to get surplus food – whether still in field, processed or packed – to as many plates as it can.
Not only has demand for food support gone up exponentially after the pandemic, but the greatest influx in demand is coming from those accessing help for the first time (73%) despite being fully employed (51%). Examples I’ve heard about include teachers, nurses and care workers to name just a few.
And, ironically, being the producers of the food that we need, increasing numbers of farmers need help from charities like RSABI (originally the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution) to put food on their tables.
The Trussell Trust, which supports over 1,200 foodbanks nationally, distributed over 110,000 food parcels – worth around £25 each – to families in Scotland between April and September 2022. It says that, nationally, it is now giving out an emergency food parcel every 13 seconds. These are deeply shocking statistics.
One important theme emerges from everyone I speak to, which is that the immediate and practical help people need is coming from dedicated charities and social enterprises, as well as from private businesses and householders buying a little bit extra in their supermarket shop to donate to those in need.
Some farmers who feel able to help are delivering their produce to help local charities, but many have encountered some fundamental barriers – who and where these charities are, what can be supplied to them and the logistics for dropping food off.
FareShare is one of the organisations looking into how the link from farm to charity can be improved, because it appreciates these acts of goodwill and, also, the challenge and cost of harvesting leftover crops, or supplying surplus pre-packed fruit and vegetables that have reached their sell-by date.
There are some heartwarming stories of farmers, from all over Scotland, who are quietly playing an important part in giving what they can.
Andrew and Anita Stirling, from Lunan Bay, Angus, grow and process vegetables and potatoes, as well as running Upper Dysart Larder, a vending machine farm shop. They started supplying local charities and community groups with soup packs and part-cooked vegetables during the Covid pandemic to “help out”.
The family continues to do so and has now donated over 87,000 meals to community trusts, larders, and churches, including Strathmore Cricket Club, Arbroath FC and Monifieth Parish Church.
During last year’s growing season, Angus Soft Fruits, which grows blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and strawberries in Angus, Fife and further afield, supplied 43 tonnes of fruit to 1,126 charities via FareShare. This equates to over 62,000 meals for a huge crosssection of society: low- or no-income families, elderly and school clubs, homeless people and refugees.
In other parts of the country, farmers have linked up with the growing “Gleaning” movement, where volunteers collect leftover crops from farmers’ fields after harvest.
And “Community Fridges”, like the 800 fridges that are being donated by King Charles – including one to Inveruriebased Aberdeenshire North Foodbank – provide free, perfectly good food that is at its sell-by date, as well as donated fruit and vegetables from local growers.
With the cost-of-living pressures unlikely to get better any time soon, the role of these charities and the kindness of so many people is something that society just can’t do without. I shudder to think what would happen without them.