Tackling community food waste

Local TV

When Sabrina saw trolleyfuls of food going to waste at her local supermarket, she wanted to do something about it. At first, it was just her, but now she has more than 30 volunteers hoping to tackle food waste, one old carrot at a time.

Transcript

00:00First and foremost we're a community fridge so anyone can come and pick up the surplus

00:07food and then to make it more sustainable we had the cafe so we do like a small amount

00:17for like tea, coffee, toast if people want it.

00:22No one likes wasting food but most of us can put our hands up and say we've probably left

00:26those peppers in the veg drawer a bit too long or forgot about something at the back

00:29of the cupboard. It's easily done, when you look across the whole of Wales it can seriously

00:34add up. Supermarkets are no different to all of us and thousands of kilos of wasted food

00:39gets thrown out at shops, restaurants and our homes every year. Tasty Not Wasty is hoping

00:44to put an end to all of that as best they can and are trying to give the food that might

00:48have otherwise been wasted back and give us an opportunity to waste as little food as possible.

00:54Sabrina saw how much was being wasted and wanted to do something about it.

00:59It was just me at the start and then we had to have a small grant when we were first incorporated

01:06from the council and that allowed me to get insurance to allow me to have other volunteers

01:14to join me. We only had like one or two at the beginning and then now it's like 35 a week.

01:25Tasty Not Wasty are far from the only community fridge but Sabrina says they have a particular

01:31focus not necessarily on feeding those in need but the waste element itself. The food

01:36is all edible and cookable but not sellable so it just makes sense to make sure it gets

01:41used. Everyone does it slightly different but we very much are dear to what Neighbally

01:49and Fairshare say where we can't charge for the food and we like people to have autonomy

01:57so we like people to pick up their own food and choose for themselves. We don't just hand

02:03them a bag of food because it might just, that's like waste transference, they'll just take

02:08it home and then waste it in their own home. Sabrina has recently been awarded a British

02:13Empire Medal and when asked about how proud she is of the achievement, Sabrina of course

02:17could only talk about the dedication and hard work of her volunteers.

02:21I'm very, you know, I'm very happy to get it but I'm very proud of the volunteers that I've

02:27got because they've really made Tasty Not Wasty what it is and they have really pushed it forward

02:37and every time that someone in the community has an idea of what we can do to help they really

02:44try to help them the best they can so it really helps the community come together. So yeah, it's

02:51really, yeah, I'm just really proud of the volunteers and grateful to be honoured with a BEM.

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