Reducing food waste – expanding Trans Bro Gwaun’s surplus food project

BG’s surplus food project has been steadily growing since we opened our community café in June 2013. The 11 tonnes of food we now divert each year, mostly from landfill, will have reduced costs for retailers and the local authority by approximately £30,000 per year (based on findings from WRAP), and saved approx. 28 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Project Outcomes:

To gain a wider audience by promoting the project at food festivals, agricultural shows, community and environmental events around the county. Develop educational activities to help people, particularly young people, learn how to make best use of food and to waste. Develop Transition Re-distribution of Food to enable more organisations to use the surplus food that supermarkets and stores give to local community groups and charities, helping spread the message that it’s OK and safe to eat surplus food. Improve publicity and marketing and develop use of social media. Give presentations about the project, up-date promotional literature and engage with more organisations and research projects across the UK and EU to share our experiences  of addressing the issue of  food waste. Explore new ways to make use of some of the most wasted foods.

”Transition Bro Gwaun is grateful for funding from Sainsbury’s and LEADER, and the support given by Hubbub.  We are confident that the initiatives we set up will continue beyond the funded period.  Inspired by our example, there are plans for ten more community fridges across Pembrokeshire.  Our Make a Meal of It Mission schools resource, and volunteers working with local youth and family groups, will support children and young people to find out more and take action in ways that impact on their lives.”

Lessons Learned:

Taken on less groups to work with, it was difficult to maintain record keeping once the project was in full swing. Managing the workload on a 1-year project was difficult. The project was publicised widely and received many enquiries, some of which came to nothing but others developed into significant projects in their own right.