Food Redistribution

The first meeting for the newly launched Gateshead Food Partnership, we decided to begin with the subject of food waste and food surplus redistribution. We had 35 attendees from organisations across Gateshead, including some private sector businesses.

The event was held at the Winlaton Centre, who have a community larder where members of the community can select food at a low price, much of which is collected surplus from local retailers, or delivered by Fareshare.

We heard from organisations involved with surplus food redistribution:

• BIND in Newcastle who started Eat Smart, a fantastic project reducing waste in primary schools;
• REfUSE in Chester le Street who have a 'pay as you feel' community cafe and also run Eat Smart; 
• Pickle Palace in West Gateshead who have a pop up pantry as well as working in primary schools;
• The Comfrey Project who engage their volunteer community in how to be thrifty with food, saving, using and preserving scraps;
• Fareshare North East, who redistributed 1,220 Tonnes of otherwise-wasted food in 2023.

We then shared some questions and used big pieces of paper to find out how organisations can support each other and work together more.

Positive outcomes include organisations agreeing to share food and resources via a WhatsApp group (which has proved very effective, active every week); organisations being connected with a large food retailer who is willing to donate surplus and cost-price stock; and initial conversations to develop Eat Smart, a food waste-saving schools project in Gateshead.

Please get in touch if you would like to find out more about this or future events.

Further resources: 

• This Is Rubbish have a fab series of videos which convey the issues of waste and food poverty: Plenty to Share - This is Rubbish 
• Sustainable Food Places website 
• Gateshead Food Partnership Facebook Page and Twitter/X account : please follow! 
• Feeding Britain website piloting  solutions that prevent food poverty