Fresh approach to food waste

It is not a pleasant thing to contemplate, not least in a county like Oxfordshire, where hundreds of tonnes of perfectly good food is still dumped in landfill while we await the opening of food waste recycling facilities.

But it is a thought that continued to trouble the former leading BBC journalist Robin Aitken and many of his friends across Oxford.

Then another thought struck. Rather than sending tonnes of food reaching the sell-by date to the tip, what if it could be delivered to local people who might just benefit from fresh fruit, vegetables and cakes?

What if the food were collected from supermarkets and delivered to local charities for the homeless or, say, drop-in centres for families, faced with reducing household spending to make ends meet?

The amount of food waste going into landfill sites would be reduced, supermarkets would make substantial savings and nutricious food would find its way to people, who, for various reasons, may not have healthy eating high on their priority list.

As simple as it is brilliant, I gush after listening to Mr Aitken outline the ambition of Oxford’s newest charity. The ex-BBC man’s face cracks into a smile, for he knows just how much effort and time it has taken to get the Replenish Oxford Food Bank off the ground.

The idea was first mooted almost a decade ago and a committee has been working behind the scenes for two years to get a pilot scheme going.

But the difficulties seem to have been overcome and the idea of collecting food from local supermarkets and taking it to charities, helping mothers and toddlers, teenagers, the homeless and asylum seekers, has been turned into a reality.

For some weeks now, volunteers have been collecting food nearing its sell-by date from Sainsbury’s in Kidlington and delivering it to such places as the Gatehouse, the Oxford shelter for homeless and vulnerable, and the Open Door Asylum Seekers’ Lunch Club.

Having started in July filling up the boot of a car with cakes, bread and fruit, things have begun to move quickly. It is now registered as a charity under the name Replenish. The charity has acquired a van, and premises in Lamarsh Road, off Botley Road, which are being provided rent free by local businessman Peter Mills.

The building, where food can be sorted before being re-distributed, is being named Ray Mills House, in memory of Mr Mills’s father, who for many years operated the Oxonian Rewley Press on the site.

A second supermaket, the Co-op store in Kidlington, has now joined the scheme. And the value of the food received each week is now averaging between £750 and £1,000. Replenish has calculated that it will be able to provide up to 1,000 meals a week.

Mr Aitken, who worked as a reporter on Radio 4’s flagship news programme, Today, said: “The trial began with just one store, with the Sainsbury’s manager at Kidlington, an enthusiastic supporter. We have to operate on a seven-day-a-week basis, with the supermarket knowing we will be there to collect food that they would otherwise have thrown away.

“Initially we have focused on fruit, vegetables and baked goods. But we now have a refrigerated vehicle and refrigeration will seen be installed in the Lamarsh Road site. This will enable us to collect, store and distribute meat and dairy products which, under food safety regulations, must be kept refrigerated in ‘a chill-chain’.”

The window of opportunity comes between the sell-by and use-by date, Mr Aitken explained. “Supermarkets are bound in law by food safety regulations. Most retailers operate a ‘sell-by’ and ‘use-by’ system. When fresh food reaches its sell-by date the stores take it off the shelves and send it for disposal, either to landfill, or, increasingly, for anaerobic digestion.”

Mr Aitken left the BBC in 2005 after more than 25 years of service, to work on his controversial book Can We Trust the BBC? (Continuum Press) in which he asserted that the BBC is guilty of an “unconscious, institutionalised Leftism”. Since then he has being giving much of his time to the food bank project.

From the beginning, Replenish decided it would work closely with Oxford Community Caterers Network, an umbrella group for organisations providing food in the community.

The manager of Sainsbury’s in Kidlington, Vince Brimble, said he was immediately drawn to the project and impressed by the planning and energy of ‘the replenishers’, who contacted him earlier in the year.

He said: “As a company, for quite a few years now, we have been very keen to get involved with a local charity to deal with our waste food. We feel strongly that it is just not morally right to be throwing away food that is good and healthy.

“When the food bank people approached us, I knew right away it was in line with what we wanted to do. They had involved the environmental health people in getting it set up. The whole aim is to try to improve the diet of people who are vulnerable. But when you take into account landfill costs today, you realise everybody wins, in every way.”

“I think there is a similar scheme up and running in Scotland but I believe it is the only scheme of its kind in England and Wales.”

He said other Sainsbury’s stores, including the Heyford Hill and Westgate branches, would almost certainly be joining the project shortly and he predicts the idea could eventually take hold across the whole UK.

In the shorter term, he said, he hoped to see products like cheese and yoghurts included, but he believed supplying meat could prove more problematic.

The manager said he had been along with volunteers to see how the food was going down.

“I went along to the Gatehouse and to about four other charities, where the food goes. Seeing the food on the table, brought home what a fantastic contribution this is making in helping to redress food poverty.”

Some will undoubtedly be shocked that in a city of Oxford’s wealth, levels of food poverty are sufficiently high to warrant such a scheme, with the problem extending far beyond rough sleepers to families faced with debt, sickness, unemployment addictions, or simply delays in receiving benefit.

A Community Emergency Foodbank has been doing good work for some time in Oxford, supported by church congregations throughout the city, which involves food being collected from churches and schools and other organisations. But this scheme involves collecting only non-perishable food.

Replenish has avoided its own official launch until now to ensure that the scheme could be made to work and difficulties ironed out.

When I joined Replenish volunteers delivering food at the Donnington Doorstep, a family centre for children and their carers, based off Donnington Bridge, Oxford, things certainly appeared to have settled into an efficient routine.

Dootstep manager Anna Thorne said: “It is a fantastic project. It gives us the chance to use ingredients in food we provide that we would not ordinarily be able to buy. Certainly for some families, a daily home-cooked meal with vegetables and fruit is not something they would normally have. That may be for a number of reasons. It may be about income or lack of knowledge and understanding of nutrition.”

Between 30 and 100 peope visit the centre, which is now trying to raise £35,000 to continue running. Small charges are made for the meals, a baked potato costing 80p, for example, simply to cover costs.

The cook admitted that the challenge was never knowing what is going to come out of the back of the Replenish van.

Suzy Bowden, a carer, said: “For people on limited means it is difficult to buy nutritional food. It is often cheaper to buy pre-packaged food than fresh vegetables and fruit. This seems a better use of resources.”

The supermarket food has now enabled the centre to set up a cooking skills class, showing how to prepare simple nutritional meals.

Seeing the food being unloaded, it was difficult not to reflect on some of the waste bills that the county is facing: £650m to burn waste over 25 years, a £40 tax for every tonne buried and £150 charge for every tonne buried over the county council’s agreed limit. The cost of creating three food recycling plants will run into many millions.

Time for some fresh thinking, you may think. Ideas do not get much fresher than those served up by Oxford’s replenishers, coming soon to a supermarket near you.