A partnership between two ACT projects, a large business, and a local charity are tackling food waste and benefitting the local community.

The ACT Now project, funded by the Climate Challenge Fund, and the ACT at Blarbuie Woodland project coordinate the collection and redistribution of unsold Lochgilphead Coop food through the Coop Food Share Scheme. Unsold fruit and vegetables are collected from the Coop each weekday morning and made available to the community from the community food growing area in Blarbuie Woodland.  Since the beginning of the year the partnership has redistributed over 500kg of unsold food to the community that would otherwise have gone to waste. Recently, and with the help of the Lochgilphead Coop Pioneer and the brilliant Blarbuie volunteers, the Multiple Sclerosis Centre has joined the network and receives any excess food. This has proved a real success with the MS Centre providing food for its service users as well as producing some delicious recipes for Lochgilphead residents.

Lovefoodhatewaste.com states that ‘Keeping food out of landfill not only conserves limited landfill space, but also helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That’s because in landfills, organic materials, like food scraps are broken down by bacteria to produce methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and it has a warming potential of 21 times that of carbon dioxide. As we try to combat global climate change, it’s going to be a huge help if we can reduce methane emissions – and saving food will play an important part in that’.

To know more about this scheme, to reduce your household food waste, or to get involved with anything mentioned here contact ACT Now Project Officer at [email protected] or call on 07943020241

Jamie Joyce (ACT Now Project Officer) and Bek Hawkby-Whitwell (Blarbuie Woodland Co-ordinator) co-ordinate the Food Share project at Blarbuie Woodland.