Council helps Winsford Community Grocery reduce food waste in the borough

As part of a borough-wide ‘Wasting Food: It’s Out Of Date’ campaign, Cheshire West and Chester Council and Cheshire West Recycling have donated a variety of Recycle 1st waste reduction goodies to Winsford Community Grocery, to help reduce food waste in the borough.

Winsford Community Grocery is a not for profit organisation, staffed by volunteers with the aim of reducing food waste. Their volunteers have a wealth of food knowledge and understand the issues surrounding ‘sell by’ and ‘use by’ dates and food storage solutions.

The team supports residents of Winsford and surrounding areas by providing much-needed drop-in centres, offering essential fresh food and dietary staples, drinks, and so much more for a very reasonable £3 per bag. 

Residents can choose their shopping from a vast variety of fruits and veg, tinned and packaged foods, pastries, dairy products, bottled drinks and even washing detergents.

The money made from the sale of their food bags goes back into buying the essentials to provide for the community at a greatly discounted rate. 

Staff from the grocery are keen to express that this is only the start. They would like to expand this service across the borough. If you would like to know more and get involved contact Winsford Community Grocery via their facebook page: www.facebook.com/winsfordcommunitygrocery.

The items donated, normally available from Cheshire West Recycling’s visitor centre, are helpful tools to encourage residents to think about their impact on the environment and help them to reduce their waste by making food matter and using reusable items made from recycled materials instead of disposable plastics, and other environment harming products.

The Council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Strategic Transport, Councillor Karen Shore said: "How we think about our waste can really make a difference.  The Winsford Community Grocery initiative accesses food items that would otherwise be thrown away by local supermarkets and other stores. This does not mean that their food is ‘out of date’, in fact, Winsford Community Grocery receives items that are sometimes close to their ‘sell-by’ date, not their ‘use by’ date, which means that their foods are still fresh, edible and 100% delicious.”

Cabinet Member for the Climate Emergency, Councillor Matt Bryan added: “I’m delighted we have been able to support Winsford Community Grocery and the wonderful work they do.  

“When we throw away our leftovers, spoiled or out of date fresh food, milk or bread, we’re not just wasting food and our money, but all of the resources and energy that have gone into growing, harvesting, refrigerating, packing and shipping that food to the shops that we buy it from.

“Making small changes to our food buying habits and the amount of food we waste can make a real difference to our environment and help protect our planet from the worst effects of climate change.”

Making use of these foods instead of wasting them also encourages buyers to only take what they need - making this initiative a great contribution to the reduction of food waste whilst helping those in need.

For more information on food waste and to find out what you can do to help, visit:

www.outofdate.org.uk.

Pictured - Volunteers and Recycle 1st items.