Food waste charity gets grant for rising costs

A charity that is helping tackle the issue of food waste has received a funding grant from the council.

Shrewsbury Food Hub collects surplus food from supermarkets, manufacturers and farms, and shares it with 90 community groups and 13 weekly food shares.

Earlier this month, it was announced the charity received a £60,000 grant, over three years, from Shrewsbury Town Council.

The charity's fundraiser, Cherry Teearu, said: "It is a lot of money. It sounds fantastic and we are so so grateful."

She added: "It will go a long way to helping us to continue [to cover our extra] costs that we have got. With the cost of living crisis all of our costs are going up."

Teearu said the organisation is having to spend thousands to fuel its vans and depot and covering covering staff costs, with spending reaching nearly £500,000 every year.

Shrewsbury Food Hub started in 2016, after a local homeless charity contacted it's co-founders because it had been offered surplus food by a supermarket, but they didn't have volunteers to collect it.

The group says that over the last year alone they have rescued 272 tonnes of food from the bin – enough for over 649,000 meals.

Community engagement officer and head of logistics, John Hughes, is often in charge of the deliveries.

"It operates seven days a week, all year round, bar Christmas Day, and so its a seven day a week operation," he said.

"We start early doors and then work right the way through. Then at the end of the day we are preparing for the next day ahead.

He added: "We have a lot of overheads, all of that costs money just to keep the wheels turning before we do anything, so this grant is hugely important to us and just gives us sort of hope and sustainability [to keep] going forward."

Self-described conservationist, Peter Hampton, said he attends the Food Hub to help the environment and help his budget.

"I brought my grandchildren along and they were gobsmacked that food was going to waste," he said.

"They ended up going back to their junior school and told the teacher, and the teacher did a lesson on it.

"When you realise how much is being saved and how much it helps the community in different parts of the community, be it mothers and toddlers groups, schools, people on lower incomes, its great."