City Harvest CEO Calcutt on the food redistribution charity’s solution to food surplus at farm gate
Sarah Calcutt, City Harvest CEO, was interviewed on BBC Radio London about the potential benefits that the new £15m government fund could have in our mission to rescue food, people and the planet.
Last month, the government announced a new £15 million fund to prevent thousands of tonnes of food that might otherwise go to waste to be delivered to those who need it most.
With an estimated 330,000 tonnes of edible food either wasted or repurposed as animal feed before leaving farm gates every year, charities like City Harvest could put this waste to better use with that redistribution process.
Key Issues to Address:
For food:
- There’s a real challenge around the cost of food at the moment. We’ve got a huge problem that it’s just too expensive for quite a lot of people. Certainly, the 20% of the population City Harvest look after are really struggling, particularly around a healthy diet.
- For British farmers, there’s a real challenge around profit margin or any profit at all. They’ve got such incredible rising costs and are trying to do their best with wages, they’ve got lots of challenges around what they need to produce their crop.
For people:
- Being hungry causes many, many other social issues, such as the burden on the National Health Service for people who are obese. Obesity is much more about poor diet and lack of access to good food than anything else because cheap calories are ultra-processed and commonly ‘beige’ foods, so they’re not helping you health wise. You can read more about the implications of food poverty on the NHS in our 2024 People Report.
- Food poverty also has a direct impact on education and opportunities. If you’re hungry at school, you can’t focus, you’re more likely to be angry, frustrated and struggle to concentrate – especially during crucial periods such as GCSEs. Children and young adults need the right nutrition to rise to the opportunities available to them – securing a chance of a promising future. You can read more about the effects of child food poverty in our 2023 People Report.
Solutions:
- City Harvest assists British growers and food producers by collecting the inevitable surplus. If you grow an orchard of apples and some of them are big, some of them are small: a proportion will be rejected by the retailer. And if there’s no market for that ugly smal, big, lumpy, whatever, it’s brilliant because it’s so healthy fruit or veg and it can still go to people who need it.
- The £15 million is a really valuable pot, because it will help connect people that need a good diet with those that have dedicated their lives to producing healthy food.
We are grateful for your support
Every £1 = 3 meals for Londoners facing food poverty.