City Harvest’s farms campaign saves 3x more surplus than last year.
City Harvest’s Harvest for Hunger initiative rescues enough farm food for 1.7 million meals.
Working with UK farms and producers, London-based food charity, City Harvest rescued enough fresh produce for 1.7 million nutritious meals during its second annual Harvest for Hunger initiative.
Harvest for Hunger – City Harvest supports sustainable farming with free surplus produce collections, and offers maximum social impact by delivering it, for free, to 375+ London charities feeding people unable to afford healthy food.
External influences like the weather, public buying patterns, and, more recently, international conflict and COVID-19, can cause surplus at short notice. City Harvest offers a reliable, efficient, and cost-free solution to surplus.
Surplus conference pears from Newling Fruitgrowers Ltd filter in and out of City Harvest’s Acton depot from October to March.
The Harvest for Hunger initiative allows City Harvest to access surplus earlier on in the supply-chain, preventing waste further down the chain, and providing the right, nutritious food to its charity partners. Working with City Harvest means large-scale food producers can reduce their climate impact. Harvest for Hunger 2022 has prevented 2,709 tonnes of GHG emissions from farm surplus.
City Harvest’s Head of Food, Dan McAlpine, says,
“The cost-of-living crisis has pushed hundreds of thousands more people into food poverty, with limited or no access to fresh, healthy food. It’s never been more important to combat on-farm food waste as an annual estimate of 3 million tonnes of edible food is wasted by UK farms, with farmers resorting to burning surplus crops. We’re backing British farmers, providing a solution for farm surplus, and helping to nourish London communities.”
In the last 12 months, Leaf-accredited City Harvest has nurtured and expanded working relationships with 15 British farms and growers, creating solutions for needless farm waste and supporting the rising number of people affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
As the country’s bills continue to increase and peoples’ income becomes even more stretched, we at Strawson’s want to help where we can, to offer people produce which would otherwise be wasted. Through our partnership with City Harvest, we can give our produce another life.
Strawson’s has donated hundreds of tonnes of root vegetables, like carrots, since partnering with City Harvest
City Harvest’s active sustainable farm partners include, Abbey View Produce, Adrian Scripps, Barfoots of Botley Ltd, Berry Gardens, DPS, Ethical Food Company, Fannon Agriculture Ltd, G’s Group, James Foskett Farms Ltd, J L Baxter, Newling Fruit Growers Ltd, R F Clarke, Rodanto Ltd, Strawson’s, and Wild Country Organics.
Rodanto Ltd
City Harvest sustainable partner, Rodanto Ltd, is a leading global grower, importer, packer,and distributor of Fresh Produce based in Maidstone.
Yanitsa, Technical Manager at Rodanto, explains how City Harvest fills in gaps and is an obvious solution to farm food at risk of waste:
“When I worked at EFC, we donated surplus to City Harvest that wasn’t “market standard”, but perfectly good-to-eat produce. When I moved to Rodanto to work as their technical manager, I brought my relationship with City Harvest with me. It was the obvious thing to do – to help
Rodanto reduce business waste, and to help City Harvest feed thousands of people in need. The working relationship was easy to set up and is such a simple solution – saving time, money, and good food.”
Have surplus at risk of waste?
Get in touch with our food team now to sustainably redistribute your surplus produce.
