Surplus food has become a growing issue in the UK over the past twenty years which is of huge environmental and economic concern. With the expansion of convenience supermarkets over the last half-century and a growing necessity for quick consumption, the food production industry has emerged at an alarmingly unsustainable rate. Economic supply and demand has resulted in the waste of excess products that do not fit with the standards of the suppliers, or are simply too vast to distribute.
A war on waste has gained momentum by many campaigners and charities within the UK. Described as “the event catering brainchild of FareShare South West,” Surplus Supper Club is an independent, Bristol-based charity, established in 2011. The charity’s catering events and volunteer manager, Alison Wright, discusses their initiatives to curb the current food waste problems of distributors in the local area, advocating environmental sustainability within the food industry and creating economic opportunities for the local community by creating a business that supplies work experience for the disadvantaged, as well as delicious sustainable meals from surplus supplies.
Wright explains why some food is defined as “surplus”: “Surplus food is food that is in excess. Sometimes supermarkets over order produce, or there’s an informality with the packaging. These are small reasons but it costs more for the suppliers to rectify the problem; to pay people to modify these imperfections rather than just put the food straight into landfill. Our charity works with these suppliers and essentially takes these excess or inapposite products of their hands. Around forty tonnes a month is given to us just in the South West. We work to redistribute that food to our projects that work with people in drug and alcohol rehabilitation, or those who are disadvantaged in the wider community.”
Surplus Supper Club is a charity that is predominantly run on volunteers. Alison’s job role extends to recruiting volunteers for the charity. She expands, “At the moment I work with a couple of job clubs and agencies that work with people who have been out of employment for a long time for reasons such as health, retirement or rehabilitation. The overall aim is to reintergrate our volunteers back into a normal working life so that they can eventually get back into employment in the wider community. Our charity gives them the opportunity to gain skills and work experience, but more importantly it gives them a chance; to be in social situations and build their confidence.”
Alison discusses how the projects have evolved to produce profit to sustain the charity’s development. “We thought up a catering business which started off at festivals. We had a fine-dining tent at Shambala and Bestival festival. It was successful but quite disruptive to feed so many on such a large scale. So instead we started catering for local events; meals, buffets, office lunches. Catering on a smaller scale has created much more regularity for the charity. It means we can plan ahead smoothly and efficiently.”
Alison’s volunteers are active in working towards a cause that intends to benefit the sustainability of the city and the local area. The work of the charity has recently gained positive media attention.
“We were recently featured on Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s BBC One programme War on Waste. A lot of people watched that programme and contacted us, eagerly wanting to get involved, which was really positive. It is really important to educate people on the facts of how surplus food is redistributed; the concept behind the Surplus Supper Club and FairShare can present a barrier in people’s understanding. It’s often assumed that the food is out of a bin or has expired. In actual fact, our food is sourced directly from the suppliers of supermarkets that suffer with the excess; nothing has passed its sell by date. It is predominantly fresh and refrigerated; some of it has three months left on it including secured meats and cheeses that would otherwise go to waste. It is given to us for no profit because it would cost the distributors to send it to a landfill.”
Since the charity’s catering project has successfully taken off, Surplus Supper Club has expanded their business to larger functions that require larger catering facilities. Alison comments, “We needed a much bigger kitchen; we found our current facility, a cafe in St Paul’s Family and Learning Centre. It’s perfectly equipped, and we additionally get to run the community cafe at the same time. This means if we have little or no bookings, our volunteers have time to contribute towards the local community too. But most time we’re busy with both.”
Alison Wright in her role within the charity seeks to educate people on a larger scale about the unsustainability of food waste. The charity aims to create a mindfulness and solution to this growing environmental problem.
If you’re interested in the sustainability of reclaimed food, check out the University’s very own pop-up Surplus Cafe, happening March 2nd. For further information on the Surplus Supper Club, see their charity web page, which has information on how to volunteer and book for events.