Building on the success of the Abundance program and the outcome of the Food Summit hosted by Merton Council, Sustainable Merton are looking to facilitate bringing together donors of food surplus and potential recipients.
The recent French legislation to force supermarkets to donate their surplus food to charities has highlighted the issue and there is currently a petition to support similar legislation in the UK*. Sustainable Merton supports initiatives to reduce waste and helping to find a good home for this surplus makes sense.
We are currently trying to organise a pilot with one supermarket chain present in the borough and a local charity to test out how it would work in practice, as it is not as simple as it would seem. The charity needs to be able to withstand a big variation in what they receive, have appropriate storage facilities and have volunteers or staff able to pick up the goods when the supermarket makes them available.
Fiona
Community Champion
Comments