Countless boxes of fresh fruit, vegetables, bread and pastries, and choice meats on the brink of their "best before" date are being saved from the rubbish dump by savvy volunteers.
Since May 2021, the Liverpool Zero Waste Community has rescued more than 1,000 tonnes of food – the equivalent of 2m meals – and provided it free of charge from their hub at St Columbus Church, Hunt's Cross. The food, which is picked up twice daily from supermarkets, would otherwise be thrown into dumpsters, contributing to the 9.5 million tonnes of food waste produced by the UK each year.
Dave Bowman, 46, who founded the community with wife Kathryn, said: "We'll always have bread, fruit, vegetables, and lots of other things with a short "best before" date. Then we distribute them through our night events, where families can request bags on a first-come, first-serve basis."
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The community started small, with Dave and Kathryn distributing food to their neighbours from the living room of their Woolton Village home. They then partnered with FareShare, a charity fighting hunger and food waste, which allowed them to collect from more supermarkets.
Now the community boasts more than 200 volunteers collecting from Tesco, the Co-Op, Aldi, Lidl and Sainsburys.
Dave, a dad of two, said: "It's quite astounding how much food is wasted, just at retail level – and that's just a small percentage compared to what's going out from people's households, and on the manufacturing side.
"We're only playing a small part, but we're giving the message that the best thing is to avoid throwing food away. Don't just chuck it in the bin because the date's gone. "Use by" is one thing, but "best before" is a whole different matter.
"We always have huge boxes of bananas. The shops love them when they're green and laid out, but the minute they start to turn they don't want them any more. The majority of bananas we get in this country are from South America and Costa Rica so you can imagine the air miles. For them to be going in the bin is criminal really. We try to avoid those things becoming the norm for food, because it shouldn't happen.
"We're only a little part of Liverpool, but the amount of food we see coming in, especially over Christmas, was phenomenal.
"We have about 200 volunteers with us. We've got some people who are very passionate about the environment and recycling. But all of them align with the idea that we shouldn't be producing food and then throwing it away.
"The vast majority of the response has been very positive, and people are very grateful for the food they're getting. We thank the people for coming in and saving it, and in return they are preventing food waste.
"At the moment we have at least two hand-outs every day. We're fairly flat out with it. We've got a good team but it's very full-on; the speed it's grown at, we could never have predicted. Obviously it's tiring, but it's reward to see how it's come on and how many people have come to our side and agreed with us, and realised it shouldn't be happening – that food is going to waste on such a massive scale."
People can keep up with the Liverpool Zero Waste Community and request "rescued" food by contacting the team on Facebook.
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