Who we are

We started when the three co-founders / co-directors (Chris Woodfield, Heather McClure and Chris Byrne) met in 2015/16 to set up Aberystwyth University’s Sustainability Society. We started collecting food waste from Morrisons supermarket in Aberystwyth.

Fast-forward to 2019, we now save over 300kg of food from being wasted every week in our area, and we have received our second major grant funding success to establish a community and environmental hub in the centre of Aberystwyth. This is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, and is being led by Fay Hollick, Heather McClure and Laura Cooper (below - left to right).

Although there is a core team that lead the project, food waste reduction is completely reliant on volunteers. Aber Food Surplus has a fantastic team of over 60 volunteers who save this food from being wasted, and share it with the community either through the community hub, or by cooking it in to a tasty community meal.

Meet the team:

Chris Woodfield

Chris is a passionate outdoorsperson, environmentalist and community activist. He studied at Aberystwyth University and a MSc in Sustainability and Adaptation at the Centre for Alternative Technology where he explored nature connection, happiness, kindness and pro-environmental behaviour change. As well as Co-Founding Aber Food Surplus, Chris leads on the Friends of the Earth Bee Friendly initiative, Plastic Free Aberystwyth and the beach cleaning movement in Aberystwyth. He enjoys cold-water wild swimming, trail-running, gardening and spending time in nature. 

What’s motivating him right now? How can we bring more empathy, kindness and compassion into the environmental movement, i.e. not just raising awareness, but raising compassion and taking action in a collaborative way.  

What you might not know about Chris: One day he dreams of becoming a yoga-instructor and massage therapist. 

Heather McClure

Heather has a passion for the wilderness (particularly fungi and moss), outdoor sports, world foods, and cooking outdoors. She is interested and inspired by the glimmers of people’s self-reliance and making things from nature, and the way this highlights how important it is to connect, share and work together. Prior to working with Aber Food Surplus Heather graduated with an BSc in Geography, and an MA in Regional and Environmental Policy. Having grown up in the city and with a strong connection to Hong Kong, Heather is fascinated by entrepreneurialism, people taking initiative, making an impact, and creating exciting social spaces.  

What is motivating her right now? Voices of the farmers in La Via Campesina, as they have so much to offer to our relationship with food and our environments. How can we overcome the barriers of access and support to food sovereignty? 

What you might not know about Heather: Heather used to be a secondary school Maths Teacher, and would one day like to work with a forest school / outdoor primary school. 

Chris Byrne

Chris is...not very good at writing bio’s, but here goes... He grew up in Northern England, and after a few years of working, post school, he recognised he had a keen interest in food systems and their interactions with the world around them.  From here followed a BSc in Agriculture and Countryside Management, an MSc in Food and Water Security, and now he is writing up his PhD thesis.  He recently moved to Scotland, and works in Scottish Government.  He enjoys knitting, running, walking up big hills, seeing the world, and watching re-runs of Murder, She Wrote – most of those in the company of his beagle.  

What’s motivating him right now? A rapidly approaching PhD deadline.  That, and playing even a small role in pushing toward a more environmentally sensitive and resilient food system.  

What you might not know about Chris: His dream is to set up his own organisation educating young people about food production systems and encouraging them to consider potential careers in this sector...he should probably get moving with this quite soon! 

Fay Hollick

It causes a bit of a chuckle in the team that Fay does not consider herself to be a particularly passionate person - because she gets pretty animated about many things, including: the power of words; making things; spending time in nature; threats to the environment; small behaviour changes with positive impacts; poor driving (and parking!); and not surprisingly – food waste.  She likes order, but also embraces a bit of chaos.

What’s motivating her right now? Currently really enthused about re-growing food scraps, attempts to promote wellness.  She loves to learn new things, and consider new ideas. 

What you might not know about Fay: She has both a business degree, and spent two years studying Furniture Making and Restoration.  When she walks to the beach to partake in a bit of cold water swimming, she likes to take a detour to look in the window of Ceredigion Museum, and admire the display boxes she helped to make whilst studying at Cardigan College.

Laura Cooper

Laura is passionate about ethical food and sustainable living;  saving seed, growing edible plants and soil health - and she has recently been introduced to the fascinating world of fermenting and pickling! When Laura is not planting or pickling, she is working on obtaining her Masters in Sustainable Food Systems with the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT). Laura believes the academic base she is developing at CAT will fuel her ambitions of making access to sustainably produced, healthy and nutritious food available to all.

CAT introduced Laura to a whole new way of academic thinking, which deeply impacted the way she conceptualises the world. Through working with and learning from the local community at the ECO Food Sharing Hub, Laura is starting to align her academic knowledge, practice and her values as an eco-citizen. 

What’s motivating her right now? Right now, inspired by the determined youth strikes sweeping the globe, and also more locally by our compassionate volunteers at the Aber Food Surplus, Laura is focused on positively harnessing the growing public interest in the climate crisis. She believes we need to build on this momentum to change the landscape of both food use and food waste, and that Aber could act as a great example!

What you might not know about Laura: Laura spends most of her time thinking about food; what people are eating and where their food is coming from. She hopes one day to train as a dietitian so that she might better turn all this thinking time into practical and healthful, sustainable action.

Elin Haf Davies

Bio to follow