Blog

First-time gardener Hannah has been planting a patch by Aberystwyth castle as her lockdown exercise. If you’d like to help or do something similar she’s happy to lend tools and pass on seeds and seedlings - send her an email at hannah@hannahme.com

This blog is all about the fabulous opportunity presented to us by Aber Food Surplus in the form of the Surplus Food Selection, a box of goods delivered to your door that would otherwise have gone to waste after their supermarket shelf-life.

Here at Aber Food Surplus our work has always been centred around taking positive action and bringing people together in our local community to reduce food waste and share food. With the recent COVID-19 outbreak, crisis and pandemic we have had to take a step back and rethink how we do things. Last week, we decided to close the ECO Food Sharing Hub and Community Fridge space to keep our community safe and reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19.

The idea of creating food hubs appeared in numerous different contexts at the Wales Real Food and Farming Conference in Aberystwyth, November 2019…..

Why and how do you make sauerkraut?

I would like to share a few thoughts on Morrisons proposal to reduce the price of unsold veg to provide ‘cheap veg boxes’. Morrisons, one of the big 4 supermarkets in the UK, has recently launched a scheme partnering with “To Good to Go” (a food waste app) to reduce unsold veg at the end of the day compiling this into cheap veg boxes for customers to purchase online via the To Good to Go app on a first-come, first-serve basis. This means some of the food usually redistributed to Aber Food Surplus for community benefit is being sold cheaply to customers. I would like to highlight two key points.

I would offer some thoughts and reflections on my time on the ground at Aber Food Surplus, as well as Aberystwyth more generally, and set the scene for someone else to bring their best self to the team.  

Around 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year – that’s around one-third of the total food produced globally. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that if food waste was a country it would be the third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the USA . It’s a huge problem – but what can we do about it?

As part of its Senedd@ programme, the National Assembly for Wales has been meeting with community groups and activists across Aberystwyth to find out more about their visions for the future of the town and surrounding communities. On 28 November, it joined forces with Aber Food Surplus to create a community platform where people could eat, meet and tell us about the things that are important to them.

On 19 December 2018, Aberystwyth Community Ambassadors and members of Penparcau Youth Club teamed up with Aber Food Surplus and Ysgol Llwyn yr Eos to host a ‘pay as you feel’ meal at Ysgol Llwyn yr Eos, Penparcau. The event was an opportunity for young people and the local community to learn about food waste and the redistribution of surplus food gathered from local supermarkets.

Fel rhan o’n cynllun Senedd@ rydym wedi bod yn cyfarfod â grwpiau cymunedol ac ymgyrchwyr ledled Aberystwyth i gael gwybod mwy am eu gweledigaethau ar gyfer dyfodol y dref a’r cymunedau cyfagos. Ar 28 Tachwedd, gwnaethom ymuno â Bwyd Dros Ben Aber i greu llwyfan cymunedol lle gall pobl fwyta, cyfarfod a dweud wrthym am y pethau sy’n bwysig iddyn nhw.

One third of the food produced in the world is wasted each year. Wales alone threw away 350,000 tons of household food waste in 2015, much of which is still perfectly edible. Charities like Aber Food Surplus in Aberystwyth are helping to curb this trend.