Coastal Recycling has been operating for thirty years and as an employee-owned business since 2021. Committed to sustainability, with a vision to maximise the recycling and recovery of resources, the company contributes to community, environmental and social projects in Exeter and across Devon, including to Exeter Food Action.
Earlier this year, during Food Waste Action week, along with several other local supporters, they donated food to EFA kindly collected by their staff, for which we were immensely grateful. More recently, they were kind enough to dispose of an old chest freezer, free of charge.
Thank you to our friends at Coastal Recycling for their invaluable support for our work.
We’d be grateful if visitors to our website could spare a minute to nominate EFA for a chance to win £1,000, part of the Benefact Group’s annual Movement for Good Awards. It’s quick and easy to do via this link: www.movementforgood.com.
Of the categories listed, although none reflect our work precisely, one has to be chosen, so the most appropriate for us are probably ‘poverty’, ‘health’ or ‘community’.
Winners are drawn at random, so the more nominations we receive the better, although please note that, while it’s possible to nominate several charities, you can only nominate a charity once. Obviously, the more nominations we get the better our chances.
The closing date for nominations is Friday 26th July
Please share the opportunity with as many people as you can.
Would you like to play a crucial role in supporting Exeter Food Action’s sustainability and growth, joining a dedicated and friendly team of fellow trustees, staff and volunteers?
If you have UK experience and skills in fundraising, preferably within the charity sector, we’d love to hear from you. You’ll need to have an understanding of fundraising regulations and compliance requirements, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and an ability to build relationships and to engage with stakeholders effectively.
If you’re interested in joining our friendly team please do get in touch. You can download a full role description and contact details here.
Our Summer 2024 issue of Food Matters is now available to view/download by clicking on the image below.
In this issue, with only a week to go before the general election, we’ve been taking a look at some of the calls being made on the next government to address the issue of food insecurity and tackle the staggering levels of food waste in the UK, for example by our partners, Fare Share, and other charities working in the field,
But if you’re already election weary, there’s plenty more too, including a look at some innovate apps aimed at tackling food waste, as well as some useful tips to reduce food waste in the home. Who knew that storing milk in the fridge door isn’t such a good idea?
On the subject of food, Jack Monroe, the food writer, journalist and activist known for campaigning on poverty issues, particularly hunger relief, has kindly agreed for us to reproduce some of her recipes in Food Matters. Jack’s published seven cookbooks focusing on ‘austerity recipes’ and meals that can be made on the tightest of budgets. For starters, in this issue, there’s a delicious Coronation Quiche at around 40p per serving.
There’s much else besides in Food Matter’s 21 pages, all in the menu of contents in the image below. Please feel free to share far and wide with anyone who you think might be interested. And please do let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see covered in a future issue.
Anyone who has crossed Exeter’s Exe Bridges will be familiar with the view of the Healthfoods Unlimited store pictured above. For many years it has provided a valuable service offering healthy products to the community, promoting healthier lifestyles and supporting sustainable practices.
Sadly, it closed its doors for the last time on 1st June and, although its presence will be sorely missed by many, the positive impact it has had on the well-being of its customers will be long remembered.
Exeter Food Action is particularly grateful for its regular donations which, for many years, we have delivered to the 64 food banks and community groups we support, who in turn will have shared Healthfood Unlimited’s generous donations with the thousands of people who use their services. We’re grateful too for the extremely kind donation of their final stock.
Exeter Food Action is always keen to identify new sources of donated, healthy and nutritious food, so we can keep the food banks and community groups we support well-stocked, and they can then share it with the many struggling individuals and families who use their services. Together, we’re committed to reducing food waste and to ensuring that nobody has to make the choice between eating and heating.
A call for donated food
To keep on providing our vital services we’re always happy to receive dry, fresh and frozen food from retailers, farmers, food producers etc., and can collect daily from shops and outlets in and around Exeter. We’re also able to take goods in bulk quantities. If you can help, please do get in touch: .
With the relentless rain of recent weeks, most days it hasn’t felt much like Spring. We can’t stop the rain but we hope that our Spring newsletter might just put a little bit of a spring in readers’ steps.
Although still full of the usual news of what we’ve been doing etc. this issue is a bit different because we’ve given it a name. Rather than just being ‘newsletter’, we’ve decided to call it Food Matters, because it does, and it’s what Exeter Food Action’s all about.
We hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to share it with anyone who might be interested in our record breaking and award winning work and, as ever, do let us know if there’s anything you’d like to see covered in future issues.
At our annual reception at St Sidwell’s Community Centre on 20th March there was a palpable sense of goodwill in the air which, for anyone present, would have been hard not to feel.
Our chair of trustees and of the reception, Nigel Walsh, having extended a warm welcome to all and thanks to our 55 volunteers and 3 staff, introduced the first speaker, our coordinator, Elizabeth Butland.
Guiding the audience through an photo review of the year, she provided an inspiring, month by month record of our work in 2023, securing, storing and delivering food to the 64 food banks and community groups we support. Featuring volunteers throughout, harvesting pumpkins, lugging crates of food around, driving the vans that deliver our food, it painted a well-curated and telling picture of just how reliant and grateful we are for the vitality they bring. Quite literally, it keeps our wheels turning.
Speaking of last year’s record redistribution of approximately 118 tonnes of food, more than in any previous year, Elizabeth provided a revealing breakdown of what this actually means. It’s a weight roughly equivalent to 281,438 meals and potential savings of over £400,000 for the thousands of people supported by the groups to which we deliver.
Our volunteers were referred to throughout the evening as both the backbone and beating heart of what we do. Our volunteer coordinator, Wendy Kearns, displaying the thoughtful sensitivity for which she’s known, insisting that attendees hear a volunteer’s voice rather than her own, introduced the next speaker, our volunteer, Stu Pearce.
The many stories we have to tell are compelling, the volunteer experience being one of the most significant given the part they all play in our work. Many come to us while navigating a change in their lives, on retirement or because of ill health or bereavement, some simply because they have time on their hands. From wherever they come, all share a commitment to what we do, which, quite simply, we couldn’t do without them.
Stu spoke eloquently of what being a volunteer means to him, and of his story, sharing the personal challenges he faces, ill health having curtailed his career as a teacher. His presentation was a lesson in positivity and, displaying evidence that none of his professional skills were lost, was delivered with candour and good humour.
If he had a message it was that his relationship with and commitment to EFA is of value to to him, as is the case for all of our volunteers. It’s a bit of a stretch to say that we’re family but it feels that way sometimes, as it did during Stu’s presentation. We’re not of course but he spoke of a well-oiled machine of which he’s grateful to be a part, as we are to him and to so many in our team.
Volunteer and trustee, Andy Kemp, then gave a presentation on publicity and fundraising, providing an account of our efforts during 2023 to raise awareness of what we do and, crucially, the funds that make it possible (full disclosure: the author of this post is one and the same, so the standard of his/my presentation is for others to decide!).
Over the last year we’ve taken numerous steps to ensure that our story reaches a wider audience, too many to mention here, but all designed to strengthen our appeal to potential supporters, with which we’ve had some tangible success. In 2023 we saw a £73,046 (117.37%) increase on the previous year’s total income, which went from £62,280 in 2022 to £135,326 in 2023. Similarly, we saw an increase in donations (185%), which rose from £13,563 in 2022 to £38,738 in 2023. It was a team effort and something of which we can all be proud
There are many factors that played a part but our overriding theme has been one of enhancing and spreading the good story we have to tell. As previously mentioned, it’s a compelling one, as was seen in our reception’s presentations, and one we need to keep on telling, a theme continued by trustee, Sue Ford, in hers, which followed and looked at opportunities in the year ahead.
Sue spoke of our focus on sustainability and the need to think always of how best to keep on doing what we do, often requiring diversification and new approaches to the challenges we face. She reiterated the importance of support for our hard-working staff and volunteers, and of the need to build on the strength of our trustee body, offering an open invitation to people with the skills and experience we need now and in will in the future.
The road ahead is rarely straight or even and the combined impact of rising demand and falling supply, something reported by the food banks we support and reflected nationally, points to some twists, turns and bumps along the way. But, as Nigel suggested in his opening remarks, we have good will on our side, demonstrated in what was, by any measure, an inspiring gathering of EFA staff, volunteers and friends, all with plenty to spare.
We are immensely grateful to St Sidwell’s Community Centre for hosting our reception, providing refreshments, projector and screen. Among many other services for the local community the centre runs a community café, bakery and cookery school, as well as volunteering and work-experience opportunities across all areas of their work.
Trustee, Andy Kemp, and Volunteer Coordinator, Wendy Kearns (centre)
With Exeter City Council declaring a commitment to making the city carbon neutral by 2030, the Exeter Sustainability Awards recognise and champion individuals and organisations making strides in the field. In November of last year we decided to try for an award and were delighted to hear in February that we were finalists in the community group / charity / non-profit category.
Our category recognises projects of sustainable energy, climate resilience, environmental and social best practice, or environmental and social innovation. We thought that rescuing and delivering food weighing as much as three jumbo jets, preventing much of it going to landfill, placed us in a reasonably good position and made what we thought was a compelling case.
In the UK we produced around 10.7 million tonnes of food waste in 2021, 6.4 million tonnes of which (60%) came from households. Many of us think that scraping excess food from a pan or dish, or just disposing of that wilting cabbage we’d overlooked in the fridge into our kitchen bin, is pretty harmless. Doesn’t most food biodegrade naturally over time?
Actually no – in landfill, for example, things are a bit different. With the weight of layers of waste on top of the food the process is starved of a key component of natural decay. Anaerobic digestion is the scientific term, which in lay terms means ‘without oxygen’ and, although decay occurs, oxygen starvation changes the process into one that generates substantial amounts of methane gas as the food breaks down. A US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report suggests that methane gas is up to 28 times more harmful than carbon dioxide (CO2), trapping planet warming heat in the atmosphere. So, with a pitch that we help to reduce climate harming levels of methane in the atmosphere, while simultaneously enabling support for people experiencing food insecurity, we thought we were in with a chance.
On the 22nd of March EFA’s volunteer coordinator, Wendy Kearns, and trustee, Andy Kemp, attended the awards ceremony, hopeful of success but also conscious of the many excellent submissions that accompanied EFA’s. With bated breath they observed awards for several categories, announced by Emma Askew, an environmental researcher and founder and director of Earth Minutes, an organisation with ‘a mission to drive the future of environmental thinking and learning’. When our category’s turn came, as camera lights flashed and heart beats went into overdrive, it was announced that, of the six finalists, Exeter Food Action had come joint second, pipped to the post by an eminently deserving winner, a Royal Devon & Exeter NHS project minimising the carbon footprint of anaesthetic gases.
Receiving a ‘Highly Commended’ award was a great honour and, although there was no time for Oscar-like acceptance speeches, the award must surely be dedicated to and shared with all of our hard-working staff and dedicated volunteers, indeed everyone who has played a part in our success by supporting the work that we do, getting good quality, nutritious food on to the tables of people who need it.
But as the award acknowledged, it’s not just that. Since the industrial revolution, methane gas has been responsible for around 30% of the rise in global temperatures. Reductions in methane emissions are key to limiting near-term warming and improving air quality. We can be proud of the fact that Exeter Food Action is playing a meaningful part in that too.
Yesterday marked the start of Food Waste Action Week (18-24 March). It’s an annual initiative bringing together businesses, government, organisations etc. to support people in developing the tools they need to cut food waste in their homes.
Over 4 million tonnes of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households, 25% of it because people prepare, cook or serve too much. The cost to UK households is estimated to be around £4.9 billion each year.
This year we’ve teamed up with local friends/partners and they’ve committed to lend us a hand and, at the same time, raise awareness of food waste.
Most of us have ‘miss buys’ in our kitchen cupboards – food we’ve bought but will probably never use – and once it’s passed its use by date, it’s no good to anyone and more often than not it ends up as food waste.
In January 2024 we conducted a survey of the sixty-four food banks and community groups to which we deliver. We wanted to assess the impact of our service on the groups themselves and on the thousands of people they support.
It’s only a snapshot but, nevertheless, provides useful evidence of the value and impact of what we do. It also points to the likely challenges we will face in 2024, highlighted in red below: 66% of respondents have seen a fall in the availability of donated food and 73% an increase in demand.
A report on the survey will feature in our March newsletter and will soon be available to view/download here. An interim summary appears below.
Of the groups surveyed:
97% think that we provide good quality food
83% think that we provide a good variety of food
100% think that reducing food waste is important
40% think that their service helps to improve people’s mental health
29% think that their service helps to improve people’s physical health
26% think that their service helps to improve people’s general health
78% think that their service helps to reduce people’s isolation
62% think that their service helps people save money for essentials
88% think that our support helps them manage their own resources
100% rate Exeter Food Action’s service as good, very good or excellent
66% have seen a fall in the availability of donated food
73% have seen an increase in demand
“Happy to play a small role in this really important project. The world needs more people and initiatives like this. A massive thanks.” — OR
“We are happy to help this fantastic project, to both reduce landfill and help those who really need it :)” — E&G
