On reading the February and March WOW magazines, re “Working in Collaboration with other Local Organisations” and #stopfoodwasteday, we thought you would be interested to hear about a new initiative started by a group of Highworthians, including some members of Highworth Evening WI, the Highworth Community Larder.
The main aims of the larder are to avoid food waste and to support the local community. We are open once a week on a Tuesday morning and accept donations of surplus food from supermarkets, food outlets and individuals, which we then offer it to local residents at no cost.
Although we have only been open five weeks (at the time of writing) we have avoided over 350kg of food going to waste and made it available to the local community. The incredibly positive response from the local community has been amazing. The Head of our local school, Westrop Primary School, has been very supportive and has given us the use of one of the school meeting rooms for the larder. Local businesses and residents are supplying us with the food and we have an average of 30 residents coming in each week to take advantage of the food on offer. The larder is open to all and is completely free. We do put a limit on the number of items that each person can take simply to make sure that there is enough for everyone. At a time of growing awareness of the need to avoid waste and during a period of economic crisis we are pleased to be able to help with both these issues.
- Submitted by Rosemary Crampton - Highworth WI
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