It happens like this. Food retailers find at times the best way to manage unsold produce is to turn it into land fill. For one local town store this is the fate for a thousand pound’s worth of produce everyday. Amidst a cost of living and environmental crisis this is an unwelcome reality.

A solution to the problem can be found at 72 Chapel Hill on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays every week. From the Day Centre, TouchPoint Stansted now run a food share scheme where produce provided by major food retailers is put out for people to pick up and take away with them.

Not only does this limit the dumping of food waste, but it allows people to fill up on food items and save money on the weekly shop. The organisers are keen to stress, however, this is not a food bank nor is it solely about feeding the needy.

PLENTY FOR EVERYONE

Though people in food poverty are more than welcome to take advantage of the initiative and a food bank is already offered to the community, the project’s aim is to mainly to tackle the needless food dumping.

Anyone from Stansted or beyond can make use of the service. All that TouchPoint ask is that users are mindful of how much they put in the basket – no more than a few day’s worth of food items, please.

Produce available at the Food Share is dependent on what the likes of Waitrose and Tesco Express (Stansted) have surplus on any given time. But a typical day will see a table at the entrance of the Day Centre stocked with bread loaves, pastries, buns, fruit and vegetables.

Make use of the Food Share on Wednesdays (10am-12.30pm), Thursdays (10am-4pm) and Fridays (10am-4pm) at the Day Centre, 72 Chapel Hill.