WHY DO WE HAVE A COMMUNITY LARDER?
- To reduce waste: It is estimated that about 30% of food produced is wasted, and of this up to half may be rejected pre-harvest, never getting out of the field (for aesthetic reasons, end of season, overproduced etc.) By using the Larder in 2022, our members helped to save 46.7tonnes of food going to waste.
- To reduce our impact on the environment
- To help alleviate food poverty: Some estimates put food poverty or insecurity at 14 million people in UK - 1 in 5! The Larder is an attractive option for those needing to make their money stretch further. The food we receive is mostly:
- Over ordering by large supermarkets
- Items approaching best before dates. Suppliers typically give us several weeks or even months extension after the best before dates, during which these foods can still be safely consumed. These are documented.
- Items with packaging/labelling issues
WHEN IS THE LARDER OPEN?
- The Larder is on Friday afternoons at The Beacon, Portway, Wantage, OX12 9BX. The Fridays we don’t run are spaced out through the year as best we can, we inform members of larder holidays via email and Facebook.
- Wantage Larder has two separate sessions.Members are signed up to attend either the first session or second session. The timings of these are:
1. First session 13:30 - 15:00
2. Second session 15:15 - 16:45
WHERE DOES THE FOOD COME FROM? Wantage Community Larder is run by Sustainable Wantage, working with:
- SOFEA : (https://www.sofea.uk.com/) An Oxfordshire and Thames Valley organisation helping disadvantaged members of the community with welfare, employability and wellbeing programmes. They are the regional distributor for food supplied by FareShare. SOFEA supplies 150 local organisations including around 30 Community Larders. Other food from SOFEA may come from donations directly from farmers, etc. (www.sofea.uk.com)
- FareShare: (https://fareshare.org.uk/) A UK wide organisation having agreements with major suppliers and supermarkets to redistribute surplus food. Food supplied by FareShare to SOFEA comes directly from supermarket warehouses or from other suppliers. Most of the food never goes through a shop. WHAT ABOUT FOOD HYGIENE STANDARDS?
- Community Larders are regulated by Environmental Health. At Wantage Larder we have a Food Hygiene rating of 5 (the best!). Some of the guidelines our volunteers follow:
- Not attending larder sessions if they are, or have been recently ill
- Washing hands at the start of each shift ready to serve food
- Using hand gel regularly when serving fruit and veg, or meat products
- Monitoring and maintaining fridge and freezer temperatures and conducting deep cleaning of our fridges and freezer every Friday
WHY DO I NEED TO BECOME A MEMBER?
- A membership of SOFEA is required as the items sent to us each week are calculated for the number of members we have. At the moment, unfortunately, we are not taking new members at the Wantage Community Larder.
-Interested people can sign up at the SOFEA website and join a waiting list However, if you’re able to travel to other locations, SOFEA will be able to guide you to other nearby Larders with spaces. OTHER SUPPORT OPTIONS AVAILABLE TO INDIVIDUALS
- Vale Community Impact can make referrals to Wantage Foodbank and offer other kinds of support, if you are having difficulties please contact them for advice to see what might be available to you.
- There is also The Mix that has a Community Fridge, free surplus food can be collected from here every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. This is open to all / not means tested. WHAT IF I CAN'T COLLECT MY WEEKLY SHOP ON MY OWN?
- If this is a permanent requirement, then you can contact SOFEA and have a nominated person registered as a collector, or you can do this via your member’s page on the SOFEA Website.
- Otherwise, tell the nominated person to give your name when they come to the larder to collect the shop. This way your shop will be marked as collected.
