In the first month of operating a new system* on New Smithfield Market to address avoidable food waste, FareShare north west has received over a tonne of fresh food from traders on the market.
Donations started to come through in the last two weeks and include coriander leaf, mangos, onions, avocados, peppers and lettuce.
The carbon footprint of these foods is significant. Herbs like coriander are often flown into the UK, especially in December so any use that can be made of this by FareShare community food members (CFM) is a carbon saving.
The mangos have been well received by CFM. We are collecting information about what different organisations did with this fruit and will post news about this on the blog as it arrives. The fruit were grown in Brazil and we had a donation of 800 kilos of them, in tip top condition. They are ripe so need dispatching quickly but if FareShare was not here this food would have either been composted or fed to animals. The photos help give an idea of how many mangos this equates to, as its hard to visualise such a large quantity.
After the arrival of the wonderful tropical fruit we had 300 kilos of onions. These came in sacks and it was obvious that some were rotten. After a couple of hours of sorting there were 170 kilos of onions suitable to send out to CFMs.
Today we have also received trays of iceberg lettuce, more onions, yellow peppers and a very tall pallet of Hass avocados which were grown in Chile.
These recent donations from traders are very encouraging and we look forward to receiving more food in the coming weeks as the market gears up for Christmas.
* This new system is part of a FareShare North West project funded by Manchester City Council. We are working in partnership with Manchester Markets and Food Futures to address avoidable food waste on New Smithfield Wholesale Market. FareShare volunteers sort the food and any in good condition is sent out to Community Food Members. The remainder is processed by Fairfield Materials Management (composted or used for animal feed).
Debbie Ellen
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