Gleaning Cornwall were awarded funding from The Naturesave Trust to help them continue their important work harvesting fresh, seasonal produce from within Cornwall and delivering it, for free to 90 foodbanks, community larders and community kitchens, feeding around 5 ,000 people each week, across Cornwall and West Devon.
Since starting properly in mid-2021, the teams of gleaning volunteers, led by a number of paid coordinators, have harvested 300 tonnes of food, saving food charities £500,000 and over 135 tonnes of CO2, taking into consideration their transport emissions. (Food waste, wastes the carbon it contains and the energy it takes to produce it). They have ongoing staff, delivery, vehicle and other smaller costs but are passionate not to charge food charities for their deliveries, unlike Fareshare, as many struggle to access fresh produce and are often run by volunteers with little money.
Cornwall especially has lower than normal, often fluctuating wages and higher than average housing, transport and energy costs, which have all been exasperated by the cost-of-living crisis. More people than ever, including hard working families, can’t make ends meet and the Gleaning Cornwall gang are passionate to help them access some healthy, fresh, local produce.
Farmers work hard to reduce their food waste but it accounts for 15% of the total food waste in the UK. 75% comes from our homes and the remaining 15% is shared between retail, processing and transport. As Cornwall grows a lot of veg, it has more than the average amount of crops that are occasionally surplus, the wrong size or go to waste as the market disappears. Growers have to ensure they have enough for their contracts and now have the added difficulties due to more extreme weather.
As a result, Gleaning Cornwall is the largest gleaning organisation in the UK and according to a student of Human Security, they are the largest in Europe!
The volunteers and farmers are delighted to help but keeping the money flowing is not easy, so they are very grateful that Naturesave has kindly enabled them to continue for another 2-3 months.
Holly Whitelaw, who helps manage the project believes that Supermarkets should pay for gleaners across the country as part of their Sustainable Development Goals. ‘They are the only ones with money to prop up this important practice and ultimately, it is their contracts and high standards, that cause most of this farm food waste. We have approached them through WRAP. For now though, we are super grateful to The Naturesave Trust’.
Gleaning Cornwall is a Cornwall-wide network of famers, volunteer gleaners and community food services working to salvage farm produce, tackling waste and food poverty. Read more about their work here.
