Agenda item

To receive petitions, comments and questions from the public including:

·                Morrison's Community Champion

Emma Goulding, Food Rescue Hub, thanked the Chair for the opportunity to address the Panel.

The Chair thanked Emma Goulding for her presentation.

Audio recording – 46 minutes 53 seconds.

The Chair noted that Yvette Churchman, Morrison’s Community Champion, had been expected but was not present.

N.B: Subsequent to the meeting it was made clear that Yvette Churchman’s absence was due to sickness.  

The Panel received a verbal presentation from Emma Goulding, Food Rescue Hub, including:

·                Hitchin Food Rescue Hub raised awareness about food waste and food retail practices;

·                Food Rescue Hub ran for just under a year before the pandemic and was a non-assessed programme accessible to all to educate people about food waste and provide a regular opportunity to consider actions on reducing food waste;

·                The Food Rescue Hub initially shut down during the pandemic because of its heavily public facing programme but was contacted by the major surplus food distributers in the country, Neighbourly and FareShare, and asked to resume activities;

·                For 5 months while unable to meet the public the Food Rescue Hub saw shortages in stores and individuals unable to access food while at the same time had to increase their operations and handle 900 crates of surplus food a month;

·                The Food Rescue Hub expanded to cover most of Herts and in to Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire;

·                The focus of the Food Rescue Hub shifted from environmental concerns to a food provision organisation to respond to people in need;

·                It became more costly to run the Hub, food providers had more erratic supply patterns, more people were in need of food;

·                Once lockdown had lifted the public-facing operation re-opened in a COVID-safe way;

·                The way the public engaged with the Food Rescue Hub had changed; there had been more discussion about the value of food;

·                The return to work and reduction in shortages had lessened the shock on individuals and old food consumption habits had returned;

·                The amount and quality of surplus food reaching the Rescue Hub had reduced significantly;

·                Bread or baked goods represented roughly half of intake;

·                There were many more surplus food actors in the market now including tech start-ups;

·                Participants had become more concerned with nutritional issues;

·                The Food Rescue Hub was not a food bank but the economic situation facing some users had demanded that a ‘pay it forward,’ system be established;

·                The Food Rescue Hub was looking to expand to new locations in the future;

The following Members asked questions:

·                Cllr Elizabeth Dennis-Harburg

In response to questions Emma Goulding noted:

·                The Food Rescue Hub and organisations like it have been used as waste disposal avenues by producers/distributers like supermarkets;

·                More players on the surplus food market had created conditions in which desirable food had been set aside for one partner and less desirable surplus was being passed to Food Rescue Hub as a disposal method;

·                The problem of food waste was simply being moved on;

·                Food Recue Hub made use of unusable food for animal feed;

·                Supermarkets needed to use the vast amounts of data on purchasing habits they have at their disposal to plan their production and distribution;

·                Consumers needed to moderate their expectations of supermarkets;

·                In-store bakery was a significant problem but bakery more generally needed to be looked at;

·                Consumers needed to be made aware of the carbon impact of their food choices;

The Chair thanked Emma Goulding for her presentation.