Many of us hate the fact that food goes to waste but one organization is doing its part to stop it. It is The Real Junk Food Project (RJFP) and they opened a warehouse as a supermarket in Pudsey. It sells groceries that are in surplus at a “pay as you feel” price.
The goal of the group is twofold. It prevents edible food from ending up in landfills and it also provides for families in need with a more affordable option.
According to an investigation by the Evening Standard, UK supermarkets are throwing out $299 million worth of edible food annually. In part, it is because stores reject food items because they don’t have enough room for them. Another problem is that large supermarkets overstock items so their shelves are always full.
[T]hese big retailers are so big they can afford to sell only a proportion of ‘units’ and discard the rest, Fearnley-Whittingstall writes. Waste – hundreds of thousands of tonnes of it – is built into the system.
Those are the types of waste that the RJFP is combating. The warehouse serves as the headquarters for the group and they stock surplus food from a number of sources, including major supermarket chains and restaurants.
The group also runs 125 cafés as a global network. They make meals from the food that would have gone to waste. Since the organization has ended up so much food, opening a supermarket seem like the next logical step.
“We were intercepting food at our central HQ in Leeds at an enormous level, that we encountered surplus food which we couldn’t stop from going to rot. We then opened the warehouse up to the public and it was an instant success. We didn’t plan it, it was a consequence of operations.”
The new supermarket is already drawing compliments from shoppers who have financial difficulties.
One woman, who was recently diagnosed with chronic pain, said that her household income had dropped dramatically after her husband had to leave work. They were able to purchase food at the warehouse because of the policy that allows them to pay what they want for it.
“With three young children and two adults to feed we started to struggle straight away,” Rhodes explained. “Luckily we took the plunge to go to the warehouse and it was amazing!”
Via: Huffington Post
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