About 10% of the food UKHarvest rescues comes from pre-farm gate. So far, this growing season that’s almost 37 tonnes of food that didn’t leave the farm or make it to the production line.
The usable food equates to nearly 66,000 meals-worth of healthy, nutritious food. The growing process of this wasted product alone has enormous negative impacts on greenhouse gas expenditure, which is where West Sussex-based UKHarvest steps up.
As pre-farm gate food is rarely documented, with regards to waste or surplus, there can be minimal reporting on the quantity that fails to make the grade.
Food sent to households who need it
However, by positively disrupting the carbon expenditure of the crop through pre-farm donations, the edible product can be collected by UKHarvest at no cost to the organisation, enabling the charity to process and redistribute to households that need it most.
Anything that is unusable at collection stage is sent by UKHarvest to anaerobic digestion.
UKHarvest is also developing employment pathways. Working closely with people from all backgrounds and working experiences, the employment pathways help potential employees to develop new skills while gaining experience with some of the UK’s leading food producers.
Rescuing pre-farm gate produce
This ensures that labour is available across the food production and processing systems, and, in turn, upskills new staff members, enabling them to find work in the farming industry at a time when labour is scarce.
One pre-farm gate food donor said: “UKHarvest has worked closely with our organisation over the past two growing seasons, rescuing pre-farm gate produce that is not suitable for resale.
“The benefits to our company have been enormous, enabling us to continue to meet our sustainability goals, to save money on orchestrating waste removal in-house, and knowing that edible food, that would have gone to waste, reaches communities that can make good use of it.
“The process has been straightforward, and easy for our team to facilitate, with minimal impact taking place on day-to-day operations.”
UKHarvest Programme Manager James Swann said: “We are constantly looking for new and innovative ways to prevent edible food from going to waste. The pre-farm gate project has enabled us to work with producers, finding a cost-free and constructive way for them to prevent unnecessary waste before it reaches the production line.
“ Engaging new growers that share UKHarvest’s ethos to reduce the negative environmental impacts of food waste, while feeding communities that need it most and creating employment pathways available to all members of the community, hits so many of UKHarvest’s goals through collaboration and innovation. ”
To find out more about UKHarvest, and how you can become a food donor, please visit www.ukharvest.org.uk/support-us/donate-food, or contact UKHarvest on 01243 696940 extension 1.