Food Works Sheffield, a leading social enterprise tacking food waste has been awarded some of the £4 million Food Waste Fund from DEFRA!
Sheffield’s Food Works will receive 1.75% of the £4m fund over the coming months.
The government awarded more than £4 million to four redistribution organisations across England to help overcome barriers to getting food currently going to waste onto people’s plates.
The successful bids – from Fareshare, Company Shop Group, The Felix Project and Food Works Sheffield (that’s us!) – will receive funding through the first tranche of a £15 million scheme launched in January by Environment Secretary Michael Gove.
A further round of funding will focus on improving infrastructure for companies to redistribute even more of the estimated 100,000 tonnes of food – equating to 250 million meals a year – which is edible and readily available but goes uneaten. Instead, this food is currently sent away for generating energy from waste, anaerobic digestion or animal feed.
Jo Hercberg, founder of Food Works Sheffield, said:
“At Food Works Sheffield we believe in building a fairer and more sustainable food system. A big part of this is reducing food waste so being awarded some of the Food Waste Fund will really help us achieve this goal in 2019. As a relatively small and new project we are delighted to have been considered alongside the large national organisations.”
