New Exeter base for Devon & Cornwall Food Agency

Established by local churches and other organisations in Plymouth in 2010, the DCFA now has a working base in Exeter too – opening officially on 12th October 2012. This exciting community project collects good quality in-date food that would otherwise be incinerated or buried. It then re-distributes to local community groups and centres working with people affected by food poverty – because of unemployment, low wages, homelessness, welfare changes, etc..

Every year in the UK, 18 million tonnes of edible food end up in landfill. We often hear about food that gets wasted by shops and in the kitchens of consumers, but we hear less about the food that gets thrown away before it even reaches the retailer although this accounts for over one third of all the nation’s food waste. Producers and manufacturers send huge amounts of food to landfill when it is still perfectly edible and nutritious simply because it has been mis-packaged or over ordered, or for a number of other reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the food.

At the same time we have a growing number of households who can’t afford to eat properly. Food poverty is on the rise in the UK as food and fuel costs rise faster than incomes and food waste contributes to greenhouse gas emissions furthering climate change.

Devon and Cornwall Food Association aims to address these two issues by intercepting good quality food and diverting it from the waste stream, distributing it to organisations who work with some of the most disadvantaged people in our community.  

The new Exeter ‘Food Depot’, run entirely by volunteers, has been gradually getting itself established in its Sidwell Street premises, from where it sends food to local charities – though not direct to the public.

Thanks to a grant from Exeter City Board Grants and donations from many groups and individuals in the city the premises are now furnished with a bank of chillers and freezers, ready to receive unwanted food. ‘We have been very touched by the generosity of people in the local community who really understand what it is we are trying to do, and have been willing to support us, either with donations of goods such as freezers, or cash, or by volunteering their time to help’ said steering group member Charles Nyeko-Lacek.

DCFA (Exeter) has already distributed hundreds of pies, pasties and other baked goods to hostels for homeless people, soup kitchens and supported housing projects around Exeter. It is also working with Exeter Community Initiatives’ Harvest Project to distribute surplus fruit from Exeter’s gardens to the same organisations. 

Steering group member Jon Curtis says ‘We are negotiating with other suppliers so that we will soon be able to offer a much wider range of food to our groups’.  

Co-founder Martyn Goss from Church & Society added, ‘This scheme saves money to local charities, prevents waste being burned or buried, and provides food for hungry people. It’s a win-win-win project’.