Tackling food poverty on the front line is Foodprint, a social supermarket run by students from the University of Nottingham. Not only does their Sneinton-based store provide vital produce to local residents in need, but each week they stop a significant amount of waste from clogging up landfills...
“We came up with a figure a couple of months ago which suggested that since we started, we’ve saved seven elephants worth of food,” says Leila Behzadi-Spencer, a key member of the Foodprint team. “We’re doing our best to collect as much food as possible, and we’re making sure our collection route is done in an order that uses the least amount of petrol.”
Run by a group of students from the university's branch of Enactus – a not-for-profit organisation looking to transform the lives of people in need – Foodprint collects surplus food from larger supermarkets, including items outside their sell-by date, and sells them at their own store in Sneinton. Still perfectly fit to eat, the produce is sold to customers for approximately 50% less than their original price. We’re talking veggies for 5p and bread bloomers for 15p.
Each week, the organisation saves as much as 985kg of food from landfills by distributing extra items to a number of partner organisations. “We have good relationships with local food banks, like Walkers Notts,” says Leila. “We’ll provide them with crates of food and they’ll give us some things in return that they can’t use. At the end of the day we’re all working towards the same goal and if things go wrong we can step in and help others out.”
With Sneinton having the second highest food poverty stats in the area, the shop is welcomed by the locals, with regular customers popping in for discounted cans of soup or fresh items from the bakery. Foodprint are now working on securing allotment space to grow their own produce and are looking to open a second supermarket.
101 Sneinton Road, NG2 4QL. 07557 644 532
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