Householders are about to be asked not to waste food in their homes. The appeal will be made by Shrewsbury Food Hub who told Rotarians that food waste is the third highest generator of greenhouse gases.
Kate Hudson, a trustee of Shrewsbury Food Hub, told a meeting of Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club that last year they had saved over 172 tonnes of food going to landfill. Instead, the food was distributed to over 50 community groups including schools, The Ark, Women’s Refuge and lots of charities for people in need.
She was visiting the club to receive a cheque for £2,500 from the 2021 Rotary Tree of Light which she said was ‘really important’ because at Christmas the food hub collected more food than at any time. Kate said the next step for the food hub was to stop food waste in an education programme and she hoped people would support the food hub in the campaign. She invited Rotarians to a forthcoming open day to see the operation including the freezer and cold room.
She was joined at the meeting by two other beneficiaries of the Tree of Light, Andrew Young of the Harlescott Grange Community Hub charity based in Kynaston Road, Harlescott, and Sarah Carline of Severndale Specialist Academy Futures. As treasurer, Andrew said the centre was being refurbished to be at the heart of the local community for the young, teenagers, elderly and various community groups. He said the Rotary donation would help to get the building fully refurbished and operational as well as sustaining its upkeep and running costs.
Sarah told Rotarians that Severndale Futures worked with young people, some of whom had severe learning difficulties and disabilities. A key part of the work was to help young people into paid employment and support them in independent living. The Rotary money would be used in building up new enterprise activities to try and support employment opportunities which had been severely curtailed during the covid pandemic.
Both the Harlescott centre and Severndale Futures also received cheques for £2,500 and each of the three presentations was made by Shrewsbury Severn Rotary Club president John Yeomans.
Anyone interested in finding out more about Rotary can contact gdmw@hotmail.co.uk
