Is Shrewsbury Food Hub a food bank?

Shrewsbury Food Hub is not a food bank. Everyone is welcome to come to our Foodshares. We are an environmental charity that collects good surplus food from local suppliers to save it from going to waste. The food is redistributed to local groups who can put it to good use and to community Foodshares where everyone is welcome to collect a few bags of food. What we do benefits planet and people. Find your nearest Foodshare here. If you are in financial crisis and need food parcels, household items or free debt and money advice, support and information is available at Shropshire Larder.

What kind of surplus food do you accept?

We accept bakery items, fruit + veg, eggs, dairy products (e.g. milk, cheese, butter, cream, yoghurts), fresh meat and fish, chilled food (e.g. ready meals), and frozen food. We can put most food to good use.

How much surplus food is out there?

Globally, a third of all food produced is thrown away. When food is wasted, so is the water, energy, labour, transportation, manufacture, and packaging. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China. Experts have concluded that reducing food waste is the third most effective solution to fighting climate change. We are a small charity from a small town making a big impact on the challenge we face – by redistributing surplus food we are helping planet and people.

How many people does Shrewsbury Food Hub help?

Based on feedback from our community partners and Foodshares, we estimate that our food reaches at least 3,300 people a week.

I heard the Food Hub buys in extra surplus, is that right?

Our mission is to redistribute surplus food that we collect from local suppliers for environmental and social good. We save surplus food from going to waste and share it with our local community – benefiting planet and people. During Covid, we switched to a 7-day a week operation, set up more Foodshare tables and became a member of Fareshare, which is a national organisation that intercepts and redistributes surplus food to support charities and community groups across the county. Our membership enabled us to access this surplus food to supplement the amount of food we were able to collect from local suppliers – the membership fee goes towards their redistribution costs. The surplus we collect from our nearest Fareshare in Birmingham increases the quantity and nutritional value of the food providing valuable support to our community during the pandemic. We had planned to stop the purchase of extra surplus from FareShare in April 2022, but due to the cost of living crisis and deepening economic pressure for families, we decided to continue this additional support, however, we regularly review this decision. As with all the surplus food that we put to good use, our Fareshare surplus is logged so that we can track the impact of our work environmentally, as environmental care is our main priority. Our carbon calculations are based on carbon embedded in each food type and we deduct emissions associated with our mileage (including trips to FareShare). In 2022/23, we saved 555 tonnes of CO2 at a cost of 18 tonnes of CO2. This means that for every tonne of CO2 we emit, we cause almost 30 tonnes of CO2 to be saved. For a small charity, we are making a big difference!