Press release, [embargo] Tuesday 26th November 2019
LET’S FIGHT FOOD WASTE TOGETHER! • Pioneering Food Savvy campaign calls on more businesses and residents across Norfolk and Suffolk to get involved.
• Campaign builds on successful first year with exciting new activity programme. • Food Savvy aims to reduce the £810 of edible food the average household wastes each year.
• New polling shows most people in Norfolk and Suffolk are unaware that food waste is a significant contributor to climate change.
Residents and communities across Norfolk and Suffolk are being urged to get involved in Food Savvy, a pioneering two-year campaign that is tackling food waste in the region. Food waste is a major contributor to climate change but only 38% of people are aware that this is the case according to a new survey of over 2000 residents across the two counties1. Only 15% correctly agreed that food waste has more of an impact on climate change than plastic and 60% said they were more concerned about the plastic issue than the amount of food we throw away. The survey also showed that the biggest cause of food waste in the home was not getting around to using items before their use-by date with 49% of Norfolk and Suffolk residents admitting this. 70% say they feel frustrated or sad when they throw food that could have been eaten in the bin. Launched by Norfolk County Council, the Suffolk Waste Partnership and environmental charity Hubbub in September 2018, Food Savvy aims to reduce the £810 worth of edible food East Anglian residents are wasting each year – 60% of which is avoidable2. In its first year, Food Savvy has secured over 30 new partnerships, launched 9 campaigns, and been involved in 50 events across the two counties. The campaign is today calling on more members of the community - businesses, schools, community groups, as well as influencers like chefs, food celebrities, lifestyle bloggers and vloggers - to take the campaign to the next level and get involved in its range of engaging activities.
All Food Savvy activities have at their heart a focus on educating people about food waste’s monetary and environmental impact and giving them the knowledge and tools to make a difference. Activities to date include Halloween Pumpkin Rescue; a Christmas Festive Freeze campaign; community cooking programme Kitchen Love in collaboration with NEFF, fun, familyfriendly events like Banana Drama and Festive Freeze and employee engagement programmes such as Food Savvy Lunch Club and Food Savvy Lunch Off. Food Savvy’s year one impact report can be found here: https://www.foodsavvy.org.uk/about-1 (Live 26th Nov) A sample of the exciting activities coming up includes:
• A new collaboration with the East of England Co-op with simple, playful and practical information to help save food from the bin, including in store events and digital communications.
• Family friendly ‘Festive Freeze’ installations and games at a library near you - visit https:// www.foodsavvy.org.uk/savvyliving
• 10 local bloggers and vloggers taking on the Food Savvy Lunch challenge, including, Cassie Fairy, Life of Pye, Plastic Free Mummy and Life Diet Health.
• Local employers are invited to take part in the #FoodSavvy Lunch Off, helping their
employees to make good use of Food Savvy meal plans, recipes and resources with prizes for those who persevere.
• Local groups are invited to express their interest to set up a community fridge with support from the Food Savvy team.
To register interest, find out more and get involved in Food Savvy people can visit www. foodsavvy.org.uk and follow #FoodSavvy on social media. Food Savvy puts East Anglia at the forefront of the UK’s efforts to combat food waste and is the first time Norfolk and Suffolk councils have come together on a food initiative of this scale. When the campaign’s initial stage ends in September 2020, its most successful elements will be scaled up to meet the seven-year target of reducing food waste by 20% by 2025 in line with national framework, the Courtauld Commitment and the global Sustainable Development Goals. Trewin Restorick, CEO of Hubbub said: “Food waste is a vital issue to tackle; it not only impacts our wallets, it’s a massive contributor to climate change, responsible for 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions3. The enthusiastic response residents have given Food Savvy so far has been fantastic and we’re now keen to get even more people involved in the campaign’s
second year. We’d encourage anyone wanting to do their bit to reduce food waste to visit the website for more tips and information.” Helen White from Love Food Hate Waste said: “The food waste fight is not only an incredibly worthy cause, but it’s also an increasingly urgent one. The scale of the problem is huge, and the way to tackle it is together. Hubbub’s work with Norfolk and Suffolk has really got citizens thinking about wasted food in new and creative ways and Love Food Hate Waste looks forward to supporting its second year of activity and to seeing even more progress! From checking your fridge temperature to preventing a Banana Drama, we’re all working towards the same goal: keeping food out of the bin.” Kate Murrell, Waste Reduction and Recycling Manager Norfolk County Council said: “At the events across Norfolk over the past year we’ve found people have a real desire to cut food waste. Our Banana Drama tour attracted nearly 2000 households while more than 210 people have already completed the Food Savvy Challenge at home. And it’s great to see how the network of well used community fridges have grown to 13 in just the last year. We are really looking forward to sharing more exciting campaigns in 2020.” Rob Cole from the Suffolk Waste Partnership said: “It’s clear that food waste is an important problem which Suffolk residents want to tackle. The Food Savvy project is a fantastic way to achieve this, from innovative campaigns like Banana Drama to important new developments like the opening of Suffolk’s first community fridge. We’d love to see more residents and organisations come forward and get involved” Tips for households wanting to cut their food waste right away: 1. Plan ahead – Take a moment to think about the week ahead and when you’ll be eating at home. Plan a couple of meals in advance, make a shopping list and buy only what you need. 2. Check your fridge – Give your fridge the once over before you buy groceries to ensure you don’t double up. 3. Store food carefully – Storing food incorrectly can mean it goes off quicker. Research how to store fresh items to keep them at their best. 4. Make the most of your leftovers – If you cook too much or can’t finish a meal, pack it for lunch. Even if you’re eating out, ask for a ‘doggy bag’. 5. Love your freezer – If you cook too much or forget to eat something near its use by date, chances are you can freeze it and eat it later. Many popular fridge staples like cheese and milk can be frozen.
ENDS For more information please contact the Hubbub team at Barley Communications: Laura Harrison: laura.harrison@barleycommunications.co.uk, 07525 068378 Katy Raby: katy.raby@barleycommunications.co.uk, 07896 533547
NOTES TO EDITORS
1 Censuswide Survey took place in November 2019 and interviewed 2001 residents 18+ from across Norfolk and Suffolk 2 Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), 2017 http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Household%20food%20waste%20restated%20 data%202007-2015.pdf 3 World Wildlife Federation (WWF) https://www.worldwildlife.org/stories/fight-climate-change-by-preventing-food-waste
ABOUT HUBBUB Hubbub is a charity which explores innovative ways to interest mainstream consumers in important sustainability issues, through different ‘hubs’ of activity: Food; Fashion; Homes; Neighbourhoods. Hubbub’s previous campaigns have included #SquareMileChallenge, the UK’s first large scale solution to coffee cup recycling, #GiftABundle to get pre-loved baby clothes back into circulation and #PumpkinRescue to encourage more people to eat the carvings from their Halloween Pumpkins. Hubbub also runs the Community Fridge Network. www.hubbub.org.uk Twitter: @hubbubuk