Hubbub expands Food Connect to London

Embargoed until 00.01 hours Monday 21st March 2022

Food Connect Southwark launches to tackle food waste, create green jobs and share surplus food as cost of living rises •

Hubbub expands Food Connect following success of initiative in Milton Keynes

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Low-carbon redistribution service to tackle food waste and share surplus with local residents faced with rising cost of living

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Albrighton Community Centre to act as main hub for service

Environmental charity Hubbub is expanding its Food Connect initiative to Southwark in partnership with the Mayor of London, Albrighton Community Centre and Southwark Council.

Food Connect will use an electric van and e-bikes to tackle the ‘final mile’ challenge of helping retailers to reduce their food waste by ensuring surplus good food is quickly and efficiently shared with the residents in the area rather than being thrown away. The surplus food will be redistributed via the Camberwell Community Fridge operated by the Albrighton Community Centre. It is estimated that over 300,000 meals’ worth of food could be shared annually thanks to the new initiative.

The launch of the low carbon redistribution service in Southwark follows the success of the initiative in Milton Keynes, where in its first year it saved 240 tonnes of good food from waste.

Albrighton Community Centre will be the focal point of the project as it already provides much needed services to over 400 local residents a week, including running vaccination drives and providing citizens advice. Its community fridge is a space where anyone can exchange or pick up good food that would otherwise go to waste. It currently shares up to eight tonnes of food a month and the local coordinators have seen an increase in visitors as the cost of living crisis is starting to bite.

Thanks to the electric vehicles and a team of employed drivers and a co-ordinator, Food Connect will help increase the centre’s capacity and boost its impact in many ways:

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The dedicated Food Connect team will help secure greater volumes and variety of food.

In Milton Keynes, 50% of the redistributed food consists of fruit and veg.

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Switching to an e-van will result in transport efficiencies and carbon savings, as food collections have previously been done by volunteers in their own cars. The fully electric service in Milton Keynes resulted in estimated transport emission savings of 8 tonnes in the first year.

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The initiative will free up volunteers’ time to focus on more socially-focused initiatives, such as projects that tackle loneliness, promote learning new skills and healthy eating, as well as identifying new retail partners and other local groups in need of food for their visitors.

Helen Innes, Project Co-ordinator for Food Connect said: “We are thrilled to be rolling out Food Connect to Southwark, creating green jobs and working with Albrighton Community Centre and establish a more reliable and varied supply of healthy food to the local community. The low carbon fleet will not only help reduce carbon emission, but it will also reduce the pressure on the volunteers who would be making journeys by foot, taxi or car to pick up the surplus food. We look forward to helping local retailers distribute more surplus food to those who need it, whilst supporting the need for cleaner air.”

Jackie Mustoe, Centre Manager at Albrighton Community Centre, said: “The demand for Albrighton Community Centre’s services skyrocketed during the pandemic, and our amazing volunteers worked tirelessly to provide support and food to people who need it.

This is a very exciting time for us as Food Connect will help increase our capacity so we can grow our services.”

Councillor Evelyn Akoto, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Southwark Council, said: “This is such a common-sense approach to addressing so many modernday issues and echoes a time when we could more easily knock on a neighbour’s door to share food, offer a helping hand, or where someone could ask for help if they were in need – it is how a community should be. I am proud of the local residents who already use and support the Albrighton Centre. The fact that this expanded service means that shops and supermarkets will reduce waste and that the project supports environmental sustainability is all the better. It’s great to see the Albrighton Centre building on its experience as a community fridge and leading the way with Hubbub to test the Food Connect model in Southwark.”

Deputy Mayor for Environment and Energy, Shirley Rodrigues, said: “This fantastic project, with funding from the Mayor of London, demonstrates how environmental action can help tackle the cost of living crisis as we work to cut emissions from both food waste and last mile deliveries.

Food Connect will bring an innovative new approach to reducing food waste by providing healthy meals to Londoners affected by rising energy and food costs. In the process it will create new green jobs, using electric vehicles and cargo bikes to redistribute surplus food.”

Food Connect in Southwark is funded by Hubbub, the Mayor of London and Southwark Council. The partners aim to demonstrate the benefits of a model which can be replicated across London communities.

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For more information, please contact: Maria Kortbech | maria.kortbech@barleycommunications.co.uk | 07952 507270

ABOUT FOOD CONNECT Food Connect is a zero-emissions redistribution service run by Hubbub. The project uses a small fleet of e-cargo bikes and an e-van to share surplus food from local businesses with the community.

Community groups such as members of Hubbub’s Community Fridge Network rely on volunteers to collect surplus from retailers and other businesses, and collection times and the volumes of food can be a real challenge. Food Connect was set up to support that ‘final mile’ in food redistribution.

The pilot took place in Milton Keynes, between September 2020 to February 2021. Food Connect also ran a Covid response service during the first lockdown and has since been awarded the Global Good Awards Bronze award for COVID Crisis Champions of 2021.

In year one six new green jobs were created and the team saved over 240 tonnes of good food from going to waste – the equivalent of almost 575,000 meals!

The food saved was associated with at least 600 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, while the use of electric vehicles avoided 8 tonnes of transport emissions.

A B O U T H U B B U B Hubbub is an award-winning charity and social enterprise that inspires ways of living that are good for the environment - disrupting the status quo to raise awareness, nudge behaviours and shape systems. Their aim is to revolutionise communications with the public about environmental issues - using everyday language and good design to make environmental actions desirable and tapping into things people are passionate about such as food, fashion, homes and neighbourhoods. This innovative approach saw Hubbub win the Charity of the Year Award at the prestigious Charity Times Awards in 2020.

Since its formation in 2014, Hubbub has delivered more than 60 trailblazing environmental campaigns in collaboration with over 700 partners, helping to shift the national debate on key environmental issues such as food waste, sustainable fashion, air pollution and recycling. Hubbub’s campaigns include #LeedsByExample which brought together 25 of the UK’s largest companies to boost recycling on the high street, a 3-year partnership with IKEA to create the world’s largest consumer-facing sustainability campaign ‘Live Lagom’ and creating a Network of 250 Community Fridges across the UK, each redistributing on average 2.4 tonnes of food every month that would otherwise have gone to waste. https://www.hubbub.org.uk/ Twitter: @hubbubuk Facebook: @HubbubUK

Instagram: @helloHubbub LinkedIn: Hubbub-UK

ABOUT COMMUNITY FRIDGE NETWORK Founded by Hubbub in July 2017, the Community Fridge Network (CFN) and fridges within the Network have been funded by backers including The National Lottery Community Fund. Liebherr has been the major donor of fridge appliances.

The network provides a free support service for any group setting up or running a Community Fridge. It aims to make it easier for new projects to become established, and to help the concept flourish across the UK and beyond.

Members of the CFN:

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Are legally registered and have public liability insurance.

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Agree to capture and report back on impact every 3 months, using the simple measurement framework provided by Hubbub.

Register their fridge as a Food Business and receive a hygiene rating.

Risk assess and demonstrate that their health and safety procedures have the approval of their local Environmental Health Officer.