£1m voyage of discovery on food waste

£1m voyage of discovery on food waste

We’re helping households across Britain find ways of cutting food waste – as communities bid for a share of £1m funding from our Waste less, Save more programme.

We’re committed to helping customers reduce food waste. That’s why we launched a food waste initiative to trial food-saving tactics in the town of Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

The test phase came to an end in 2016 and in 2017 we went national, taking the project to more than 140 ‘Discovery Communities’ across the country. Their challenge, like Swadlincote before them, is to find ways of reducing food waste and bringing down the cost of the food shop as a result. We’ve given these Discovery Communities the chance to bid for a share of £1m in funding, to continue the work started in Swadlincote.

Discovering more

The Discovery Communities have free rein. They can opt to carry out any of the successful initiatives we trialled in Swadlincote, or they could even try entirely new waste-saving ideas of their own.

To help, we produced an ‘inspiration guide’ with updates from Swadlincote and ideas on how to run similar activities.

For example, if communities want to emulate the Fab Foods idea – an education project for local schools – the guide recommends having an enthusiastic person to drive the campaign forward.

Or they could take inspiration elsewhere – such as from Southend in Essex, where Sainsbury's supported Jamie Oliver and Jimmy Doherty’s recent launch of a Community Fridge, after we rolled out a similar scheme in Swadlincote.

Jamie Oliver with Southend Sainsbury’s colleagues

Welcoming the newcomers

We’ve worked hard to encourage Discovery Communities to take action. 

In April 2016, we held an event in Derbyshire attended by people from communities all over the UK. 

With more than 140 Discovery Communities now on board, we’ve prepared welcome packs to help communities set up their own versions of the Swadlincote model.

In addition to the funding up for grabs, to help new communities we can offer access to experts on food waste, including ambassadors from Swadlincote.

There’ll be two national Food Saver Champions who can help get campaigns going. To trail blaze the scheme, we’ll also nominate a Waste Warrior in Sainsbury’s stores in each community.

These range from free and simple programmes, through to more complex and tech-based options, meaning there are options to suit every town and every budget. Of course, we’ll also be further supporting projects by making £1 million in funding available to communities.

140+

Discovery Communities – from Edinburgh to Truro.