Honiton community group aiming for zero food waste and hunger over Christmas

A community group in Honiton has recently launched with the aim of making the town and its surrounding area food waste and hunger free.

Honiton Foodsave, set up and launched in late November by Jake Bonetta, works in partnership with businesses and the Honiton community to collect and sort food, ready for distribution to other community organisations and individuals on a no-questions-asked basis.

All items given away by Honiton Foodsave are free and available to everyone in the community, and no referral or invitation is needed.

Since running their first collection on 30th November, Honiton Foodsave volunteers have already collected and distributed well over 300 items of food destined for the bin in supermarkets. Saving these items also means that the group have so far saved over 100k litres of water in food production.

The group continues to grow from strength to strength, and are now running three collection sessions a week.

The founder of the organisation, Jake Bonetta, is particularly excited to see the speed at which the initiative is growing.

"It has been awe-inspiring seeing the power of the Honiton community coming together to allow this initiative to happen.

"Since launching two weeks ago, we have already started collections of good, surplus food from Tesco and Co-op and have many more exciting plans in the pipeline towards our goal of reducing food poverty and food waste."

"The Waste and Resource Action Programme (WRAP) estimates that over £20 billion worth of food is wasted around the UK every year.

"In tandem with other fantastic local groups, such as SAVE Food Hub in Seaton and the Ottery Larder, we are hopeful that our piece in the puzzle can help to reduce this immense wastage of perfectly useable and edible food."

"We are very thankful for the kindness shown by the team at St. Paul's Church, who have allowed us to use the Mackarness Hall whilst it is closed for hire.

"I also want to thank TRIP Community Transport Association for their help and support whilst we get firmly on our feet, and the wider Honiton community for their generosity with donating fridges and freezers."

Running from 8:45pm until 10:00pm on Mondays and Thursdays and from 4:30pm until 5:30pm on Sundays, anyone can use the OLIO website and app to claim food and then collect it from the Mackarness Hall.

However, if you are unable to access the app, the group want to emphasise that anyone can still come down to the Hall during the above times and they will accommodate your needs.

If you would like to get involved with the group's efforts to reduce food waste, or you have a general query, find them on Facebook by searching @HonitonFoodsave or email them at [email protected].