whg rescues food from landfill to give to customers

Items of food worth almost £9,000 that were destined for landfill have been rescued by Walsall Housing Group (whg) and shared between hundreds of its customers.

Eligible whg customers, who met the selection criteria or were referred by colleagues, received a food hamper packed by colleague volunteers.

Four hundred parcels were made up during a special week-long version of whg’s Community Benefit Day where colleagues carry out work for the good of the area.

The parcels included damson jam, marmalade, rice pudding, flapjacks, brownies, pasta sauce and pasta, peas and baked beans. The items would otherwise have gone to landfill sites for a number of reasons such as an imminent best before date or having been packaged wrongly.

A further 100 boxes, plus additional items of food, were sent to organisations working with the homeless and this took the total amount of food salvaged to 8.5 tonne.

Groups to benefit were Hi’s ‘n Lows, The Glebe Centre, The Transition Team (part of Walsall Integrated Learning Disability Team), Green Lane Baptist Church and Dolphin House Homeless Project.

Paul Mason, whg’s regeneration programme manager, organised the goodwill gesture.

He said: “It has been very well received. I’ve had a number of calls and letters of thanks so it has been worthwhile. The project has helped address issues of financial inclusion at a time many people are feeling financial pressure. It was targeted at customers who would benefit most.”

The social landlord worked with Lincolnshire-based charity His Church to deliver the annual project. The charity works with a number of food banks around the country to redirect tinned goods destined for landfill to communities in need.

Richard Humphrey, senior co-ordinator at His Church, said: “We are delighted to hear that our partnership with whg continues to contribute towards the prosperity of Walsall and its residents.

“whg’s distribution has been excellent; both generously supporting their residents and other Walsall charities. We look forward to supporting whg’s overall capacity building programme this year, including increasing people's skills around healthier eating.”

The project, supported by Links to Work and financed by VIEW (a regeneration fund held jointly by whg and Walsall Council), also had environmental benefits as it reduced the amount of food going unnecessarily to landfill.