An Evening Standard food waste campaign, which raised £1 million in just eight days, has launched a call for funding applications.
The newspaper has unveiled a new £275,000 grants programme as part of its Food for London campaign to finance innovative groups tackling food waste and hunger in London.
Some £200,000 of the total was contributed by Citi banking group, with the remaining £75,000 donated by the Evening Standard Dispossessed Fund.
As of yesterday (Monday 26 September), charities, social enterprises, community groups and community interest groups were able to apply for grants of between £1,000 and £20,000, the Standard reported.
Projects are funded which find resourceful solutions to repurposing food waste and using it to feed those in need.People in the UK throw away 7 million tonnes of food and drink from their homes every year, and more than half of this is produce we could have eaten, according to food waste charity Wrap’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign.
The largest beneficiary of the newspaper’s wider food waste campaign has been its flagship charity The Felix Project, which received more than £800,000, taking the total amount raised by the Food for London initiative to £1.1 million.
The charity redistributes surplus fresh produce from food suppliers to charities – for the homeless, the elderly and those with mental health issues – free of charge.
The Standard’s editor Sarah Sands said: “This expansion of our campaign beyond The Felix Project is timely in that it will not only throw a spotlight on other groups leading the way with ingenious new solutions to wasted food and addressing hunger, but will also provide them with some much-needed additional revenue.”
James Bardrick, Citi group’s head in the UK, told the Standard: “London is a city with a history of innovation so I’ve no doubt we’re going to see some exciting solutions that impact positively — not only in this city, but also providing inspiration for others around the world.”
The bank is investing a further £60,000 to enable The London Community Foundation to give grant winners consultancy and guidance in growing their capacity.
The deadline for funding applications, which can be made through the London Community Foundation’s website, is 11 November.
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