Wakefield could be the first waste-free city in the world

Wakefield could be the first waste-free city in the world with the introduction of the district's first social supermarket.
The Real Junk Food Project in Sharrow.The Real Junk Food Project in Sharrow.
The Real Junk Food Project in Sharrow.

The Real Junk Food project (TRJFP) is an environmental project which aims to eliminate food waste by intercepting food bound for landfill. The food is still safe to eat, but may have passed its best before date or been declared surplus.

As young leave it falls to over 65s to run the charity sectorAnd now the project is planning to open a new supermarket, called #Kindness, on Denby Dale Road next month.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Adam Smith, who founded TRJFP in 2013, says that the project has already managed to organise collection of up to five tonnes of food each week in the Wakefield district.

He said: “It would be focused on opening for as many hours as possible. We want to get people into volunteer and employment opportunities, we really want to the entire community to grasp the idea.

“There’s something about Wakefield where they just kind of get on with stuff and people seem up for trying new stuff.

Over 800 people sign petition to save 200-year-old pub“We want to see a city in the UK become the first zero-waste city and with the support we’ve had here we’d love to see that city be Wakefield.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

TRJFP adopts a ‘Pay as You Feel’ policy on all their food, which means that items are not priced and customers simply pay what they feel is appropriate. Some pay with cash, while others volunteer their time to support the project. The project already operates a number of shops, known as sharehouses, and is looking to raise £2,000 to allow the supermarket to open next month. The money is needed to organise storage space inside the new unit.

TRJFP also invests time in a number of other projects, including visiting schools to educate children about food waste, providing a community fridge for hospitality companies to donate leftover food and work with foodbanks and charities to share their leftover surplus. In 2015, the UK threw away 7.3million tonnes of food. TRJFP wants to reduce this figure to zero and for people to buy and use food that would ordinarily be discarded.

For more, or to donate go to www.crowdfunder.co.uk and search for “#Kindness Wakefield.”