City Harvest
City Harvest: Saving surplus food from landfill to feed thousands of vulnerable people in London and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Sustainable solutions for food waste
Every month in London surplus food that could create 13.3 million meals is sent to landfill by manufacturers, retailers, restaurants and the hospitality industry. Kusuma Trust is proud to support City Harvest’s work to redirect this waste with a grant of £50,000.
City Harvest rescues over 80 tonnes of nutritious surplus food a week and provides it free of
charge to over 350 organisations who support vulnerable men, women and children in London. Not only does City Harvest’s work help to feed people in homeless shelters, hostels, soup kitchens, schools and domestic abuse refuges, but it also prevents the catastrophic environmental effects of this food waste. Food in landfill releases methane, a greenhouse gas which, according to the UN Environment Programme, is 80 times more potent at warming our atmosphere than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. By saving food from landfill, City Harvest has prevented over 57,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases from being released into the atmosphere.
Saving food to help people and planet
City Harvest will collect over 3,300 tonnes of surplus food over the course of 2022-2023
delivering over 8 million meals to around 60,000 people. The grant from Kusuma Trust will
help them to increase partnerships with food donors and source as many meals as possible,
maintaining 35% of fresh fruit and vegetables in the meals provided. These meals will save
the charities that City Harvest supports over ÂŁ16 million, money they can spend on other
vital services. By saving food from landfill, City Harvest will prevent over 12,800 tonnes of
greenhouse gas emissions.
City Harvest has plans for expansion. In 2022-23 they will increase their New Spitalfields Market depot by 30% so that they can help more charities in East London and deliver 320,000 more meals a year. They are also planning to open a depot in South London to increase City Harvest’s support for people south of the Thames.
• City Harvest has delivered more than 35 million nutritious meals and rescued over 15,000 tonnes of food since 2014.
• Organic waste in landfill sites adds an estimated 3.3 billion tonnes of greenhouse gases to the Earth’s atmosphere each year. • City Harvest has saved its partners more than £42 million in food costs.
“City Harvest is on the front line against food waste, food poverty and the environmental impact of greenhouse gases. We have big ambitions for combatting food waste in 2022-23. Kusuma Trust’s support will make a real difference to the people we help.” David Carter, Chief Executive, City Harvest