The Craft Room’s 2024 Surplus Food Achievement

2024 was a fantastic year for The Craft Room’s work tackling food waste and supporting local families. Working in partnership with Neighbourly, we were able to turn surplus food and other unwanted items into real community benefit.

Together, we rescued an incredible 5 tonnes of food from landfill, equivalent to 13,582 meals, while also rescuing over 1 tonne of non-food waste. This meant perfectly good food and products could be put to use rather than going to waste.

The impact went beyond food redistribution. During the year, we were able to cook 1,200 healthy meals for children from low-income families, helping ensure that children attending our programmes had nutritious food while they were with us. We also hosted two community events, bringing people together while making use of surplus resources.

None of this would have been possible without the commitment of our five volunteers and dedicated Board of Trustees, who gave their time and energy to make the project work. We were also incredibly grateful for the support of local businesses and our Neighbourly partnerships, including B&Q, Lidl and Aldi.

These figures show what can be achieved when charities, businesses, volunteers and the wider community work together. What might otherwise have become waste was instead transformed into meals, resources and practical support for local families.

We are incredibly proud of what we achieved in 2024 and look forward to continuing to find new ways to reduce waste, support our community and make every resource go further. 💚