Join Abby to find out more about food poverty and food waste.
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00:00Hello, I'm Abbey and welcome to News Nuggets. In this episode we'll be learning about food
00:25poverty and food waste. Let's start with food poverty. More and more people are struggling
00:31to pay for their food shops. In 2023 Medway Food Bank fed almost 7,000 children. Food charity the
00:40Trussell Trust said that across the whole of the UK 1.1 million children needed help getting access
00:47to food in the space of a year and that need is going up. We investigated why this is the case
00:54alongside our News Nuggets, Chelsea and Logan. I'm at Gillingham Street Angels Food Bank to see how
01:05they're helping people and why more and more families are needing to use food banks. I met
01:11with Neil to find out more about what they do to help the community. Food banks for when people
01:15are struggling, people have hard times, it's a plan B for people to just give a bit of support when
01:19they need it. There's about 25,000 people a month now access food banks and that's just us. There's
01:24lots of organisations in Medway that do help. It's gone up a lot. Prices have gone up, fuel's gone up,
01:29electricity's gone up. The fuel that heats up your home and the electricity that gives you Wi-Fi
01:33and keeps your lights on because you use them more in the winter, they're more expensive. Prices are also
01:39going up because of things going on in the world. This includes the petrol that gets you to and from
01:45school. What are these here, these clothes? Are they available for anyone to take? These are all clothes
01:49that are given to us. People can come along, help themselves. A bit of school uniform in here. And then what
01:54have you got up here? This is actually some fresh produce. You've got lots of bread here. Every day, you know,
01:59it'll all go. There's kiwis there, there's broccoli, there's mangoes. And Neil, since we've been here, there's
02:03actually a queue starting to form. A queue starts about an hour before we do, so people get it very early in the
02:08morning. People are desperate. People are worried they're going to not get food. Now we know more about how food banks
02:13help the local community. I've invited the Newsnuggets down to help me pack a food parcel. Hi Newsnuggets.
02:20Hi Abi. Shall we go into the food bank and see what type of food they have and what goes into something
02:26like a food parcel? So what kind of food waste do you want donated here? Ideally, I like things people
02:32can cook. So vegetables, meat, potatoes, things that people can make fresh, healthy meals from. One time
02:37in DT, we made soup. Chicken, tomato and... Fresh tomatoes. Yeah.
02:44That's a really good way of getting lots of different vegetables into one dish. Are you cooking for your parents tonight then?
02:50No. I cook for my parents sometimes.
02:52How many families and people our eggs use food banks?
02:56We do a soup kitchen on a Wednesday here. There's a lot of children come along who just need a meal. People then maybe take the mick out of someone who can't afford to buy food
03:04themselves and people have to use food banks. You know, be kind to people, be nice to people and help.
03:08Did you expect it to be like this? No. I didn't think there would be this much food that has been left over.
03:14I'm a part of the student council in my school but I'm not really sure what our council and Medway are doing about it.
03:20They've got a couple of funds set up where they can give money to people who need it.
03:23What about the central government Neil? Are they doing enough?
03:27I think they probably should support local councils a lot more.
03:30Neil gave us some food for thought there and it was time to pack our food parcel, something that is usually
03:36given out to families. We'll start with the mountain of avocados here. Scoop it out, on toast.
03:42Bread, go on and grab those rolls, put those in the box. Kiwis there, do you want to get some of those?
03:46Yeah. Do you guys like kiwis? Never try any kiwi. Sometimes you can actually eat the skin. Less waste.
03:53There we go. And broccoli, do you want to get some broccoli? Yep. Carrots. Carrots.
03:58Hey your favourite Logan, go on grab some carrots. So this is some of the tin stuff and this will last
04:02a bit longer won't it? Green lentils and... What are lentils Neil? What are we using lentils for?
04:08Lentils can be used for lots of things. You can put them into soups, stews. There's people who will come
04:12who've got say four children so they're feeding a family of six and there's people who just come on
04:16their own. We deal with street homeless people, schools, the fire brigade, the police, the NHS.
04:21That was a lot of leftover food and donating it is great for the community and the environment.
04:31In the UK we waste almost 10 million tonnes of food a year. That's two million elephants or a thousand
04:39Eiffel Towers and enough to feed everyone who's in food poverty. Bread and potatoes are some of the most
04:46wasted foods. You can also ask your local council for a food waste bin. This is a little bin that's
04:53separate from your general waste one. Here in Kent instead of going to landfill where gases are
04:58released that are bad for the environment, what's inside your food waste bin gets turned into biogas
05:04which can be used as green fuel. But did you know that farms are responsible for 15% of food waste in
05:11the UK? That is so much food. We invited a farm quality checker to Logan and Chelsea's school so we
05:19could all have a big chat about food. Let's go see our news nuggets. You ready to meet our guest?
05:31Yeah! Hello! Hello! In the box here we have some strawberries. We have some big mandarins, some oranges
05:41that are very very sweet and this, do you know what is this? I thought so. No? Grapefruit. Yes it's a very
05:51sweet grapefruit and this small with leaves, clementines. And we couldn't wait any longer. We had to try the strawberries.
05:59That is massive. I want regular sized strawberry. What do we think? Are they good? Yeah. So these strawberries, although they are really nice and we're all enjoying them a lot, they're not actually from Kent because it's not the season here for strawberries yet. Where do they come from?
06:13That's true. These specific strawberries are from Spain. It's way hotter than here and we bring the strawberries
06:20in these big big blueberries. They are very cold inside, like five degrees. We bring them here from different
06:29farmers across the world. How much food do you grow? Think of this school, yeah? Your school is pretty big, isn't it?
06:35Like that big and you will be able to pick strawberries and raspberry from June to latest October every day and sell it.
06:44What do you do with food waste and what can we do? If we have too much food, we're going to give
06:51this to charity. Do not buy more food than you needed. Or if it's moldy or raw, it is composted.
06:59You can also compost too. Get yourself a bin, layer some twigs and then your food waste or grass and then some
07:06manure. It stinks but it's got lots of nutrients. Make sure to keep it moist and you're sorted.
07:12Logan, Chelsea and I joined Teo to tell the class about our experience at the food bank.
07:18So we recently went to a food bank to see exactly how food waste is given out to the community here
07:23in Medway. And while we were there actually, we were fairly early in the morning and lots of people
07:28turned up. Lots of people needed the food bank that day. Yeah, because there was a big queue outside.
07:32We spoke to Neil and he told us that he's seeing lots more people come from the community that he never
07:36would have thought would be there and need that service. Who can give food to food banks?
07:41Well, pretty much anyone. And farmers too. The government are trying to get more farmers to
07:45donate their food waste, aren't they? Yes, it's true. So our farm donates every year, all the time.
07:51Do you think there's enough food banks? Well, when we met Neil, he was very busy,
07:56so we might need more. And more people and more companies and more farms donated to those food banks.
08:02Neil from Gillingham Food Bank mentioned earlier that he thinks the central government can do more
08:11to help people. We did some research and one way that they are hoping to help is by giving farmers
08:18money so they can donate food that would otherwise go to waste. But is this enough to help?
08:24I visited Brogdale Farm. They collect all kinds of apples. There were some left on the trees when
08:33I visited, even though it was out of season. I met Debbie from food charity Fair Share and Farmer
08:39John to ask what farms should do with all their leftovers. It looks like there's a lot of apples
08:45here that are going to go to waste. It's disappointing, but unfortunately the size of the apple
08:51and probably the timing of it just means that we weren't able to pick it in time. That would have
08:56been fun for us to come and glean that sort of thing because we would pick that and send that to
09:01schools or charities. John and I are going to have a conversation later and see if we can sort that
09:05problem out for next year. And can you explain exactly what gleaning is and what that involves?
09:09Part of my role is to contact farmers in the local area because I know that there's a lot of fruit
09:14on trees that doesn't get picked. Ask them if they allow a small team of volunteers to come and
09:19actually pick that fruit. Fair Share in Kent for the last two years has picked an average of about 10
09:25tonnes. And where does that go? We have a warehouse in Ashford and then we have about 150 charities all
09:31over Kent. And what do you both think about farms here in the UK generating about 15% of food waste?
09:37It's a big figure. It is, yeah. Disappointing. I would, I don't know if you'd agree, but we
09:43think a lot of that is down to a lot of supermarkets. I've been gleaning cauliflowers with heads that
09:48are absolutely enormous, that are too big for them. So the government are investing 15 million
09:53pounds to try and get farms to share their waste product with places like food banks. How good do
10:00you think that's going to be and how much of a difference do you think that's going to make?
10:03It's a very small amount, I think, because that's a national figure. But if it does go and help in some
10:09way, you know, I would say anything is better than nothing. Absolutely. Do you think enough
10:14children and people know that they have the right to food and the right to eat?
10:18I don't know if enough people know that there is a right to food, probably not. And if we can do
10:24something about getting some more fresh produce into those people that really need it, then, you know,
10:29it's a job well done. How can you tell when an apple's gone too far, you cannot eat it at all?
10:35There's ones like this one here where it's shriveled up. There's other ones where they've
10:40got holes in, either a bird's pecked it or there's insects or bugs inside it. What about that one
10:45there? That looks pretty shiny, but would you eat that? A little bit small. Can I taste it?
10:52Tastes really fresh. Yeah. That's it. There you go. Perfect snack for a lunchbox. Right, cheers.
11:00Cheers. A small one. Cheers. Now it's time for the ketchup quiz. How many tons of food do we waste
11:13each year? What should we do with our food waste? Where can you go if you need help and can't afford
11:22your food shop? Name three items you can put in a food parcel. How do you think you can help reduce
11:30food waste? I hope you were all able to answer those questions. Thank you for watching and we'll see
11:37you next time for more News Nuggets.