Doing our part to reduce food waste

This week we’re celebrating our Round About Café Pantry’s nomination for the Travis Perkins Social Value Awards. We've been nominated for our impact on reducing food waste in the community. This year we will have saved 10,000kgs of food, which is the equivalent weight of an ambulance! 

Social Value is extremely important to our organisation and the communities we serve. It helps us to measure and quantify the social impact of our work on customer’s lives where we can’t usually measure this in monetary terms.

We recently spoke to Diep, a volunteer at the café, about her journey as a member of the Pantry and how she takes part in reducing food waste.

“I’ve done a lot of volunteering before in places such as the General Hospital as a Vietnamese interpreter, a charity called Caraway making tea and coffees and chatting to people with dementia, as well as the League of Friends Café at Royal South Hants Hospital. 

I started volunteering here after I visited the café to take part in a craft course. I don’t live in the area, so it was the first time I had been to the café, and it seemed like a welcoming place. Cara mentioned they were looking for more volunteers, so I left my details. Now I volunteer once a week at Round About Café which suits me well as I have other commitments.

The best thing about the café is it’s such a friendly place and the activities and events that are run for the community are a bonus. I’m also a member of the Community Pantry and I’d never heard of one before I joined and think it’s a fantastic idea. I wish more people knew about it and used it.

I’ve done some training whilst volunteering here, including Barista training and Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene. I’m a keen gardener so I take home the used coffee grounds for my garden to keep the slugs off and eggshells to use on my orchids. It’s good to know they don’t go to waste.

I’ve taken part in lots of activities held at the café; at Christmas I made a beautiful wreath to go on my door. The activities are great for the community and a good way to meet people.”

Click here for a full report on our achievements from 2023-24.