How does food relate to sustainability?
Through the sustainable management of food, we can conserve resources for future generations, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, help businesses and consumers save money, and provide access to food for those who do not have enough to eat.
Take The Jump / Eat Green
This grassroots movement focuses on six life shifts that we can make to combat climate change. Eat Green is one of the shifts.
More than 25% of total global emissions arise from the food system. And it’s not just about climate change. If you look at biodiversity loss, land use change, fertilisers in the ocean creating dead zones and the massive extinction and loss of insects due to pesticides, these problems are all driven by industrialised food production.
This shift focuses on three changes we can make; two of these have been identified in the Project Drawdown report as the top two high-impact climate actions for households and individuals that together could reduce up to 25% of future greenhouse gases:
- Move to a mostly plant-based diet – replace most of the meat and dairy we eat with plant-based alternatives which are lower in overall emissions
- Stop throwing food away – make sure that we eat everything we buy or pass it on to someone who can use it
- Eat healthy amounts – don’t eat excessively, find the right amount for our body type and level of physical activity.
Check out this page for more on eating green and reducing food waste.
Community Fridges
Community fridges are inclusive, social food hubs, rescuing good food that would otherwise go to waste and making it freely available to the local community. They are typically part of the Community Fridge Network coordinated by Hubbub.
There is a growing number of these in Woking, complementing the work of food banks and community groceries in the borough.
Canalside Community Fridge , operating from Maybury, is one such fridge. It has been running since December 2022. The food it offers comes from a variety of sources:
- Weekly FareShare delivery of food that has become surplus before it has reached supermarket shelves and could be from a grower, a manufacturer or a retailer’s distribution centre
- (Best-before) surplus collected by volunteer drivers from local supermarkets and bakeries
- Surplus donated by the public, e.g. from their gardens/allotments or households. This includes surplus collected as part of the Don’t Let It Rot On The Plot project.
Other community fridges operating in the Woking area include Knaphill Community Fridge, West Byfleet Community Fridge and Westfield Community Fridge (on Facebook).
Community Gardening
This is a way of connecting through gardening, transforming our wellbeing and environment for the better. It may involve, e.g.:
- Connecting with the food we eat, by planting food crops in public spaces around Woking (as part of the Incredible Edible network) or
- conserving an area for wildlife.
Check out this page for more on what’s happening in Woking, including the growing number of community orchards.