Charity working with farmers to cut harvest waste

Roz Scott works with farmers through the charity Still Good Food to help eliminate food waste

A charity is helping farmers to cut down on food waste during their harvest.

Still Good Food, which is based in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, collects unused produce from the farms across the county and in Cambridgeshire.

It then sells the food in its two shops or offers it to other projects that help school children or the homeless.

Roz Scott, the charity's project director, said she had received a "fantastic response" from farmers on the initiative.

"It's really exciting working with local farmers getting their surplus produce after harvest and bringing it back into Bury St Edmunds - into our shop in Great Barton also - and getting good, fresh, local produce into people for a good price," she told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"My background is in farming and farmers' markets.

"I was one of the people who set this project up and I thought, 'Hang on, we're in an agricultural community,' and it makes great sense to contact local farmers to get their surplus as well as working with the supermarkets.

"I've had a fantastic response and we now work with seven or eight farmers mainly in Suffolk with a couple in Cambridgeshire, and we're getting harvest from them after they finish."

'Open to anybody'

The charity also works with supermarkets and collects food that is either approaching or past its best before date.

Produce is sold from their shops in Bury St Edmunds and Great Barton and these operate on a 'pay as you feel' donation.

Some items that are high in value or have a long shelf life are limited to one per person, but generally customers are able to have as much as they want.

"We have a range of customers, we are open to anybody," said Kerry Stewart, the Bury St Edmunds shop manager.

"We are not a foodbank, we are an environmental project, so we try and stress that we are open to anybody.

"We do help a lot of people with the cost of living crisis but we also have people that love cooking from scratch and enjoy cooking with wonky veg."

The charity urges people to check their website for opening times which can vary.