'Pay-as-you-feel' supermarket sees Birmingham demand soar

The food, all within its use before date, is currently being handed over to customers pre-bagged

A community supermarket that offers shoppers a chance to "pay-as-you-feel" says it has seen demand soar since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Incredible Surplus sources food from supermarkets and restaurants destined for landfill and distributes it to individuals and community groups.

Between March and September, it said it had helped almost 85,000 people and distributed 569 tonnes of food.

The figures are more than double those for the same period of 2019.

Incredible Surplus, which is a Community Interest Company, runs four pop-up shops around Birmingham and Solihull.

They also prepare meals from the food in cafes, which operate on the same "pay-as-you-feel" terms.

During the pandemic, it has also distributed food through Brum Together, a coalition of voluntary groups in the city.

Dibah Farooqui, from Incredible Surplus, said: "It's quite disheartening actually, especially when you see it coming in off the van, how much there is, to realise that would have ended up in landfill or animal feed.

"But we turn it into something positive," he added.

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Before the start of the first lockdown, people were allowed to browse the shelves, but are now given pre-prepared bags of food.

Some of those speaking outside a pop-up store at Kings Heath Community Centre said the food had made finances stretch further, while others highlighted food waste as the reason for visiting.