A supermarket in Dover, Kent, is taking on the foods that supermarkets throw away – and is selling them for just 10p a pop.
Now with an extra delivery of items donated when a manufacturing error produced too many, the store is offering a ‘pay what you like’ scheme.
A Shopping Revolution
Those with food retail jobs who are concerned about waste will be happy to learn of the existence of Niftie’s. The supermarket takes on foods which are perfectly edible and yet have been rejected by supermarkets, selling them at a much reduced price to help stamp out food waste.
The social supermarket has been a runaway success since opening in 2016. The founder of the project, Nathaniel Richards, hopes that his efforts will help to stamp out food waste – as well as providing low-income families with an option to fill their cupboards for as little as £5.
Most of the food is deemed not suitable to go into the supermarket because it is past its sell by date, close to the date, or too “ugly” for supermarket shelves. Farmers often give vegetables which are two small, too large, or the wrong shape for the big retailers to take.
Most of the products cost between 10p and 70p, a fraction of their original price. Richards started the project after his own experience with food banks. The project has been so much of a success that the supermarket is set to star in a documentary based around the day to day running and how it was set up.
“’It’s gone so well. We’ve been inundated from across the country,” Richards said. There is definitely a need for support for families across the country. The idea is that the families who are struggling to get by get support and the supermarkets don’t throw stuff away.”
Supermarkets have often been urged to use PVC Curtains to combat food expiration dates.
The project has already saved 100 tonnes of edible food from being binned.
Huge New Donation
The supermarket is hitting headlines again due to a massive donation of 230 tonnes of perishable food. The food came in pallets containing loaves, buns, cakes, onions, and cauliflowers. It was all the result of an oversight which saw far too much food being produced by the manufacturers. A factory in Sheffield made the production error and subsequently donated the items.
Richards is now offering a pay as you like scheme both at the store and online, to ensure that the goods can be claimed in time.
“I have 230 pallets of food which I need help to shift,” he said. “I’m calling on charities nationwide to get in touch so we can try and get these breaded items out to those who need it. There’s nothing wrong with it. Someone pressed a few too many zeros on the production line and the firm got in touch and asked me for help to clear it. We basically have an absolute maximum of three weeks to get rid of it before it is past it’s use by date. We also have two tonnes of onions and another two tonnes of cauliflower which were deemed not suitable for supermarkets so the farmers have given to us so it doesn’t go to waste.”
It’s an innovative idea that anyone interested in food recruitment should be paying attention to. If it goes well, we could see a boom of similar projects across the UK – similar to the inundation of pound stores, or 99p shops, which have flooded the nation due to their popularity during the recession. This could mean a whole new outlet of food jobs in the very near future.
