Donate your gluts and surplus
Community groups and projects, such as fridges, pantries and community meal providers, can make use of fresh food surplus; gardeners, allotment holders and growing projects have gluts of produce and want to find a good home for it. We ask growers with food surplus to contact projects directly to arrange to donate their produce.
We have collected and shared information on groups across Somerset who can utilise surplus for a number of years and we are just updating this resource - contact us if you wish to be added.
Food surplus directory listings (In pdf format):
Please also visit the more recently collated Food Resilience Map to locate community food projects e.g. fridges, pantries, food banks etc. who may be able to utilise your surplus produce.
For information on reducing food waste at home and accessing surplus food as an individual please visit our Waste not page.
Abundance & gleaning projects
Every autumn, apples rot on the ground, hedgerows fill with fruit and some people grow more food than they can eat and good food goes to waste. The aim is therefore to capture this surplus and re-distribute it - harvest the bounty and give it to those that need it most. Fruit can be pressed into juice, made into jams and pickles or sold loose at reduced rates to local families who otherwise would not have access to fresh fruit.
Gleaning is the act of gathering leftover crops from farmers' fields and you need:
- Connections to local farmers with surplus
- Availability of enthusiastic volunteers who can quickly gather the excess
- Organisations who can utilise donations of fresh produce
- The following resources will help you get started:
Plus, grow an extra row!
If you are group or individual with capacity to grow extra produce, we would encourage you to support projects tackling increasing food insecurity across Somerset. You can use this page to find groups who can make use of your produce.
We know of 2 brilliant examples of community groups growing produce to donate directly to their community:
- Our Community Garden - Monkton Heathfield - growing for their community fridge
- The Food Forest Project's Food Bank Market Garden has moved to Wedmore Village Farm