Lidl Guisborough

The Food Rescue Group in Middlesbrough takes a practical, community-led approach to tackling food waste and promoting sustainable living across the city. In the context of climate change, resource depletion, and growing environmental pressures, the importance of this work has never been clearer. A central focus of the group is addressing food waste, a major contributor to the unnecessary loss of resources and methane emissions from landfill. Tackling this issue is both environmentally essential and socially important, as surplus food can provide meaningful support to local families and individuals. The group works closely with local producers and retailers to ensure surplus food is put to good use rather than discarded. These partnerships help businesses reduce disposal costs while delivering clear environmental benefits. Pickup and distribution in Middlesbrough are coordinated by Sarah Russell and Adriana Dunose, who organise volunteer schedules, oversee collections, and ensure rescued food is delivered promptly, safely, and to where it is most needed. The initiative is driven by dedicated volunteers, including students from local universities and members of the wider community. Together, they collect and redistribute surplus food shortly after it becomes available, helping to preserve freshness and remove the need for long-term storage. All food collected is carefully inspected to ensure it meets strict safety standards. Any items that cannot be shared are disposed of responsibly to minimise environmental impact. Volunteer coordination takes place through a dedicated WhatsApp group, providing real-time updates on collection times, locations, and quantities. By diverting significant volumes of food from landfill, the Food Rescue Group in Middlesbrough is reducing methane emissions, conserving valuable resources, and strengthening community connections. Through consistent, local action, the group is helping build a more sustainable and inclusive future — one meal, one volunteer, and one community at a time.

Far more than a food bank, we are at the heart of the Redcar community, offering support, courses and food to those who need it most. Who we are and what we do... The Redcar Community Grocery can be described as a bridge between supermarkets and food banks. Whilst people don’t need to be referred, we are here to help people who need it most. Often our members will be people who are unable to be referred to a food bank, or who are unable to feed their family for a full week using food banks. The Community Grocery allows members to choose their own food 3x a week for just £4 a shop. In this shop they can get bakery items, frozen food, fruit and veg, shelf items, fridge items and non-food goods, worth around £40. On top of this, we also offer support to help individuals develop new skills including money management, applying for jobs and cooking classes. We’ve seen so many of our members gain employment on the back of the help they’ve received. How getting involved helps your community… Product surplus: There is 9.5 million tonnes of edible food that goes to landfill each year in the UK. We want to reduce food poverty for our local people, and help you achieve zero waste to landfill, by redistributing surplus food and products. Make sure to contact our team to find out how we can work together. Financial donations: Your financial donations help us keep our doors open and the shelves stocked. Whilst we reply heavily on food donations, there are some foods we have to buy fresh, and your donations contribute to this food provision. With your help, we can keep families fed. Volunteering: The Community Grocery relies on volunteers to help manage and run the store, as well as host classes which aim to develop skills such as money management, cooking classes or Alpha. We’d love you to join us in helping our community and see exactly what a difference The Community Grocery is having in Redcar.

We hope to extend the provision by allowing food that would go to waste from local shops and cafes to be redirected to those in need. We have our foodbank but we also work with young parents and families, plus young people from deprived areas of the town and we know that providing extra food would make a difference for many. We run a soup & roll lunch, a meal/day centre for the elderly and have youth sessions with meals so there are opportunities for our volunteers to create soups and meals from fruit & vegetables left over.