BBC Young Reporter looks into scale of food waste
The BBC Yorkshire Young Reporter is Isabella, a sixth form student from Sheffield. She has been researching the issue of food poverty and recently visited a charity in Barnsley, which is trying to cut the amount of decent food being thrown away in our region.
The scale of food waste is absolutely staggering.
The United Nations estimate that 10 million tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year, while many others struggle with food insecurity.
Food waste is a massive issue that affects everybody and, as a Venezuelan, I've seen what food poverty can do to communities.
Learning about the organisations that are working to help tackle this issue, I was filled with hope and wanted to find out more.
I visited FareShare, a charity in Barnsley that receives 2,000 tonnes of surplus food donations from manufacturers and supermarkets each year.
They redistribute food that would otherwise go to landfill. There are many reasons why perfectly good food like this may end up in the bin.
BBC Young Reporter: Find out more about the scheme
Fareshare's deputy chief executive, Jonathan Williams, says "human error" is sometimes to blame, though mistakes in packaging and labelling are also a factor.
"In a lot of cases it can be they (manufacturers) have estimated what the customer demand will be and they've got it wrong.
"Even though the food industry is a very competitive industry, there is a great deal of waste within it," he adds.
Despite its hard work, Fareshare says its efforts to limit food waste are "only the tip of the iceberg".
The charity sends the food donations to projects like FoodCycle. It has nine community meal projects in Yorkshire and provides a free, three-course lunch at the Broomhall Centre in Sheffield every Wednesday.
FoodCycle depends on its volunteers, who turn the donations of food into a delicious lunch. I was able to enjoy curried vegetable soup, mushroom stroganoff and apple crumble.
Sophie Aoun is FoodCycle's regional manager for Yorkshire and helps to co-ordinate the weekly meals.
She says: "It is bonkers frankly that in the sixth richest country in the world you have so much surplus food that is a biproduct of a badly designed food system. Yet there's also still this food poverty."
Sophie works alongside Saffron Knight, who has been volunteering at FoodCycle for three months and is a part of the team cooking when I visit.
Saffron says the volunteering is the "highlight" of her week.
She says: "I was a nutrition student and really passionate about food waste and food poverty and trying to bring fruit and veg to people who might not have access to it.
"After I leave, I'm tired but in a good way and I just feel really inspired."
Those who visit FoodCycle for a good square meal are positive about it too.
Bryan Johnson, who has been coming for two years, says the project is "a win-win for everybody".
Samantha Earnshaw, meanwhile, gives the meal "11 out of 10" but adds that she visits for "the company and the friends".
Seeing projects like FoodCycle, which bring the community together while helping to tackle food waste, was inspirational. There is clearly a long way to go, but charities here in Yorkshire are working hard to help.
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
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As the lawsuits unfold, Trump administration officials have blasted judges — even those appointed to the bench by Trump — and floated the idea of suspending habeas corpus, a fundamental legal principle that's meant to ensure that a person accused of wrongdoing knows what they stand accused of and can contest the allegation before a judge. It is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees the right to any person, not just citizens. The Venezuelan man and his family were released from detention in Frio County after 23 days following the Hays County raid. They came home, wearing ankle monitors, to find an eviction notice on their Pflugerville home and a stack of past due bills. Their eldest son, whose birthday was going to be celebrated by splashing in the pool, was kicked out of school because of too many unexcused absences while they were detained, his dad said. While they are glad to be out of detention and working again, the family's future is unclear, he said. He still has his pending asylum application but the entire family has received removal orders. But perhaps nothing is as unclear to them as to why authorities treated them the way they did. 'I myself lived it, how they treat you,' he 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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