The Community-Wide Food and Goods Rescue Initiative is a vital project addressing the environmental, social, and economic challenges posed by food and goods waste. With 20% of all produced food ending up in landfills—70% of which is still perfectly edible—the environmental impact is severe. Decomposing food waste emits methane, a greenhouse gas 28–36 times more potent than CO₂, significantly contributing to global warming.

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Understanding Food Waste Across the Supply Chain

Food waste occurs at every stage of the supply chain:

• On Farms: 24–30%, due to overproduction, harvesting losses, or cosmetic standards.

• Post-Harvest Handling & Storage: 15–20%, resulting from poor storage and transportation conditions.

• Processing & Packaging: 5–10%, due to trimming and discarded substandard items.

• Distribution & Retail: 10–15%, with unsold products often going to waste.

• Consumer Level: 35–40%, driven by over-purchasing, improper storage, and over-preparation.

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Our Mission: Reducing Waste and Supporting Communities
To address food waste at the distribution and retail stages (10–15%), the Dunn School Green Group launched the Community-Wide Food and Goods Rescue Initiative. This program, spearheaded by Saroj Saurya, aims to reduce waste, enhance community health, and minimize the environmental footprint. Beyond food, it also salvages surplus goods like paints, plants, tiles, and home improvement items.

The Dunn School Green Group partners with FareShare and Neighbourly, organizations that connect groups like ours to local stores. Through these partnerships, surplus food is collected from retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Pret A Manger, Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl, and KFC. This includes:

 

• Use-by-same-day foods from M&S, Tesco, and Pret A Manger.

• Best-before items from Sainsbury’s, Aldi, Lidl, KFC, and Tesco.

Volunteer Network and Operations
The initiative’s success is built on collaboration and collective action, with Saroj Saurya playing a pivotal role in coordinating efforts across multiple communities and cities. Saroj’s leadership has been instrumental in establishing partnerships, organizing logistics, and fostering a shared vision among volunteers. Key administrators supporting the initiative in various cities include Clemence Levet, Vasiliki Tsioligka, Ankita Gupta, Nithiah Palaniandy, Haojun Shuai, Kully Kaur, Diana Baker, Sarah Russell, Saule Narsutyte, Reshma Manikandan, Ishaan Saurya, Sowmya Tirumalasetti, Nathalie Stewart, Neida Begum, Edyta Karimi, Suruchi Kansagra, and Richard Purpura.

However, the initiative’s achievements are a result of team effort:
Over 260 volunteers, including students, staff, and community members from the Dunn School, WIIM, Old Road Campus Research Building, Kennedy Institute, Department of Biology, Biochemistry, DPAG, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, Linacre college, University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, Marston Community Gardening, the Oxfordshire Hindu Community, and residents from cities such as Oxford, Abingdon, Witney, Wantage, Didcot, Bicester, Banbury, Kidlington, Reading, Leicester, Bradford, Sheffield, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Aylesbury, Uxbridge, Penrith, Slough, and Manchester, contribute by collecting, sorting, and redistributing surplus food and goods. Key contributors other than mentioned above include Peter Stroud, Monika Gullerova, Fumiko Esashi, Sally Cowley, Sue Mei Tan-Wong, Lety Lemus, Aakash Mukhopadhyay, Alyssa Guan, Dawn Weller, Eleni Kogioni, Erinke Van Grinsven, Ghazala Mirza, Hana Osman, Iman Satti, Jenny Cole, Jill Brown, Karim Housseini, Kirtana Sivasubramanian, Lilli Hahn, Mehadi Hasan, Mona Edwards, Natalie Turner, Ingelise Holland-Kaye (Poppy), Priyanshu Singh Raikwar, Tim Yizhou, Yasemin Zurke, Yiqi Zhao, Samantha Knight, Karishma Patel, John Marriot and many others.

How It Works:

• Volunteers pick up surplus food, keep what they can use, and distribute the rest.

• Surplus food is stored in designated areas at the Dunn School: Unity Fridge for cold items, Goodwill Freezer for frozen items, Eco Zone for best-before room temperature items.

• Volunteers involving Dunn School support staff maintain and clean the storage spaces for future pickups.

Impact and Achievements of the Initiative
From October 2023 to January 2025, the Community-Wide Food and Goods Rescue Initiative achieved the following:
Environmental Impact: Rescued a total of 135 tons of food, preventing 506 tons of CO₂ emissions over the initiative’s duration, equivalent to 5–10 long-haul flights for fully loaded planes. Oxford alone accounting for 40% of the total food rescue efforts, other cities ranged between 1–10% of the total impact.

• Oxford: 54 tons of food, 196 tons of CO₂ saved

• Manchester: 14 tons of food, 55 tons of CO₂ saved.

• Edinburgh: 13.5 tons of food, 49 tons of CO₂ saved.

• Leicester: 12 tons of food, 46 tons of CO₂ saved.

• Newcastle: 10 tons of food, 38 tons of CO₂ saved.

• Reading: 9 tons of food, 36 tons of CO₂ saved.

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Other cities like Sheffield, Middlesbrough, Uxbridge, Aylesbury, Abingdon, Slough, Witney, Hounslow and Penrith contributed smaller yet significant amounts.
Economic Impact: Saved volunteers and community members £50–200 per month on their food bills.
Built a strong network of over 260 volunteers across 15+ cities, including Oxford, Reading, Edinburgh, Leicester, Newcastle and Manchester.
Social Impact: By redistributing rescued food and goods, the initiative supports individuals and families, fostering stronger connections between participants and local communities.

Expansion Beyond Food
The initiative also rescues:
Unsold plants, flowers, and gardening supplies, which are shared with local communities like the Oxfordshire Hindu Community, Marston Community, and Boundary Brook Community Projects.
Home improvement goods such as tiles, curtains, and wallpaper. Waste in these categories is minimal, at just 1–2%.

Join Us! Get Involved
If you are passionate about reducing food waste, supporting sustainability, and making a positive impact, we invite you to volunteer to the initiative and be part of the movement towards a greener, more sustainable community.