Tag: Sustainable Food

Apple Power

By Zoe Parker

Published 30th August 2025

Bradford is juicing up fresh solutions to the Cost-of-Living and Climate Crises

Tonnes of  apples go to waste all over Bradford District. Fruit Works Co-operative have established a coordinated juicing equipment library and service that diverts these surplus apples to four communities hubs.

This year, in autumn 2025, the project is supported by Fruit Works, but going forward it will be a self-funding enterprise for the four community hubs in Keighley, Shipley and Bradford. There are 4 ways the equipment can be used, depending on your needs.

Juice it yourself
Juice it for Fun
Juice it for you
Juice it with you.

Juice It Yourself
You borrow the kit for yourself, your family, friends, street or community group to make your own juice.

Juice It For Fun
The kit is used as part of a Community Apple Day, where people come together to celebrate the harvest.

Juice It For You
You bring your apples to one of the community hubs and they press them and bottle the juice for you.

Juice It With You
You bring your apples to one of the community hubs to make your own juice there, with their equipment.

Read More about Fruit Works Bradford

In Leeds with Leeds Urban Harvest  we are lucky enough to juice it up across the city.

Like Bradford, each year, thousands of fruit trees across Leeds go unpicked or unused because their owners can’t harvest them or there is too much fruit to use at one time.

Leeds Urban Harvest is a volunteer run community project that lends picking and processing equipment to groups to make juice from their excess apples.

Because there are more apples than people to juice them they also press and make use of surplus fruit donated by people, which would otherwise go to waste.

Four ways you can get involved in Leeds and fight the Cost-of-Living and Climate Crises

Pick It and Bring It.

Got surplus Apples ? Tell us about them here

hand in box of apples

Juice It for Fun

Come to an Apple Day! More about events here

children juicing diverse heritage

Borrow It 

Rent our equipment. Tell us about them here

Learn It with Us.

Learn how to press, juice and more by volunteering here

volunteer
Let’s share the abundance

Browse our website for more Cost-of-Living and Climate Crisis solutions including:

Leeds Food Aid Map  Find 140+ pantries, cafes and food aid businesses if you need emergency food.

Healthy Holidays  More about Healthy Holidays ( HAF) recently funded for the next three years! Read more.

Healthy Start  Go to this page for information on Healthy Start and for  links to other Family Food and Wellbeing services such as free school meals and uniform, money and welfare advice and more.

Incredible Edible sites map (who have 20 groups, 70 sites and 150 raised beds across the city offering free vegetable, fruit and herbs to the public and other

Download the Family Food and Wellbeing Leaflet
boxes of apples of various kinds and colours in crates
four crates of apples plus a woman stood holding another crate of apples i a field by a van
apples on a tree and fallen on grass
Apples red in a box in an orchard

World Pulses Day

By Zoe Parker

Published 5th February 2025

World Pulses Day is celebrated on February 10th each year. It’s an international day that recognises the importance of pulses, which are the edible seeds of legumes.

What are pulses?

Pulses, also known as legumes, are the edible seeds of leguminous plants cultivated for food. Dried beans, lentils and peas are the most commonly known and consumed types of pulses.
Staples dishes and cuisines from across the world feature pulses, from hummus in the Mediterranean (chick peas), to a traditional full English breakfast (baked navy beans) to Indian dal (peas or lentils).
For centuries, pulses have been vital to sustainable agriculture and nutrition. These small but impactful crops not only provide essential nutrients but also support healthier diets and resilient farming systems, making them a key source of nourishment even for the most vulnerable communities, contributing on leaving no one behind.Many grow in the UK. They are high in protein, low in fat, and rich in soluble fiber. Pulses can be served as standalone dishes, or incorporated into sauces, spreads, desserts, and as toppings. They count as one of your five-a-day and can be added as #JustOneMore veg to help you eat a healthy diet.

 

 

Why celebrate pulses?

To increase public awareness of the nutritional and environmental benefits of pulses
To recognise the potential of pulses to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
To acknowledge the role of pulses in increasing global food security, building soil health, and diversifying agricultural systems. More information at FAO [Click link for Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations]: https://www.fao.org/world-pulses-day/en

Did you know?

Pulses increase farm biodiversity and create a richer landscape for animals and insects to thrive.
The nitrogen-fixing properties of pulses can improve soil fertility, which improves and extends the productivity of farmland.
Pulses are highly water efficient: for producing 1 kg of lentils needs 1250 liters, while 1 kg of beef requires 13,000 liters.


How can you celebrate World Pulses Day?

Learn more about the nutritional and environmental benefits of pulses
Try eating more pulses in your meals
Support the production and consumption of pulses

Community Composting Success

By Zoe Parker

Published 13th November 2024

Compost Collective Leeds is at it again, spinning straw into gold— or rather, food scraps into fertile soil!

Compost Collective Leeds, set up with communities, is a city-wide community composting project that  transformed the way communities work together to put food waste to good use. With the support of FoodWise Leeds, 9 sites were set up creating thriving local community composting schemes across the city. Here’s more about individual schemes.

Compost Collective Hunslet & Riverside is a community composting scheme have filled their first compost bin, and are thrilled to be starting their second. You can join the scheme if you live locally by contacting Friends of Hunslet Moor on their facebook group. Meanwhile, Compost Collective Gipton, based at the Old Fire Station in Gipton, are enjoying their very first batch of soil. This is really exciting as their is a community garden and lots of use for free good quality soil.

The two newest sites are at Feel Good Factor in Chapeltown and and Drury Fields in Horsforth and both are remarkable.

You can read more about the successes of community composting in Horsforth by clicking this link or check out this little film about Horsforth Compost Collective building a compost bin by clicking this link. Or watch this film about Feel Good Factor’s Compost Collective Chapeltown in this link.

 If you would like support to set up a community composting scheme, or are interested in joining one of the already thriving schemes, we can fit you in!

If you’d like to dig deep and donate towards the costs of future compost schemes, you can support us by donating to our Just Giving / Pay-It-Forward Campaign, or get in touch with Annie Whitehead for more details: annie.whitehead@zestleeds.org.uk/

🌱 Thanks for reading! We’ll leave you with a picture of a community composting scheme member and their rather fabulous canine friends.

 

 

 

 

 

4 men smiling
4 boys community compost scheme
one person digging

Feed Leeds’ Get Growing Leeds

By Zoe Parker

Published 24th September 2024

Call out for your Growing Stories and Photos 🌱🌱🌱

In more #GoodFoodStories, there is a Feed Leeds’ Get Growing Leeds project has been an enormous success with over 300 seedlings handed out and over 24 events across Leeds. We are celebrating what people have grown. We’d love you to send us any photos of the veg you grew.

We’d love to hear you if you came to an event, took home some seedlings or ran an event.

🌾 What did you grow and how did that go?

🌾 What are you planning on growing next year?

🌾 Any recipe recommendations you used things you grew in?

🌾 Send us recommendations, top tips or other growing stories.

📷👉Could you send us photos of what you have grown from the free seeds / seedlings. 

We would love you to share your stories and photos with us. Huge thanks to those of you who already have. Send via email to Zoe: zoe.parker@zestleeds.org.uk

Not heard of Get Growing Leeds? Read more here. Want to know more about Feed Leeds other projects like Little Veg Libraries Sow a Row Xtra or Good Food Awards?

 

 

Get Growing Leeds

By Zoe Parker

Published 22nd April 2024

As part of our #GoodNewsStories, we wanted to share that Feed Leeds is launching #GetGrowingLeeds for 2024. Feed Leeds, is a sustainable food growing network dedicated to promoting sustainable food practices and has been hosting the #SowARowXtra campaign annually since 2021.

The campaign aims to inspire individuals with food growing skills to cultivate extra seedlings to share with others. These seedlings can be distributed among friends, neighbours, or through a network of Little Veg Libraries ( LVL), dropped off at Meanwood Valley Urban Farm or at Oakwood Market Garden.

Previously, in collaboration with Season Well, Feed Leeds organised workshops to assist those new to gardening or lacking access to growing spaces and resources. These workshops were well-received, with participants expressing enthusiasm and eagerness to begin their own growing projects. The initiative has not only fostered a sense of community and has helped individuals develop valuable skills in sustainable food production.

This year we wanted to grow the campaign by providing edible seedlings to more groups. We are doing this by linking up with existing community food growing events to provide seedlings, raise awareness of the importance of food growing and to celebrate the amazing community food growing projects across the city. 

Growing your own food has so many benefits. Firstly, it benefits your health. Growing your own vegetables not only provides you with fresh, organic produce, it also gives you more control over the growing process, ensuring that no harmful chemicals or pesticides are used. This results in healthier and more nutritious vegetables that are free from harmful residues. Additionally, gardening can be a great form of physical activity, helping you stay active and reduce stress levels. The act of tending to your garden can also improve mental well-being and provide a sense of accomplishment. Furthermore, consuming freshly picked vegetables can lead to a higher intake of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, which are essential for overall health. Overall, growing your own vegetables can contribute to a healthier lifestyle and improve your overall well-being.

It helps create a sense of connection with  the natural world around us. It offers opportunities for people to share skills and knowledge and to meet new people whilst becoming part of new growing communities. It helps us connect with the origins of food and increases access to affordable, healthy produce. Additionally, engaging in practical climate action through growing food can help us appreciate the value of food and reduce waste. By creating compost from food scraps, we can also contribute to good soil health. 

Join the movement, reap the benefits, share your skills and expertise and ‘Lets #GetGrowingLeeds!’

You can share this image and this article with your friends and communities who may be interested in getting involved. Get out for latest updates for this and other projects by subscribing to our newsletter or this website.

Good Food Stories: Right to Grow

By Emma Andrews

Published 20th October 2023

Welcome to #GoodFoodStories Meet the Network! We’re doing a series of informal interviews with local food activists to showcase some of the great food work happening across Leeds with the aim of inspiring and building a good food movement.

First up is Dan Robinson from Incredible Edible Leeds, whose going to tell us about the Right to Grow campaign.

Hi Dan, tell us a bit about what you do.

Hi, I’m Dan Robinson. I head up Incredible Edible Leeds and I’m also on the board of the wider Incredible Edible Movement. Incredible Edible was set up to create kind, confident, and connected communities using the power of food. We work across communities, education and local business to show people where their food comes from and to enable people to lead happier, healthier lives by growing and eating local, healthy and sustainable food.


What is the right to grow. And why are you taking this approach?

It’s essentially what it says on the tin. It’s about giving ordinary citizens the right to grow food in the public realm. Lots of people want to grow their own food but don’t have the opportunity to do so for various reasons, including navigating the legal requirements and the red tape for accessing public land, which can be complicated. However, there’s a sense that both people within local authorities and ordinary citizens want to be part of the solution. And that’s where change comes from.


What’s been done so far?

A whole host of organisations have signed up to support Right to Grow including Sustain, the Food Ethics Council, and the Urban Agriculture Consortium, along with many sustainable food partnerships including FoodWise.

On the Incredible Edible website there’s a briefing for local authorities that lays out the benefits and the reasons for Right to Grow, including a draught motion that councils can put forward, and if they want to they can adopt it to have a Right Grow within their authority. Hull has recently done this and is the first local authority in the UK to do so.

What’s happening in parliament to support the Right to Grow?


In Parliament there’s been quite a lot of movement with an amendment tabled to the Levelling Up Bill, which is currently going through the House of Lords that’s got cross-party support. However, legislation takes a long time as there’s a ping pong approach going backwards and forwards between the House of Commons and the House of Lords. So we’re also looking at introducing a 10 minute rule bill in the House of Commons, where an MP gets 10 minutes to pitch the idea. While this doesn’t create legislation, it gets people talking about it and it can move up the agenda.


What would be the impact of a successful Right to Grow bill?


It’s got so much potential! It would pave the way for more community food growing projects and all the benefits that comes with that, and more wildlife friendly spaces in urban areas. And more local, nutrient dense foods freely available for those who need it most.


What has Incredible Edible Leeds’ involvement been?


Changing the law is of course fundamental but there’s lots that can and must happen while we work towards that. I’d love to have that proof of concept taking place in West Yorkshire, starting with Leeds leading the way ahead of national policy.


We need to tell the stories that show the benefits, develop tools and resources to make implementing a Right to Grow practical and possible. We also need to ensure that it’s reaching and impacting the communities that would benefit most from increased access to fresh, freely available fruit and vegetables – that’s why we’ve been developing the Incredible Edible network across Leeds.


How can community members take action and join the movement towards the Right to Grow?


Anyone interested in accessing land for food growing or wanting to find out more can take a look at the Right to Grow page on our website. On there you can write to your local councillors and your MP to tell them about the campaign and ask them to support either a local Right to Grow motion in Leeds or legislation in Parliament.


Many areas of Leeds have Incredible Edible projects, so take a look at edibleleads.org.uk to see if there’s a project in your area that you can get involved with. And if there isn’t, let us know if you’d like to create one and we can help.  

Compost Collective Leeds: Pilot Success!

By Emma Andrews

Published 30th March 2023

FoodWise Leeds is celebrating the success of delivering a 1-year community composting pilot, in partnership with local grass-roots organisations and community groups. Compost Collective Leeds is now expanding across the city, with funding to establish six additional sites.

Jump to:

THE PILOT

Since February 2022, FoodWise Leeds has partnered with grass-roots organisations and community groups to establish two community composting sites in Garforth and Seacroft. The ambitions for these sites were to enable community members to:

  • Reduce food waste by recycling food scraps
  • Create a free source of compost to grow local food, flowers and other plants
  • Collectively #compostforclimate and reduce their carbon footprint
  • Support their local green and growing spaces

In just 3 months, over 180 5litre caddies were emptied into community composting bins, transforming over 250 kilos of diverted food waste into a future free source of compost. This means approximately 950 kilos of CO2 emissions (GhGs)1 have been saved; the equivalent weight of around 4 local alpacas at Leeds’ Meanwood Valley Urban Farm!

Once the compost is ready, local members will be collecting their share and any remaining will be given to local green/growing spaces (e.g. Incredible Edible Garforth community food growing beds and Seacroft Forest Garden).

Photo credit: Meanwood Valley Urban Farm

Local Councillor Katie Dye enthuses about her local site Compost Collective Seacroft:

“The scheme has been really successful. From experienced composters to complete beginners, the pilot has engaged lots of different people who are now turning food waste into compost to grow more food!

FoodWise Leeds were able to provide the guidance needed to set up and establish the site for long-term sustainability, with expertise and resources from bin design to delivering members training. Climate Action Seacroft has been a great support, co-facilitating training, looking after the compost bin and encouraging people along the way. Links have been made with community organisations such as the LS14 Trust who are offering a free tea or coffee with each caddy emptied and Chapel FM who are composting food waste from their cafe.

It would be fantastic to see community composting extended so that more people can benefit, and we can cut waste across the city.”

Compost Collective Garforth partners: Incredible Edible Garforth and Eco-Friendly Garforth. Funded by Outer East Community Committee and Food for the Planet (Sustainable Food Places).

Compost Collective Seacroft partners: We Are Seacroft, Climate Action Seacroft and LS14 Trust. Funded by Inner East Community Committee and Food for the Planet (Sustainable Food Places).

Read more about the pilot sites here.

Our Approach

FoodWise Leeds has shared an overview of their approach to setting up the pilot sites (below). Key to the continuing success of these sites is the co-production with local community. This has been achieved this through strong partnership working, community consultation and local skill sharing/development. One key outcome of this approach has been the positive impact on helping to reduce social isolation (i.e. community composting as a social activity), one member told us “I’m already a keen composter, I came to meet people”.

To achieve the ambitions for each site, FoodWise and partners worked through the following stages, developing supporting resources and tools. For example, Compost Collective Leeds Members Handbook (viewable here).

GROWING THE MOVEMENT

With strong links to the Leeds Food Strategy, the vision for Compost Collective Leeds is to work in partnership with local communities to grow a network of community compost sites across Leeds. Taking action towards this and based on the success of the pilot, FoodWise has secured funding to develop an additional six sites in partnership with other Leeds-based communities.

Compost Collective Leeds sites provide communities with a tangible way to take action in caring for themselves, their communities and the planet.

INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A SITE?

If you are a local organisation, community group or community member interested in setting up a local Compost Collective Leeds site, please get in touch with FoodWise Leeds (info@foodwiseleeds.org) to discuss how we might support you and your community.

Footnote: 1 Calculation based on insights within the UK Food System GHG Emissions report (WRAP) (i.e. approximately every kilo of food waste in the UK is associated with 3.8 kilos of GhGs (CO2e)).