“[Food] waste is harmful for the environment, bad for business, and damaging for society”
Government Food Strategy, 2022¹ https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-food-strategy/government-food-strategy

Oxford Food Hub has been redistributing surplus food for free to hundreds of charities and community groups across Oxfordshire for the last 17 years in an effort not only to reduce the scandalous levels of food waste and the negative impact this is having on the environment and on socio-economic wellbeing, but as a tool to empower and bring communities together.

Today, we are launching Reuse, Redistribute and Reconnect: empowering communities through surplus food. A campaign focused on highlighting the negative environmental and socio-economic impact of food waste, and showcasing the work some of our charity partners are doing to empower local communities through the use of surplus food.

The campaign reflects some of the priorities identified by many of the charities and community groups that responded to a survey carried out by Oxford Food Hub in 2025. The survey sought to elicit our partners’ views on a range of related issues, such as the role surplus food plays in their activities, and the challenges faced by them and the communities they work with.

We also want to start a conversation about what central and local government, as well as businesses and the general public, can do not only to reduce food waste, but to support the hundreds of charities and community groups in Oxfordshire that are working tirelessly to empower residents to become stronger and more resilient during what for many are extremely challenging times.

Some 10 million tonnes of food, worth more than £22 billion² This figure only includes post-farm gate food waste., is wasted each year in the UK, equivalent to 25% of all food purchased in the country, with households accounting for 60% of this total. This has resulted in at least 16 million tonnes of greenhouse gases being emitted, equivalent to 2% of consumption-related emissions in the UK³ https://www.wrap.ngo/resources/report/uk-food-waste-food-surplus-key-facts.

Meanwhile, almost 14.1 million people in the UK, including 3.8 million children, were living with food insecurity in 2024, according to figures from the Trussell Trust, published at the end of 2025⁴ https://cms.trussell.org.uk/sites/default/files/2025-09/hunger_in_uk_sept25.pdf. While Oxfordshire has low levels of deprivation⁵ https://data.oxfordshire.gov.uk/deprivation/further-information/, it is deeply unequal. Its wealth masks pockets of deprivation, especially in Oxford, Abingdon and Banbury. Oxford is the UK’s second most unequal city⁶ https://www.oxford.gov.uk/people-communities/thriving-communities-strategy/4, with some neighbourhoods among the most deprived in the country⁷https://www.oxford.gov.uk/downloads/file/1251/indices-of-deprivation-2019-oxford-report#:~:text=For%20the%20Employment%20domain%20Oxford,reduced%20since%20the%202015%20IoD.. Around a quarter of children in the city live in poverty, rising to more than 35% in some neighbourhoods⁸ https://www.oxford.gov.uk/people-communities/thriving-communities-strategy/4. Some 9-14% of all households in the county live with food insecurity⁹ https://mycouncil.oxford.gov.uk/documents/s68409/Appendix%201.pdf.

The environmental and socio-economic arguments for reducing food waste and for community-based surplus food redistribution are therefore incontrovertible.

Local government budgets are under increasing strain, and less able to intervene effectively, especially in the context of the cost-of-living crisis. Community organisations in Oxfordshire, such as local surplus food groups and mutual-aid networks, have stepped in to fill urgent food-security gaps, as well as addressing other issues, such as the environment and homelessness.

Oxfordshire has a vibrant community sector, connecting people through shared concerns and collective action, creating bonds of trust that are essential when communities face economic and social hardship. And many of these groups use surplus food as a tool to boost community resilience. However, they face increasing challenges, including a lack of funds and volunteers, unsuitable premises, and difficulties in accessing surplus food.

While preventing food waste from being sent to landfill or incinerated is positive for the environment and has socio-economic benefits, it is, however, only a sticking plaster solution to food poverty. Charities cannot provide a long-term and sustainable solution to food poverty. This can only be achieved by governments tackling the structural causes of poverty.

This is why the use of surplus food as a tool to address the climate emergency, and to empower and bring local communities together, is at the heart of what Oxford Food Hub does. Food is more than mere sustenance; it is the metaphorical glue that brings communities together.

Over the next few months, we hope to engage with local councillors and Oxfordshire MPs on how to tackle food waste and promote the consumption of food surplus, as well as the steps they can take to support those charities working with surplus food to engage with and support their local communities.

We will also work with the general public to offer practical solutions to reducing household food waste and to highlight the benefits of using surplus food.

And most importantly, we will use the campaign to showcase the work of some of our partner charities and community groups and the amazing and varied ways they use surplus food. Finally, we hope to offer our partners a range of different activities, such as surplus food pop-ups, to help them more effectively engage with their local communities around the benefits of using surplus food.

We’d like to say a particular thank you to our charity partners, many of which gave up their valuable time to input into this campaign, and especially to Cherwell Collective and Waste2Taste, who collaborated on some of the campaign materials.