“Most food goes to waste when it is cheaper to dump it rather than preserve it”

I am Corin and I was born in Stockport but moved to Manchester to attend university at 18. I studied Politics with Philosophy. I now run a business that does good with food.

Following on from my studies, I worked as a civil servant for Manchester City Council. I then became involved in community and climate change projects through the City Council. However, due to budget cuts from the 2010 coalition, the Council was ultimately unable to fund any projects we were working on. From there I bounced around from project to project for five years, from helping write reports that were more accessible to every type of reader to driving around a green grocers van.

I ended up working more and being more involved with food related projects; it wasn’t a conscious decision or plan it was just where my interests manifested. Through working on many different types of projects, I was able to meet all kinds of people running all kinds of business models. From late nights in the pub, we started our own pop up similar to the great work done by those at The Real Junk Food Project who took food that would otherwise go to waste and made meals in a café on a pay as you feel basis. By teaming up with a charity using their kitchen in the day and hospitality venues to host our supper clubs in the evening, we began to grow.

After trialling our idea in a café rented to us, we came to the conclusion that pay as you feel didn’t work for us and what we were trying to achieve. It was extremely unpredictable as we were unable to plan and expand for the future of the project because we simply did not know how much money we had coming in. It is not to say people weren’t generous, it is simply because the numbers do not add up in terms of those who used our project and those who needed it. This is largely due to supermarkets driving down the price of food and setting the standard price of food to be extremely low when compared to those trying to offset the social and environmental impact of the food we consume.

“They’re cutting corners left, right and centre and not covering the costs of that!”

So moving away from that model, we branched out as an outside catering business all around Manchester using food that would otherwise go to waste and locally sourced, sustainably produced ingredients. We deliver all kinds of foods for any kind of event. We are also the in-house caterer for The People’s History Museum in Manchester.

“We’re demonstrating what we think are some of the solutions.”

From the money we make catering, we use this to invest and help people in the community. We do this by donating food parcels to asylum seekers and refugees as well as low-income families.

“We keep our focus on the food and then we let those who are embedded in the communities work with the people.”

So in terms of food and things we need to know as consumers. Food does not go to waste when it is mouldy, most food goes to waste when it is cheaper to dump it rather than preserve it. Once a business has lost its profit margin on that food item, they do not keep it, they need to get rid of it so it doesn’t keep costing them money. This is the major problem with our food industry, as well as food that is grown that never even gets harvested. A further problem is the sell by dates on products because businesses will not buy food that cannot stay on their shelves for long enough for them to make a profit. This is where we come in and buy or intercept food that is effectively unsellable from a large business point of view. We always ensure that those businesses that we buy from are meeting our sustainability and ethical standards before agreeing to take any unwanted food from them. From there, we make fresh and interesting menus catering for all types of diets.

Looking forward, in terms of scale and growth for my own business, I would rather keep what I have and keep it authentic, and inspire others to do their own thing.

“If you have a huge number of small, independent businesses, you’ve got a massive number of people who are passionate about what they’re doing and you’re keeping that wealth that you’re building within the local community so that it can feed back. That to me is positive economy.”

This blogpost was written by Megan Morris on behalf of Tales to Inspire.