Food Poverty Project Poised to win ‘The People’s Millions’

Local charity The Devon and Cornwall Food Association has been shortlisted as the potential recipient of up to £50,000 of People’s Millions Lottery Funding – an opportunity that will enable them to expand the vital work they do to redistribute in-date food that would otherwise be sent to landfill.

Their project, Devon and Cornwall Food Action, is one of two projects chosen for the South West region but your help is now sought to secure the funding.

A public vote on the 26 November will decide which project wins this year’s cash and your votes are needed.

DCFA Company Secretary Geoff Read said:  “This is a very exciting opportunity for us. The public telephone vote takes place on the 26th November and the number to ring will be published in the national Press and on the local ITV news on the day. We’ll find out the next day if we’ve been successful so we are asking as many people as possible to keep an eye out for the numbers and to vote for us.”

With hubs working in Plymouth, Exeter and, more recently, in Cornwall, the DCFA hopes to be able to expand; taking on new staff members and extending their capacity to tackle food poverty across the South West. To date the DCFA has relocated over 100 tonnes of food with a value of over £185,000.

Environmental savings have been made too as the waste food would have gone to landfill. Redistributing the food has so far saved over 45 tonnes of CO2.

Supporters of the project are encouraged to register on the People’s Millions website and to keep up to date with the project’s progress over the coming days.