The Food Use Places team were invited on a trip to Barcelona as part of the Cultivate project this month. Cultivate is a Europe-wide initiative that helps communities share food more effectively to reduce waste and build more sustainable, resilient local food systems.
Attending the trip gave the Food Use Places team the opportunity to meet and collaborate with other groups working towards a shared goal: reducing global food waste. As part of the visit, we met Espigoladors, who kindly showed us around their impressive warehouse. They transform gleaned produce (food rescued from fields and farms) into shelf-stable products such as baby food, sauces, and marmalades, which support local food projects across Barcelona. This model is similar to our project in Brighton, Sussex Surplus, which also rescues surplus food and turns it into meals to support the local community.
The trip highlighted a striking contrast, the growing need for low-cost, community food alongside the vast amount of food still being wasted. However, there are encouraging improvements being made in both Barcelona and Brighton, and long may this progress continue Mercabarna is an “edible city” hub, with several warehouses on site, including a large fresh fruit and vegetable market where traders buy and sell produce. Any unsold food is redirected to the “Foodback” hall, where volunteers sort through it, ensuring that only good-quality produce is distributed to local food projects. This operates in a similar way to FareShare Sussex & Surrey, which redistributes large volumes of surplus food across the counties.
There was a great deal of shared learning from the visit, but above all it was inspiring to see so many people leading positive climate action through food and community initiatives.
