by Debbie Purdon
I recently visited Otley Community Larder which was set up in 2023 by one of the Climate Action Leeds hubs – Otley 2030 with the aim of reducing food poverty and food waste in the local community.
The larder was initially set up in response to the popularity of their fruit and veg box delivery service which started during the Covid pandemic and redistributes surplus fruit and veg to the local community on a pay as you feel basis using an e-cargo bike. The fruit and veg box scheme (the brainchild of Shannon Coles) was so popular that they gradually needed to increase the number of deliveries made each week and wanted to look for a more efficient way of reaching a wider number of people than the delivery model was able to serve. Hence, the set-up of Otley Community larder.
The larder has been operating for just over a year now and is based at the back of Otley Social Club in its own dedicated space. The space has been developed over the past year to be what it is today with the help of local volunteers and the likes of Otley shed who installed the wall shelving and also help from Meanwood Valley urban Farm who came and did the storage shelving.
Jade has been at the helm for approx. 7 months now and since then lots of developments have taken place. She estimates that approx. 40 volunteers have been involved in helping to run things. Also, the pantry has adopted a composting solution for the small amount of rotten food collected, engaging Mark Warner from Swillington organic farm via the plate 2 plate composting initiative.
The larder is also now able to cater for community events and did so recently for a local energy saving event.
The space can be used innovatively and was recently used by Research Dietician Fiona Croden from The University of Leeds who ran some community cooking sessions creating recipes for a fibre-rich diet which were informed by her current research on “Meeting UK Fibre Intake Recommendations in Food Insecure Households: The Availability of Fibre from Redistributed Surplus Food”. The sessions proved very popular.
A real success story, it is estimated that the larder has served approximately 4,000 customers in the past year, saving 27.4 tonnes of co2 (via 32,000 meals).
Find out more about there work and where to find them at: www.otley2030.com/larder
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