Food waste campaigning body Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) is launching a new campaign across 10 UK cities over the next 18 months to ‘raise awareness of the financial and environmental impacts of food waste’.

Developed to help educate the general public about the impact of food waste arisings, the ’10 cities’ campaign, which began in Birmingham last week (24 July), is targeting ‘high population areas’ to bring the LFHW message to a large audience.

It will visit:

• Nottingham on 6 August;
• Liverpool on 7 August;
• Manchester on 8 August;
• Sheffield on 27 August;
• Leeds on 28 August;
• Newcastle on 5 September;
• Belfast on 8 September;
• Cardiff on 12 September; and
• Glasgow on 30th September.

The campaign will feature: community cookery classes that include recipe ideas for leftovers; kitchen skills workshops that build confidence in homecooking; ‘food champions’ networks (which see volunteers disseminate the food waste message); and public engagement events (including smoothie giveaways).

It is hoped the campaign will help attendees ‘get more from budgets and food’ by helping them to recognise the amount of food they waste and the financial and environmental impacts of this food waste. According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) – which funds LFHW – the average UK household throws away the equivalent of six meals every week, costing £60 a month.

The 10 cities campaign follows on from a simliar LFHW initiative that ran in West London between October 2012 and March 2013 and saw residents reduce the amount of avoidable food they threw away by 14 per cent, and their total amount of food waste by 35 per cent.

‘Certain this will be a success’

Dr Liz Goodwin, CEO of WRAP, said: “10 cities aims to equip people with the skills and knowledge to make the most of their food and to minimise waste.

“I am certain this will be a success because we have the track record of success.”

The 10 cities campaign is supported by a range of retailers including: Asda; M&S, Morrisons; Sainsbury's; Tesco; and The Co-operative Food.

Steven Butts, Head of Corporate Responsibility for Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC, said: “Morrisons is delighted to support WRAP's latest campaign to help people save money and reduce food waste in the home. We want people to use all that they buy with just with a bit more planning and greater awareness.”

A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s added: “Sainsbury’s is delighted to support the Love Food Hate Waste 10 cities campaign in Cardiff and Nottingham. We have a long-standing commitment to help our customers make their food go further and to waste less.”

Find out more about 10 cities or watch a video of the launch of the campaign in Birmingham.