Telford discount store selling surplus food from supermarkets to officially open

The Mayor of Wellington councillor Paul Davis will open the Save It Discount Store in Bridge Road, Wellington, which is an expansion of the Foodshare project in Telford. The opening will take place on Tuesday.

Lea Beven, a 48-year-old mother-of-one and former property investor, set up the not-for-profit company Connect Aid in 2015.

Since then as managing director of the company she has opened stores in Cornwall and in Telford in 2019 selling surplus food in a bid to put a halt to food waste going to landfill.

"This store is an expansion of the one we have in Telford following demand from local people.

"We take surplus food that is rejected because of over-ordering or because it has passed its date and sell at a discount.

"This prevents food waste going to landfill and money raised funds our foodbank which helps hundreds of people in the Telford area each week.

"The store in Wellington has already opened its doors as part of a soft launch but the official opening ceremony will take place at 10.30am on March 15.

"We have volunteers who make collections o food during the evening and also buy some surplus food but also get lots donated.

"I think that with rising costs and people finding a pinch on their purse-strings that more and more people are turning to these type of projects as well as waste warriors who actively want to prevent food going to waste and landfill.

"Greta Thunberg, the Swedish environmental activist, was my original inspiration and, instead of waving banners about climate change, I decided to set up the company to actively prevent food waste.

"The company now saves 100 tons of food each month that would otherwise go to waste.

"Anything that we cannot sell or hand out free-of-charge we send to local farmers to feed animals.

"We also operate vans that go out into the community to deliver food and plan to eventually introduce this in Wellington.

"As an established company we have been able to send supplies to Ukraine.

"We also responded to the refugee crisis in Syria and donated 25 vehicles and raised more than £100,000."