10 tips to make your community greener

We’re big advocates of Love Food Hate Waste – getting more from our food has never been more important for both our planet and our wallets. In the UK we waste 6.5 million tonnes of food each year – 4.5 million of which is edible. We also like the Olio app and Too Good to Go for sharing food with your community that could otherwise go to waste.

Looking for cheaper, crowd-pleasing meals? Some of our own personal budget-friendly recipes are listed below – perfect for making in batches and sharing with your community:

• Alex Hollywood’s sticky chicken wings – A one pan wonder made using tasty but cheap chicken wings
• Levi Root’s Caribbean stew – (V) Great for using up veggies
• Our Grainne’s (NI and Scotland Area Manager) spicy pumpkin soup – (V) Perfect for using up butternut squash or pumpkins post Halloween!
• Raymond Blanc’s onion and bacon tart – Even a little bit of left-over bacon will add lots of flavour to this family-friendly tart

3. Create a wildflower meadow

Spring and autumn are the perfect times to sow some wildflower seeds – and wildflowers really aren’t that fussy! They will need a sunny spot (or consider woodland flowers if not), but will generally thrive in poor quality soil – so there’s no need to splash the cash on compost. You’ll only need to create a fine top layer of soil too, so creating a wildflower meadow is an activity people of all ages and abilities can enjoy.

Create a wildflower meadow

Every little patch matters, as it helps to create a network for our precious pollinators. Make sure you ask permission from any land owners before starting and if this is proving a challenge, consider asking your community to plant wildflower window boxes instead. If you are planting using compost, please ensure you use peat-free. Peat in its natural setting is a precious carbon store so peat-free is much better for our environment.

5. Plant a community garden

Community gardens are a wonderful way to bring your community together, grow delicious food from seed and create greener, more biodiverse spaces – what’s not to like? Our ‘how to plant a community garden’ guide shows you how to get started and Sophie and Fissha’s story from the Cardiff Salad Garden is sure to give you some food for thought too.

How to plant a community garden

When planting, wherever possible, using peat-free compost (or even making your own compost!) is a small measure we can all take to protect our environment. Peatlands are precious spaces for wildlife and they’re a huge store of carbon – protecting them is vital in the fight against climate change. Peat-free isn’t always easy to find, but Dobbies garden centres are one outlet that have committed to going peat-free.

Top tip: if you find you have home-grown produce to share, why not donate or trade at a community fridge or via the food sharing platforms listed above?

10. Host a Green Big Lunch!

A Big Lunch is a great way to get people together at any point throughout the year and the resources in our free Big Lunch pack are undated. Those lovely crunchy golden leaves and chilly nights might be stopping you having a street Big Lunch, but often community centres and village halls will let you hold an indoor event for free.

Get your Big Lunch pack

Simple ways to make it a Green Big Lunch are to avoid single-use plastics and throwaway items, make it a home-grown veggie Big Lunch, or combine it with activities like wildflower seeding, litter-picking or hold a clothes-swapping event to really work up an appetite!

Make it clear that your neighbours don’t need to spend anything if they don’t want either. Perhaps somebody could bring the chairs? Or a pitcher of squash? A great big pan of veggie chilli or lentil and chickpea dhal are cheap, healthy ways to delight the whole community too.