CHRISTMAS became both full of good cheer and waste-free when community groups got together to gather surplus food for people to pick up for a ‘pay as you feel’ donation.

There were queues of people braving the snow last week to collect up to two carrier bags of surplus food each at the drop-in.

The Luke’s Larder initiative at St Luke’s Church Hall in Shipton Street had tables piled high with vegetables, fruit and other food that would otherwise have been thrown away.

The food giveaway operated for three mornings from last Wednesday.

Organiser Margaret Hattam, director of Your Cafe, who leads a team of volunteers in a pop-up cafe in Tang Hall, is dedicated to saving food from being dumped in landfill.

She said: “This is the first time we have done this and it has been absolutely brilliant.

“We were donated food by Morrison’s, M&S, Tesco and Greggs that would have been thrown away.

“On Wednesday we gave carrier bags of food to 39 people, Thursday to 58 and Friday even more. For some people having access to extra fresh food is really valuable.

“The supermarkets are now really geared up to people like us collecting food to redistribute in the community.

“And it is fantastic to think that we have saved more than a tonne of food from landfill in the process. Food should not be wasted, it should be eaten.”

Next year Margaret plans to invite local businesses to donate food too.

Luke’s Larder is an initiative between community groups including St Luke’s Church, York City Football Foundation and has also had help from Diane Lambert, community and partnership officer with City of York Council’s children’s services.

Luke’s larder has also had ward funding to start a new regular community café in St Luke’s church hall at 10am on Fridays.

Clifton ward councillor Danny Myers said: “It is amazing work that is being done around Burton Stone Lane to tackle social isolation through the excellent Community Cafe every Friday.

“It is a scandal that around a third of all food produced is wasted, and many large retailers need positive interventions from voluntary groups and communities to tackle it. We’re delighted to see Your Cafe in Clifton to promote food-sharing and reduce food waste.”