Our mission is an environmental and social one - to 'rescue' surplus food so it can nourish people in the community through our food aid projects and community larders.
We are proud to be selected and accredited as 'tier one food redistributors' by Fareshare in the Midlands and work with Neighbourly registered supermarkets. We were previously known as Revolution Zero CIC.
We collect surplus food from stores and food producers to share with the community. Prior to the pandemic, this was through our two community shops, various pop-ups and two community cafes and affiliates. We changed our name from Fruitful Abundance to Revolution Zero CIC to reflect our Zero Waste, Zero Hunger mission - through our shops and cafes: branded as Shop Zero and Cafe Zero projects.
However, during the pandemic, we shared most of our food with a host of charities, refuges and food banks to ensure they had the food to continue. We set up packing stations in churches, a school and community centres, utilising the skills of some of our highly experienced volunteers.
We continue to provide emergency parcels to families in crisis (supplying around 350 people a week). These contain fresh fruit and vegetables, store and baked goods and bread, cleaning products and toiletries. We have reopened one community store to provide low cost items to a disadvantaged area.
Our team of volunteer collectors are out at all hours, seven days a week and work across holidays too in the desire to prevent good food going to waste. We train them to follow safety protocols.
Our reference from Fareshare says: "Revolution Zero (and its personnel) have displayed a big-picture ambition...and they have also got the skill sets within the team to turn these ambitions into reality. This organisation is committed to delivering the highest possible standards across all of its areas of operation. This is one of the key reasons FareShare granted Revolution Zero ‘food redistributor’ status in 2019. We work with almost 13,000 organisations across the UK, and less than 175 are given this high-value and important accreditation. It is a hallmark of trust, respect – and recognition the organisation can do the job that is required. Within the FareShare ‘family’ of partners, Revolution Zero is regarded as a best practice model of operational capability, safety – and delivery of solution at scale."
Big Picture
We want to be part of a movement committed to raising awareness and educating people about the waste in the food system. Nearly two million tonnes of produce from the U.K food industry is thrown away each year - and even more goes from our homes into landfill, even though much of it is perfectly edible.We hold events, campaigns and contact with the public and suppliers to educate people about the issue. We take food donated from our partner supermarkets and share it with people in the areas of social deprivation in which we work. Our team of volunteer collectors receive food from supermarkets and suppliers across the region to make many thousands of meals. Our food larders can be accessed by anyone. But we know some of our customers cope with food poverty. In fact, around four million children in our country do not have enough to eat. So we have food aid projects to help those in crisis, with both staples and treats too.
Why the community needs us
We are an environmental organisation trying to address, educate and campaign for changes in the food industry, to value every bit of food produced - and to present ideas to help people minimise waste themselves. Shop Zero is a hub for storing and re-distributing food through our projects, including community larders in areas of social deprivation.
Our impact on the community
We rescue an average 3 tonne of food each week. Our projects help families in food poverty. W also help train volunteers, some of whom value back to work skills, others in utilising their experience in a purposeful way.
