Businesses in Paisley are throwing their weight behind an innovative scheme tackling food insecurity and waste.
The Star Project’s Tea Bag initiative has won sponsorship from three organisations keen to make nutritious food as accessible as possible in a sustainable way.
Launched two years ago, the project offers people a bag full of ingredients to make their tea, which has been outlined on a recipe card.
With exactly the right amount of ingredients included, the scheme prevents any leftover food from going to waste.
And like everything done by the Star Project, the bags are offered at an affordable price – £2.50 for a meal for two, £5.50 for a meal for four and £7.50 for a meal for six.
Now building firm JW Grant and John McKay Jewellers, as well as Renfrewshire health and social care partnership, have all handed over cash to ensure the survival of the project as the cost of food continues to rocket.
Lauren Roy-Sutherland from the Star Project told the Paisley Daily Express: “We are very grateful to these business and the HSCP who have come on board as sponsors of the Tea Bag initiative and who are keen to help us tackle food insecurity.
“As part of the sponsorship, we will be printing their logos on the tea bag paper bags and that’s shared across all our social media channels, on the Pantry Plus Page, the Star Project pages etc.
“This sponsorship allows us to buy what we need to make balanced nutritious meals that are accessible and affordable in a scheme that also empowers people to cook as well.”
The Tea Bags are an extension of the Star Project’s Panty Plus initiative which allows people to purchase exactly what food they need, again at a discounted rate.
Instead of buying a kilo of potatoes or large packets of greens and yoghurts sold at supermarkets, the pantry allows people to purchase what they need only and thus reducing the amount of food going to landfill.
Collectively, the people who are purchasing from the pantry and Tea Bag initiative are also supplementing the Star Project’s community fridge which offers people in financial crisis an emergency food parcel.
Lauren added: “Our community pantry and tea bags are open to everyone.
“People who shop with us are getting their food at an affordable rate for themselves but what they are also doing is feeding that support back into the community at the same time.
"There is zero waste and with all of the fruit and veg sold as single items, outwith large packaging, it’s a much more sustainable way to shop.”
Pantry Plus opens at the Star Project on Love Street between midday and 6.30pm on Tuesday and from 10am to 2pm Wednesday to Friday. Tea Bags are available to buy on Thursdays and Fridays.
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