Real Food Wythenshawe: What has food got to do
with climate change?
What’s it all about?
Real Food Wythenshawe is an exciting opportunity for residents to grow, cook and
eat sustainably. The project supports individuals and community groups to grow their
own food and use it to feed themselves and their families
How will we do this?
By:
 providing land for community growing
 providing educational workshops and training to help people start to grow
in their back gardens or on community land
 helping people to learn how to cook from scratch using locally grown
seasonal foods and wholefoods
 providing opportunity to learn more about the impact our food has on the
environment
 by providing more access to locally grown foods, by setting up food hubs
throughout Wythenshawe
So what has food got to do with climate change?
Climate change is caused by certain gases
 Carbon – from when we burn fuel
 Methane – from rotting food and burping animals!
 Nitrous Oxide – from industrial process and farming
20% of these gasses are released from our food system
How?
Farming: Modern farming techniques burn a lot of fuel, cattle pee and burps release
methane and heating greenhouses to grow crops out of season (hot houses) all
contribute.
Transport: Some foods are flown to us from the far corners of the earth.
A typical trolley of supermarket food has travelled 3,000 km to get to you!
Eating asparagus out of season from California uses aviation fuel to get it here, but
if it comes from Europe or even better Britain it is transported by lorries and uses a
lot less energy
Packaging
Food and ingredients are prepared and packaged using energy and when we chuck it
away it either rots and releases greenhouse gas or it hangs around for years causing
problems for our wildlife and landfill storage.
Storage
Keeping food cool in fridges and freezers uses a lot of energy
Waste
After all that we throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food (9 Wemberly Stadiums full to
the brim!) which we could have eaten! By reducing waste every house could save
£50 per month
What can we do here in Wythenshawe?
Grow your own: Have a go at growing your own food, ‘Eat less from a box and
more from the earth’ - hardly any greenhouse gasses emitted pottering in your garden
picking your tomatoes or snipping some herbs. However small your space is you can
grow something (tomatoes in hanging baskets) – Try our workshops to get you
started.
Buy what you need: Try to buy loose so you buy what you need
Go seasonal and local: Buying food in season will limit how far it has travelled and
will help our local economy. An example of out of season food, would be eating
Strawberries at Christmas time, they are in season in our summertime so eating them
at Christmas means they have travelled from far away! Seasonal in food is cheaper.
Like our facebook page and we will keep you posted about what is in season (real
food wythenshawe)
Eat more fruit and vegetables and less meat and dairy: Eating more fruit and
vegetables, less meat and swapping your beef and lamb to chicken and pork will help
the environment, save you money and it is much healthier. Reduce your reliance on
meat, it’s better for you and cheaper. How about eating a meat free meal every week?
Or come to one of our cooking demonstrations to cook up some tasty meals
Avoid excessive packaging and recycle your packaging: A metal tray with a plastic
lid, inside cardboard box inside a plastic bag is excessive. If a frozen lasagne cost
99p, 40% of the product is spent on the packaging, sourcing the ingredients and
getting it to the shop. That means the ingredients costs 50p, What are you eating?
Lower carbon cooking: Try to cook more meals from scratch and eat less processed
meals, great for your health and your environment. When you are cooking do things
to use less energy (turn the gas down and put the pan lid on, use all of the vegetables –
stalks n all, use pressure cooker or microwave)
How can I get involved?
Volunteer with us: Contact: Rachel Harding 0161 946 9168 or
Rachel.harding@wchg.org.uk
 Help us convert land in Wythenshawe into land to grow fruit and vegetables
and show people how to make tasty food from scratch. Be a champion
sustainable food!
Learn with us: Contact: Rachel Harding 0161 946 9168 or
Rachel.harding@wchg.org.uk
 Come along to any of workshops to learn about growing fruit and
vegetables, encouraging wildlife, composting, the environment
Cook with us: Contact: Pam Moran 0161 946 9167 or pamela.moran@wchg.org.uk
 Join a cookery group or watch a cooking demonstration. Show us your
recipes and spread the word of how tasty seasonal food cooked from scratch
can be
Grown with us Contact: Kay Bamford 0161 946 9116 or kay.bamford@wchg.org.uk
 Need help with setting up a growing group, have spare land, need support
with planning your growing season