Banc Organics is a community-supported food scheme, started in Winter 2009, that grows organic produce in Carmarthenshire. The produce is distributed locally and has grown from a band of enthusiast amateurs to a growing, professional outfit. In 2020, Banc Organics relaunched as a Community Interest Company, allowing for their customers to have more of a stake in the running of the company.

Banc Organics is an organisation with sustainability rooted at its very core, and wants to ensure the food they grow is prevented from going to waste wherever possible. We at FareShare Cymru first met with Banc at a community/food sustainability???event, and began a discussion about using our Surplus with Purpose Cymru Fund to make it cost-neutral to donate their surplus produce.

By using the fund, Banc Organics were able to cover the costs of harvesting and packing over 165kg of surplus organic brussels sprout sticks. These were then redistributed amongst our network of community groups and charities, providing access to a nutritious source of vitamins and minerals.

Discussing the decision to donate their surplus produce to FareShare Cymru, Alex Nicholas, Grower and Director, Banc Organics said:

Banc Organics grow healthy, nutritious fruit and vegetables, and have a keen interest in ensuring all of our growing is done within ethical standards to produce good, fresh food. We want to ensure that any produce that wouldn’t be commercially viable, but is still perfectly safe to consume, goes to a good home. With the sheer quantity of Brussels sprout sticks that we had available, and as a busy company, the Surplus with Purpose Cymru fund covered the costs of our labour for both picking and packing the surplus. We also didn’t have the capacity to transport these to FareShare, and they fully recognized this and arranged to collect the produce from our farm.

Alex Nicholas, Grower and Director, Banc Organics

If you would like to discuss donating surplus food to FareShare Cymru, please contact Food@Fareshare.cymru