City Harvest is London’s leading food rescue charity addressing food waste and food poverty. They deliver free food to more than 375 charities feeding their communities. City Harvest’s East London site, based at New Spitalfields Market, works with traders to repurpose food that would otherwise go to waste. Dawsongroup material handling has a long-standing relationship with the charity and provides them with the necessary equipment to process the fruit and vegetables they redistribute.

Supporting the Community

Field Service Team Leader South, David Florence, more often known as Flo, is based at the Dawsongroup material handling workshop in New Spitalfields Market, one of City Harvest’s neighbours. In between his busy schedule of fixing forklift trucks for customers and supporting his team of engineers across London and the Midlands, Flo helps out at City Harvest whenever he can.

“We’re here for a good cause,” said Philmar Husband, Site Manager for City Harvest’s New Spitalfields Market depot. “There’s a strong community here and everyone tries to help each other out. Flo always offers to help with moving things like pallets, and he comes round regularly to check if I need anything when I’m working here by myself, which I really appreciate.”

Providing the Right Solution

Alex Rene, Area Sales Executive, looks after all the Dawsongroup material handling customers at New Spitalfields Market. When City Harvest needed support in moving donated produce, he worked with them to provide the right solution. Their new electric pallet truck makes it easier to move around the busy marketplace, and the two-tonne diesel forklift truck enables them to move more produce much faster.

“We do a lot of manual handling,” said Philmar, “and having an electric pallet truck makes it much easier to move goods around the market. The forklift also helps a great deal as we can move a lot more pallets and get more on the vans, and this has increased the speed of our operations and made them more efficient.”

Benefits for Everyone

Since the branch was established in 2020, City Harvest has rescued 250 tonnes of surplus food from New Spitalfields Market, which has provided 594,290 nutritious meals for London communities in need. Their work is invaluable, and they would not be able to provide the support they do without the help of those around them.

“Helping City Harvest benefits local businesses as well as the local community,” said Flo. “When I’m visiting other customers in the market, I talk to them about City Harvest and suggest they donate their surplus produce instead of sending it to become landfill, which also improves their sustainability. Everyone wins.”

Visit City Harvest to find out how you can support them in reducing food waste and food poverty. Contact Dawsongroup material handling for all the materials handling solutions you need and find out how a Smarter Asset Strategy can make your business more agile.