‘Aber Food Surplus’ doesn’t represent our holistic approach to food system action and resilience anymore…. maybe it never did?

We are a pioneering not-for-profit social enterprise focused on having a positive impact on the food system, delivering meaningful community change and volunteer empowerment. The initiative started as a volunteer and community led surplus food redistribution project to reduce the environmental impact of waste. Now, alongside 45 brilliant volunteers, the Aber Food Surplus team delivers a HUGE range of different food system activities!

Our company name may be changing but our vision and purpose remain the same. And, over the next 6 weeks, we would love it if you could take a little time to learn more about the project, and help us to explore a new, more suitable name!

Bwyd Aber Pwy? - Aber Food Who?

For now, we are enjoying operating under the temporary name ‘Aber Food Who?’ a playful call to action, which is both an invitation to participate in our name change process and an invitation to you to take action towards positive environmental change, in any way you like, because ‘Who?’ also represents us, and you, and the community of Aberystwyth who eat food.

Did you know our name ‘Aber Food Surplus’ was invented back in 2018? We have come so far, and we are totally ready to renew ourselves!

‘Who’ we think we are now…

We are passionate about connecting people with food and are working towards a more circular, resilient and thriving local food culture. We believe in growing food and skills in harmony with nature, and contributing to a regenerative and agroecological food system. And that the sharing of skills, knowledge, experience and resources is integral for the good food, health and wellbeing revolution. And, we exist to take action on climate change for future generations through facilitating proactive place-based change and transformational community-led food action.

Bwyd Dyfi Hub

Bwyd Dyfi Hub offers high quality weekly pre-order organic and local fruit and veg boxes direct to you! By selling food from local producers - grown in and around the Dyfi Biosphere UNESCO Heritage area - we bring customers and producers closer together. This work aims to improve access for producers to a local market of people who will buy their tasty, nutritious, delicious and BEAUTIFUL food, while also enabling a fair price to customers offering freshness, quality and convenience. By improving the horticultural (fruit and vegetable) market locally, we hope we can encourage more good food to be grown and sold in and around the Dyfi Biosphere, reducing food miles, building food system resilience in a changing climate, and championing agro-ecological farming methods.

Community growing and gardening - Have you seen Tyfu Aber Grow around Aberystwyth?

We started off Guerrilla gardening during lockdown, and now we support volunteers to grow food and connect with nature in local green spaces such as Trefechan Bridge Garden, Maes Gwenffri North Road Park, and Plascrug Allotments and Tesco Superstore raised beds. We also create our own compost and host a seed library! We are passionate about growing food and skills in harmony with nature, and contributing to a regenerative and agroecological food system. And enabling the sharing of these skills and activities as integral for the good food, health and wellbeing revolution.

Opportunities to learn and build resilience together

Collaboration with individuals and community groups to explore activities and learning opportunities that reduce the impact of climate change is important work. As an organisation we host lectures, seminars, workshops and events to promote community leadership and local food system change, where we can learn together about where our food comes from. We are also moving…our current shop on Chalybeate Street is too small for community learning together, and we are moving on to Great Darkgate Street into a bigger shop more suitable for gatherings!

Sharing food to reduce food waste

Currently we share food that has been redistributed from waste through our community fridge and pantry on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. With our new kitchen and gathering space, we hope we can explore other methods to reduce food waste, such as making jams, snacks and cooking workshops!

Celebrating and valuing food as a community

This project started with pop up cafes, events and food skills workshops. Bringing people together for a shared meal or activity allows us to talk and learn about food, finding value and joy in new tastes, flavours and conversations.

Our approach to empowering community leadership

This involves working towards a flat structure throughout our organisation, and offering inclusive, valuable and well supported volunteering opportunities. A flat structure relies on trust, communication, and proactive contributions with a solutions-focused approach, and is an opportunity for wider learning to explore how community-led change works bottom-up. As a team, we hope to apply this approach to maintaining our organisation too, such as: developing our strategies and operations; maintaining our spaces, and health and safety; fair and transparent recruitment, contracts, and training opportunities; accounting, financial sustainability and fundraising.

We have 3 ways for you to find out more and get involved in the name change:

Online Please visit our feedback form here

In-person? Visit our hub/base/headquarters/centre anyday Tuesday-Friday and…coffee morning/event(s)

Chat to our team , or
See our photo book and fill-out a feedback form

We hope this process will be an opportunity to learn and share about WHAT we do, WHY we’re doing it, and HOW you can get involved. And we hope you can provide us with some feedback along the way!

Changing our Compnay name: Aber Food Who?