Teenagers help to raise profileof food larder

The teenagers were taking part in the National Citizens Service award scheme.

While two groups helped re-decorate Horncastle’s Youth Centre, another decided to tackle food awareness.

And part of their week-long project involved touring Horncastle to make people more aware of the existence of the food larder.

Katie Emis, one of the teenagers taking part, told the News: “It was amazing the number of people who didn’t know the food larder existed.

“That included a lot of businesses and they told us they would try and support the larder.”

Katie said latest figures showed that across the United Kingdon, 1.1 million people had relied on hand-outs from food larders in the last 12 months.

She said many households threw out as much as 40 per cent of the food they buy.

She added an average family with two children were wasting around £700-a-year on food they never used.

She said: “It is sad that in this day and age so many people rely on food larders.

“In some ways, it is surprising that in a rural area like Horncastle there is a need for a larder but the day before we’d been to visit it, they’d helped two families.”

The group’s mentor Leo Williams said he was proud of their efforts to raise aware ness of food poverty.

A spokesman for the Horncastle Larder - based at the community centre - said it continued to provide a vital service and thanked the teenagers for their efforts.