A Fishguard café that makes affordable healthy meals from surplus food has achieved international acclaim, after winning the Europe-wide REFRESH Food Waste Solution competition.

Transition Bro Gwaun’s Transition Café was chosen from over 50 entries from across Europe and is one of just three winning projects.

The judges were particularly impressed with Transition Bro Gwaun’s project, saying:

“Your grassroots initiative implements food waste reduction as an integrated part of a larger sustainability concept including behaviour changes and building new community structures.”

Transition Bro Gwaun will now have the chance to present their food waste solution at the REFRESH conference all expenses paid, in Berlin this spring. The event is attended by Europe’s leading food waste stakeholders.

They will also be able to participate in a Food Waste Innovation incubator event hosted by Food Surplus Entrepreneurs Network as a side event of the REFRESH conference and the project will be widely publicised by REFRESH on their website and on social media.

Transition Bro Gwaun also takes home the REFRESH Trophy, produced from sustainable materials,

“We are delighted to be one of the winners of the Europe-wide REFRESH Food Waste Solution contest,” said Project Development Officer Corinne Castle.

“We are pleased that our key aims of carbon reduction and building community resilience have been validated and rewarded. The 11 tonnes of food we now divert each year, mostly from landfill, will have reduced costs for local retailers and the local authority by approximately £30,000 per year (based on findings from WRAP).

“We also provide work experience and employment opportunities, and have become a community hub used by many local people and organisations.

“Our aim is to encourage more groups and organisations to make use of the surplus food that supermarkets and stores are now keen to distribute. Eating at a project where surplus food is promoted will no longer be seen as only for the poor or, at best, an unusual, rather quirky

“Our project is only the beginning of this process, but - with the help of this award - from little acorns, big oak trees grow.”