Food waste and mindful shopping: How Balanced Pantry encourages local community to make sustainable food choices?

Who might know, that by grocery shopping, will improve your knowledge on Climate Change and food waste? Actually, it does, if you are shopping in The Balanced Pantry in Ballymoney, Northern Ireland! This incredible, newly open, zero-waste shop is not only place, where you can shop package-free, but also a fantastic opportunity to meet other people, and discuss environmental issues.

To find out more about, I was delighted to talk with owner and founder of Balanced Pantry, Ursula McGarry, who told me more about her environmental-friendly initiative.

Food waste

Food waste is a massive problem.
‘It is ridiculous, how much food is being thrown out from the supermarkets to bin’ – says Ursula. ‘It is a shame, that we do not think more about the food going into our bins. Not only the food itself, but also the land, labour and airmiles that it has taken to get that food into our homes.  Never mind the damage that it does when it reaches landfill by the release of methane into our atmosphere. That it why it is so important to use the brown bins provided by the council for food and garden waste.  It means that anything that is not used can be turned into compost, however this should only be a last resort as we should be trying to cut down on our food waste before reaching the stage of throwing it out’.

It is hard to believe that, only in the UK, we waste over 15 mln tonnes of food each year. Even more terrifying is that of the 7 mln tonnes of the food is being discarded from our kitchens, when nearly half of that is edible.   

‘We are guilty of some food waste, but there are some things that we can do to reduce the amount that is put into the bin including freezing leftovers or using them for lunch the next day, cooking some of the less fresh vegetables in a soup, curry or stew, using softer fruit in smoothies or on top of porridge and turning the ends of a loaf of bread into breadcrumbs for pasta bake toppings or stuffing.’

That’s right - we are seems to be guilty of discarding leftover salad, fruit, vegetables and bread, before we do the next food shop. Why we doing that? Well, there are few reasons for that, however, meal planning appears to be a main one. Most of us, do not prepare a shopping list, before going to supermarket, what makes us prone to buy random foodstuffs. Also, recent advantages offered by food industry, make us too comfortable about shopping for the food. Because, we can get food frailly cheap almost everywhere, we do not think about preserving, what we already made. We are simply not bothered.

Also, our shopping habits have big impact on the amount of food waste we produce. In the recent years, multibuys of ‘buy more, for less’, motivate us to shop by quantity instead of quality. We think less of how much food we actually need, and we tend to focus more on how much we can save by buying more. Unfortunately, in most cases, we are not eating all, what we got, and most of the foods end up in the bin; or we overconsume those foods, what sooner or later will impact on our health and well-being. Maybe we will save few pounds on weekly grocery, but we will also get few more pounds to carry as well. 

Facing a food waste problem

What we can do to reduce a food waste? This question, Ursula asked herself in January 2019, when she started thinking about opening The Balanced Pantry. ‘My idea behind possibility of packaging-free shopping was to allow customers to decide how much of a particular food item they want to buy.’ Sounds reasonable, but there is a one trick. ’In my shop, I gathered a special selection of organic foods, which might cost a bit more, when compared with buying the same products in the ready package in the supermarket, however it prompts thinking process about the amount we actually need, what in consequence reduce waste’.

 But why ‘The Balanced Pantry’? Answer seems to be obvious - ‘Because we store our food items in a “pantry”, well actually we use a cupboard but I love the word “pantry”. “Balanced”, because the way in which refill shopping takes place there is the use of scales for weighing the items we’re buying, but also because shopping with less packaging and taking food waste into account, we are balancing our impact on the world around us. This is why the shop’s logo has a picture of the Earth on one side and refillable containers on the other’ – explains Ursula.

 

Going plastic-free

Ursula decided to open The Balanced Pantry in November 2019, after she watched a documentary called ‘A Plastic Ocean’, which encouraged her to subsequently begin the journey of eliminating plastic from her life. Starting of swapping razors, for reusable ones, through using her own water bottle, instead of buying drinks in the plastic ones, she has started to make a contribution throughout reducing plastic waste. 

Everything seems to go well, till she decided to packaging-free shopping. ‘It was very challenging to buy foods, like grains or even vegetables, which wouldn’t be wrapped in extra foil or placed in plastic bags’.

With the time, this situation prompted in her head an idea, about opening her own shop, which would allow customers to buy foods in the right needed amount, without unnecessary packaging. ‘I read about such a shop that was in the process of opening in Whitehead called Purple Earth, which is a while from Ballymoney. I then learned about Refill Quarter in Belfast which opened at the end of Summer and later on, closer to the time of my shop opening, The Larder in Broughshane opened it’s doors. Although I had been thinking about opening a refill shop for quite sometime, I knew that it was the right time to open, because if I didn’t, then someone else would and I would regret not doing something that I am so passionate about.’

Despite the fact, that it might sound easy, for sure it wasn’t. Together with the help of family, Ursula has started to put the dream of having a packaging-free shop into the life. ‘I got amazing support from my husband and his brother. They helped me with setting up the shop – they did all painting, woodwork, they fixed floors, made shelves and move all stuff in, as well as my parents who helped out with getting ready for the first day of business’.

Ursula asked about the biggest obstacle with setting up her business, she laughs ‘I think the most challenging was finding the right opening times. I work as a childminder fulltime, so I cannot open the shop during usual working hours between 9am to 5pm at the minute. Thus, opening on two evenings and at the weekends I thought that this would give most people an opportunity to visit the shop at some stage, especially for those who have to do their grocery shopping outside of normal working hours’. Actually, it was great an idea, which seems to work well.

A special selection and mutual support

Ursula carefully chooses products, which she sells in her shop. It is not easy, but she seems to have strategy in place. ‘Where possible, as well as offering packaging free products, I try to also find items grown in the UK.  This is difficult as most grains and pulses grow in warmer climates, but I do have a small selection of UK grown produce including quinoa, marrowfat peas and roasted snacks and intend on extending this range. When placing my first orders, I wanted to be able to offer the most commonly used food items such as pasta, rice, flour, dried fruits etc, but I also provided a “suggestion jar” for customers to add items that they would like to see in the shop. I try to update the products available on a regular basis, although space can be limited at times.’

So, what kind of products has Ursula in her shop at the minute?

Well, starting off with grains and cereals, she has big selection of flours, spices, dried fruit and nuts. ‘You can bring own container to shop, weight before, take your favourite foods, weight again and pay only for the actual foods’. Who might thought that going packaging-free can be simple and environmental friendly like that.

Other interesting products, which can be found on Balanced Pantry shelves are reusable kitchen and bathroom accessories, such as metal straws, reusable water bottles, glass coffee cups, safety razors and reusable sanitary products.

Superfoods: Beetroot powder, organic hemp seeds, vegan chocolate protein powder, vegan sweets, selection of flours, teas, coffees, Osumi Rice Crackers, garlic Gathia noodles, Bombay mix, Jungle trial mix, dried fruit like dates, banana chips, dried apricot, dried pineapple. Also, a variety of wholewheat pasta and spaghetti. Selection of beans, cannellini beans, haricot beans, kidney beans, butter beans and chickpeas, lentils, brown, red, green. 

Grains: White cous cous, brown rice, white rice, arborio rice, quinoa

Pasta: organic white lasagne, organic white penne pasta, wholewheat macaroni and wholewheat spaghetti.

Cereals: organic cornflakes, puffed brown rice, puffed quinoa, muesli base, deluxe muesli, porridge oats and jumbo oats.

Nuts and seeds: Pistachios, walnuts. Almonds, cashews, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, hemp seeds, chia seeds.

Teas: Breakfast tea, Decaf tea and chamomile.

Herbs and Spices: Sage and Mixed Herbs, Cinnamon, Smoked Paprika, Garam Masala, Turmeric, Ground ginger, Mixed Spice, Fine sea salt, Black peppercorns, Parsley, Tyme.

Ursula asked of which product is she the most proud of, she says ‘Peanut butter!’. Actually, she means peanut butter machine, which makes 100% peanut butter in front of your eyes. ‘You literally put the peanuts into machine, press start, and you are getting peanut butter straight to your container. No added sugar or other additives.  And you can see whole process. My customers love the machine, so do I. I also have in offer puffed quinoa and golden flax seed, which seems to be barely seen in many stores’.

The future is bright in the Balanced Pantry

From the perspective of the time, opening Balanced Pantry was a great idea. The shop seems to have good reputation in the town.

‘Wide range of people visits my shop. It seems that some people were waiting for a shop like this to open and they quite often shop here. Some of my clients find packaging-free shopping more engaging, than just going to supermarket, putting stuff into the basket and running to self-checkout. Here, you can stop and think what and how much food you want to buy. Mindful shopping seems to be quite common before special holidays, especially for those who need a little bit of everything to make occasional dishes’.

What are the next steps for the balanced business? For sure, I want to be able to focus on my shop on a full time basis, and establish longer opening times.

Ursula asked, how does she want to achieve in the future, she says that she wants to have a shop not only for a profit, but also to be a part of the community. ‘I wanted the Balanced Pantry, to make an impact in people’s lives, by creating space for conversations about important issues for local community. I have a recycling box which helps to raise funds for charity and we have recently held a community talk, alongside local council, where people could come in and discuss environmental topics which we hope to make a regular event. I would love to work alongside other community and environmental groups in the future.’

How to find balanced pantry?

Urusla McGarry

Facebook: The Balanced Pantry

Instagram: thebalancedpantry.ballymoney

Resources: 

Statistics about food waste came from food-waste-info-h002

UK Food Waste Facts. In sink Erator. Material is available here. https://insinkerator.emerson.com/en-gb/blog/food-waste-facts-uk