A deli seeking to reduce waste and make food more affordable is opening in Macclesfield.

One Project Macclesfield (OPM) has announced it is opening a surplus food deli at Dukes Court.

The non-profit organisation focuses on promoting sustainable and environmentally friendly ways of living.

Kate Ellis, founder and head of sustainability, said: "The community deli will be for everyone, with affordable food at the heart of what we do and with a pay it forward board to support those who can't afford the basics whilst the community supports them. 

"OPM has always been for the whole community and will always be just that. Everyone is welcome."

OPM opened a community store on Mill Street in August (Credit: OPM)

Dukes Court Deli by OPM will open in January, located opposite OPM's community store on Mill Street.

It will not offer a standard menu but will instead offer 'plates of the day'.

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It will also be used to host support groups and a number of different events throughout the year.

Kate added: "We support a large group of people in need, ranging from people in addiction, recovery, homelessness and also a large amount of people who fall into the gap if not being eligible for benefits, free school meals, food provider support or meal vouchers due to them being in full time employment with what is deemed as a decent wage.

"With the increase of heating/electric, mortgages/rent, and travel, food is seen by many now as a luxury purchase and not a necessity.

"Saying that, we have a lot of people who come to us and take food because they hate waste and they will leave a donation which allows us to carry on offering the service we do and helps towards the high running costs we have of rent, insurance, volunteer training, utilities, storage, the list goes on."

Kate added that in the past two months alone, OPM has saved over 8.3 tonnes of food, equivalent to 19,526 meals saved from landfills.

This adds up to savings of 15,357kgs of Co2.

"We have always had the ethos of zero waste, and even though we have very little waste as we have lots of outlets for food, we are aware we can cook the food and make it go further," Kate said.

"We want to keep working with other groups and charities like we do currently to increase the positive impact we have on our local town and surrounding community."

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