Towcester Community Larder to hand out leftover Silverstone food

More than 12 tonnes of leftover food from the British Grand Prix has been saved from landfill and is to be given out to local people.

Towcester Community Larder will distribute the food collected from Silverstone Circuit at an event on Islington Road from 18:00 BST.

It is the fourth year that the larder has organised a “food rescue” mission, with about 500 people taking advantage of last year’s event.

Katie Steele, from the larder, said the event was free and “open to everyone”, but prioritised those in hardship as well as schools and council and social housing networks.

Ms Steele told BBC Radio Northampton’s Liz Jeeves: “For a scale of a pop-up like this, we really need to open it up to everyone to make sure that the food goes out instead of being wasted.”

The leftovers have been collected by a team of food-hygiene trained volunteers before being sorted and stored ahead of the pop-up event.

The food is taken from caterers who operated at the Grand Prix. Last year it included fruit, vegetables, pastries and cold meats

The first rescue mission four years ago involved just two cars but Ms Steele said the scale of the operation had “massively, massively increased”.

She said: “It’s definitely changed a lot over those four years, but hopefully we’ve got better at it.

“We’ve got a bigger team that goes and we can make the most [of it] and get as much as we possibly can without any going in the bin.”

Queues are expected at the event, and Towcester Community Larder said it would share updates on its Facebook page.

Community larders exist to reduce unsold food and pass it on to members who pay a small subscription.