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Weekly fruit and veg stall offering ‘pay as you feel’ produce

A new fruit and veg stall offering affordable produce for students and staff has been launched at º£½ÇÖ±²¥.

The Veg Patch project is run by Hazel Wright, the University’s Wellbeing Services Co-ordinator, and will be in the Middlesbrough Tower foyer every Friday from 11.00am until 2.00pm. It offers surplus produce provided by local supermarkets and growers and people can pay as much as they feel, making fruit and veg more accessible and affordable. All money raised goes back in to running the project.

In addition, customers are offered information about healthy eating and given recipes to help them cook up something new.

Hazel has been working with Co-op, which is supplying the surplus fruit and veg. She has also teamed up with Middlesbrough Environment City which is running the Veg Power project, a national campaign to encourage young people to eat more fruit and veg.

'I have been keen to set up the Veg Patch for a while now and, as well as encouraging people to eat healthily, it also gets them thinking about food waste,' explained Hazel.

'We have had a couple of pop-up stalls and the response has been really positive. Now we will be stationed in Middlesbrough Tower every Friday and want to encourage as many people as possible to come along and use the service.'

Dr Mark Fishpool, Director of Middlesbrough Environment City, said: 'We are an independent charity supporting healthy and sustainable living and are delighted to be working so closely with º£½ÇÖ±²¥. The Veg Patch is a fantastic initiative and we are pleased that in the early stages it is already proving to be very popular among students and staff.'

• health and well-being