A family-run farm ensures the finest fresh dairy products are available to local communities – and helps the environment – through a partnership with FareShare South West.

For more than four decades, Langage Farm in Devon has been producing clotted cream, as well as yoghurt, ice cream and other goods.

As the business grew, managing partner Ben Harvey found they were sometimes having to dispose of large quantities of good dairy because there was no outlet for passing on surplus products.

That was until he heard about FareShare South West, a charity that rescues surplus food and shares it with schools, charities and food clubs across the region, turning an environmental problem into lasting social good.

Langage Farm formed a partnership with FareShare South West, which means any good-to-eat excess is taken at no cost to the business and shared with people who need it most.

Talking about why he wanted to work with FareShare South West, Ben said: “It was frustrating that we sometimes had pallets of waste that we had to just get rid of because we didn't have an outlet for disposing of it, or for giving it to food banks or charities.

“Sometimes we get products that don't meet our exacting requirements, so there might be too little fruit in the bottom of the jar, or even too much fruit, or sometimes just overproduction. And that can then go to FareShare South West.

“FareShare South West enable us to deal with pallet quantities and the small quantities.”

FareShare South West Food Manager Daniel Leite says the partnership is valuable to the charity and local communities.

“The small charities, schools and food clubs we work with tell us how much people value having access to delicious, high-quality produce fresh from a local business.

“No business wants the food they make with care going to waste. We provide a cost-free solution that ensures this food is shared with those who need it most across our region.”

As part of the collaboration, FareShare South West passes on food that isn’t fit for human consumption to Langage Farm, which is the first UK carbon neutral dairy.

This food is put into the farm’s anaerobic digestion facility where it gets turned into green energy. The bio fertiliser by-product from the facility then fertilises the fields for the herd of Jersey and Guernsey cows to graze at Langage Farm.

Ben adds: “One of the ways that working alongside FareShare South West is very mutually beneficial is that we can supply surplus food to FareShare South West that they can then distribute.

“But also, FareShare South West sometimes has food coming to them that isn't of a quality that they are able to send out, and we can accept that into our anaerobic digestion facility where it gets produced into green energy. So, it makes a nice little green loop.”