At Hope Kitchen, we aim to do things in a way that’s good for people and the planet—reducing waste, supporting local growing, and raising climate awareness across Oban.
In our New Hope Café kitchen, we use around 60kg of rescued food each week—about a full supermarket trolley—adding up to 3.3 tonnes saved from landfill every year, worth roughly £11,000 and preventing around 8.7 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. Most of this food is donated by local supermarkets or grown at our Green Shoots garden. We also compost all our veg and food scraps at Green Shoots, turning waste into healthy soil for growing more food.
We’re proud of how much food we help save. In its first year, the Rescued Food Service redistributed thousands of bags of food. Around the charity, we reuse what we can – including donated bags for food parcels – and we’re always looking at ways to reduce energy use too.
At Green Shoots, sustainability is part of everything we do. We collect rainwater, grow most of our own plants, and reuse materials to build the garden. We also encourage people to walk, share lifts or get the bus when visiting.
We don’t just focus on what we do—we bring people together too. We help host Oban’s Climate Café with ABCAN and organise regular beach cleans, so our whole community can take small, practical steps towards a more sustainable future.