Almost half of the foods sprouting in our farmers’ fields never make it to our plates, with funny-shaped potatoes or apples left to rot.

But now, a new movement of volunteers is looking to bring those hundreds of tonnes of food waste to those most in need.

Gleaning, as gleaning coordinator Martin Bowman explains, is both a very new and very old practice.

The Gleaning Network UK has just set up a series of regional hubs to coordinate gleaning at a more localised level, including a new hub in Brighton.

MORE:

Its inaugural event held last week attracted about 30 volunteers, including top chef Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, and at least two tonnes of plums and apples were harvested in that one day from a farm in Ticehurst.

Now the group is eager to expand by recruiting more volunteer fruit and vegetable pickers, more farmers offering up their unwanted produce and more food charities in need of more donations.

Mr Bowman said: “We are taking groups of volunteers and harvesting food that would otherwise be wasted.

“Usually most of the food waste goes to Fairshare who collect massive quantities of food waste from retailers and manufacturers and taken to depots around the country but they have never accessed food from farms before.

“Part of the reason we set up a regional hub in Sussex is because of the high number of food producers, as well as Fairshare being based in the city and it’s close to London.

“There’s massive potential here.”

While gleaning begins to find its feet in the county, scrumping has been a soaring success for a number of years.

The Scrumping Project was developed by Brighton Permaculture Trust as part of Harvest and collects unwanted fruit from private gardens and public spaces around the city to prevent it going to waste.

Fruit is given out to people to eat, or processed into juices, preserves and chutneys, which are then sold.

Bryn Thomas, Scrumping Project manager, said: “We would encourage people to use fruit if they have it at their disposal.

“Apples and pears are especially good at this time of year and can be eaten as they are, turned into juices or chutneys and can even be used to make cider.”

Recent research indicated that one in ten adults was skipping meals, had gone without food to feed their family or relied on relatives or friends for food, while the number of people visiting food charity centres in the county soared by more than 1,000% in two years – a desperate need that campaigners claim has less to do with the economic situation and more to do with our wasteful food chain.

To get involved in the project or to alert the team to unused fruit, visit brightonpermaculture.org.uk.