Louiza Hamidi didn't spend a penny on food for eight weeks training for the ABP Southampton Half Marathon after taking out-of-date food from city businesses

But unlike the other runners, Louiza did it fuelled entirely on food that was destined for the bin.

And rather than spend a small fortune to get race fit, Louiza hasn’t spent a penny on food for the whole eight weeks she has been training.

Instead of pushing a trolley around a supermarket to stock up her supplies, Louiza cycles around the city’s friendliest businesses who give her their out-of-date food, including bread, pasta, eggs, fruit and vegetables.

Louiza wanted to prove that even though food that is thrown away may not be perfect it is still perfectly edible, so the former bin diver took on the mission that she named Race Against Waste.

“My fitness level was nearer the lowest end of the scale so this was a really big deal for me,” says Louiza, who completed the race with a time of two hours, 14 minutes and 57 seconds.

“At times it was tough, but I just kept going and when I got to the end I was buzzing from the achievement, all the support and encouragement I received was very overwhelming.

“But I wanted to run to raise awareness of food waste and prove that there is nothing wrong with a lot of the food that ends up in bins.

“Our system throws so much perfectly good food away that I wanted to do something a little unusual to change the way we think and feel about waste, because I hate how much surplus food ends up in landfill.

“Dates are made to be manipulating, and it’s only the ‘use by’ ones that are a legal requirement.

“A product doesn’t suddenly become inedible just because it has yesterday’s date on it.”

Louiza, who studied fine art at Southampton Solent University, first went ‘dumpster diving’ a few years ago with a friend and was shocked at just how much food they found in the bins, everything from bread and cakes to vegetables and yoghurts.

From that point she was converted and started going regularly.

“There was so much food, that my friends and I couldn’t eat it all,” explains the 24-year-old, from Shirley.

“We would share it with our housemates and neighbours, but with the amount we’d rescue, we eventually began running community cafés to invite anyone to eat it. Eating surplus food helps to prevent me from supporting the production of more.

“It’s like living a little further away from the capitalist cycle of continuous buying and throwing out.”

This year, Louiza decided that in order to demonstrate the nutritional value that is wasted, she would train and run the half-marathon fuelled on food that supermarkets, farms or friends would have thrown away.

“In the lead up to the race, I committed to eating only locally-sourced surplus food. I collect weekly from stores and food banks, and even managed to squeeze in a trip to a farm where we rescued over two tonnes of potatoes that supermarkets had rejected.”

Instead of asking people to sponsor her in the race, Louiza asked for pledges of time, skills and unwanted kitchen items to help her get her new venture – Curb – underway.

She even had people commit to not shopping at supermarkets for the duration of her training.

Curb is a campaign café, running on a pay as you feel basis. There are no prices, but the food is not free and guests can pay how much and however they like.

This is often a monetary donation, but could be an offer of time or service to the project - washing up, collecting food, running a workshop, producing photography, providing musical entertainment or sharing a gift.

Louiza believes this allows a more conscious and self-determined exchange, whilst actively encouraging people to think about the true value of food.

“The idea of the cafe is to educate, cook, reveal, campaign, interact, challenge, connect, save and eat,” says Louiza, who currently also works as a sales assistant.

“We pop-up at all kinds of events and festivals around the city, and will soon be running a street food stall in the town centre market. Eventually, we would like a fixed kitchen space so we can convert surplus food into pay as you feel menus on a full-time basis.

“We are hoping to collaborate with absolutely anyone that handles edible produce and commit to building up relationships - establishing legitimate collections and intercepting as much food as possible before it reaches bins.

“When I first witnessed the amount of food continually thrown into skips, I realised that it's only the tip of an enormous ice-burg.

“I became so passionate and have wanted to put my energy to it ever since, so I did.

“Over the past couple of years, I’ve really understood the value in having conversation with local food businesses in order to pick up their surplus - rather than foraging through their bins.

“In fact, I rarely go bin diving anymore - skipping was just my way in to the world of food waste a few years ago.”

Louiza has been overwhelmed by the support she has received so far for both the half-marathon and Curb, but she understands eating food that would otherwise be wasted is not for everyone.

“I know eating food destined for landfill won’t immediately be everyone’s cup of tea. What I consume is perfectly fit for human consumption, and I’ve never been ill from eating any of it.

"I can receive a whole crate of fruit just because one of them is mouldy, and that’s why I wanted to run – to show people that there is nothing wrong with the majority of food that is thrown away.

“Becoming a little more conscious about food waste is only the first step, but actions will follow. If I can just introduce people to the idea of a food waste café and encourage us to rethink throwing away perfectly good food, then it’s a start - and we can build from that.”

“Saving food destined for landfill invites me to look at the bigger picture. Tonnes and tonnes of produce gets rejected before it even reaches retail - just because it doesn't look right, and farms are constantly struggling with the strict cosmetic standards that supermarkets dictate.

“I hope that through Curb and other food waste projects I'm involved with, I'm able to raise awareness and help voice this silence.”

Panel Louiza started the year with a two month road trip visiting other food waste projects around the UK, learning perspectives on food waste from different parts of the system.

She is currently producing a publication called Landfull - a UK Food Waste cookery book. She is collecting recipes from all the other initiatives working with surplus food around the country and hopes it will by the end of 2015.

Blob Curb will have a stall at the Community Food Festival at St Mary’s Church, St Mary’s Street, Southampton on May 23 and at the Environmental Rock Festival at The Hobbit, Bevois Valley Road, Southampton on May 25.

For more details, visit: www.facebook.com/curbkitchen?fref=ts