Every day, a staggering one million unsold loaves of bread are thrown away in the UK, while an estimated 38 per cent of children in Nottingham are living in poverty. But two of our students are hoping to use craft beer to change this.

Andrei Smirnov, who studies Human Geography, Hamish Barguss-Smith, a business management student co-founded the project with help from fellow Student James Cox. The team have worked in collaboration with local Magpie Brewery to create Bakers Pale Ale, a beer created of loaves donated from supermarkets, bakeries and local businesses.

We want to harness the power of craft beer to not only tackle food waste but to target child food poverty. We are particularly passionate about that, because we believe this issue lies at the heart of social mobility – children who don’t have enough to eat find it difficult to concentrate in the classroom, which can hold them back in their studies and prevent them from fulfilling their true potential.

The beer was unveiled on Friday 29 November at a launch party at the crafty crow. Any profits made from the sale of the beer will be donated in to initiatives working to reduce child poverty within the area.

Beer is an excellent way of preserving the calorific content of bread and significantly extending its life. It replaces 40 per cent of the malt typically used – reducing agricultural impact and Co2 emissions – and helps hop utilisation.

The Bread Brew’d Project co-founders are part of the not-for-profit, student-led organisation Enactus Nottingham, based here at the University. Andrei and Hamish were previously involved in Nottingham’s first social supermarket Foodprint in Sneinton, launched by Enactus Nottingham in 2017.

The team have ideas beyond their initial launch, with a second brew in collaboration with Lincoln Green brewery named Use Your Loaf which will be launching later this month.

Bakers Pale Ale is available to buy now at 19 pubs across the Nottingham area including Mooch in the Portland Building on University Park.