olio market Drayton Shropshire, Market Drayton (2026)

11/03/2025

Been a lovely few days here in market Drayton sun shining, we saw the stalls at the market on Wednesday and again at the artisan market on Saturday..the allotments were humming too spring is starting and people are planning their gardens. What are you planning for yours?
Growing food is super important this Yr so we thought we would put a few tips here for any newbies. Also some you tube videos that might be useful to give you some ideas! Here is a nice idea for a small garden pond to introduce so nature into the space

26/01/2025

Support the farmers . We need them !

Guard the Gate empowers farmers across the UK with vital information on bird flu, testing, bio-security, and best practices. Join us to protect our farmers and food sources while understanding your rights and health solutions.

09/09/2024

Announcement!
I will no longer be collecting or distributing free food to save waste for olio unfortunately!

I was unwell last week suffering a migraine and because I hate to let people down I went to collect from the store and while listing the items I neglected to double check the dates were showing in the listing and I had a couple of items that the best before dates were missing from.

Unfortunately another "food waste hero" from another area reported me and because I had made this error once before when I started in June I have been removed from collecting .

I have walked the streets of market Drayton delivering olio postcards door to door. I have handed postcards out to people locally and shared the food with as many as possible while telling as many as I can about the food I can help them get .

This is a voluntary role and is quite time consuming some days but I enjoyed it emensly.

You have to travel to collect the food late at night in some cases ( Sainsbury's) then list it and store it and stay up to see if anyone comes for the late collections on use by items then waste what doesn't go !

You need to be always checking the app for messages and answering them!

Then arrange collection.

I set this page up to help more of you find out about the service .

The staff at Sainsbury's have been amazing helping me to get this off the ground and I am very sorry I have let them down.

I should have left the collection as a missed collection and the food should have been binned from Iceland that night,

I was in the wrong going to collect while feeling unwell.

Unfortunately olio are not very supportive of their volunteers . I had to order the postcards 4 times and then complain they hadn't been delivered in order to get them over 6 weeks later

They have no one superior in the areas to help new collectors and you have to find your way alone

When you do have issues and need help there is a forum you can ask questions and get sarcastic and bitchy replies from other " heros"

I never called myself a hero I used the term food waste volunteer because 'Hero' gives people a god complex.

Thankfully I found one lovely now former olio collector who helped me .

There is only Sainsbury's here in Drayton that has a regular collection and the odd Iceland one , I had 2 from there in 3 mths so not loads of food but I had a few regular ladies that came to me and they shared the food they collected with others so I am so sorry I won't be able to help them do this anymore. I suggest they check out the food bank( Trussell trust) or fareshare to see if these organisations can help your friends and neighbours.

I wouldn't recommend olio to anyone unfortunately as I have heard many stories from other collectors that my situation isn't unique.

Good luck to anyone who wants to try it but unfortunately the scheme seems to have plummitted in many areas and many former collectors have had a similar experience to me.

Sorry and thank you for the support i had from people on this page !