Feeding the ducks

Feeding the ducks has always been a fun, low-cost family pastime. The Feed Ducks Initiative is a free way for local authorities to provide this much enjoyed activity for their local community and provide appropriate food for local wildlife.
    
The Feed Ducks Initiative partners with local authorities and builds, installs and maintains solar-powered, contactless duck feed dispensers, with the aim of reducing the amount of bread feeding and overfeeding in public parks.
    
The initiative also aims to change public behaviour and opinion around feeding the ducks, and emphasise that bread feeding is bad, as is over feeding. Those feeding local wildlife are encouraged to do sustainably.

Green credentials
The duck feed dispensers provide several benefits. They are solar powered, meaning they can be installed off-grid and do not need to be connected to anything. This also means they are using clean electricity. As well as this, every duck feeder is made from recycled plastics, which are the equivalent of 20,000 plastic bottles – another green benefit.

Good for the environment
The duck feeders reduce the amount of bread being fed to ducks and the overfeeding of ducks in public spaces. This means the amount of foreign feed and rotting food in ponds is reduced. Rotting food attracts vermin and is costly to clean up.
    
The feed is dispensed straight to the hand, so there is no waste. Providing duck feeders also means that there is no plastic waste polluting ponds and parks from discarded bread packaging.

Benefits for the community
They duck feeders are also contactless, so no cash is ever taken or stored in the machines. From the money that is taken, 10 per cent of additional proceeds are donated back into the community to fund environmental initiatives in public parks.
    
The design of the machines also offers some resilience to anti-social behaviour. Every duck feed dispenser also displays a link to a website that is specific for each location and provides information on the local wildlife in the area.

Advantages for local authorities
The duck feed machines are free for councils to install in their communities. They are also fully managed by the Feed Ducks initiative (or the local Tidy Towns or Friends of the Park Group), so once installed, they do not need maintaining or refilling by local authorities.

Successfui installations
The duck feeders are already in place in several locations across the country. Last year, a feeder was installed at Lake Meadows in Basildon. The feeder has been installed on an existing plinth, by the lake and near the café. Local councillor Jeff Henry said: “This is a brilliant partnership with The Feed Ducks Initiative that will be a really exciting, environmentally friendly addition to one of our brilliant parks.
    
“It will reduce damaging bread feeding and overfeeding in public spaces, which will make a big impact on reducing the amount of foreign feed and rotting excess food that builds up in the park’s lake and attracts vermin.
    
“We’re installing one in Lake Meadows first as its got high footfall around the lake and a suitable location to install the feeder, but it if proves popular, then we’re certainly looking to install more of these in our parks across the borough.”
    
Blackburn’s Corporation Park also got their own feeder last year. Mayor Cllr Suleman Khonat said: “It’s fantastic to see this duck feeder installed in one of our borough’s beautiful parks.
    
“By dumping food waste in the park that is not suitable for the ducks, people are attracting rats, so it’s great to have a healthy alternative on offer.
    
“I urge all of our residents and local businesses to please responsibly dispose of their food waste, rather than spoiling our parks and harming local wildlife.”

Win-win for the ducks
Of course, the real winners are the ducks themselves. By discouraging bread feeding, overfeeding is reduced. The food provided by the feeders is nutritious and is healthy for the local wildlife. It is also dispensed in small quantities to reduce over feeding.