“I’ve filled that twice already today. Welcome!. 53,995 people follow this. We are the UK’s largest environmental charity redistributing surplus food from right across the food industry. Customers at the Saltaire Canteen, Saltaire, Yorkshire, one of the many Real Junk Food cafes nationwide. In 2016, the café also started opening on Thursdays, serving cooked breakfasts. Yet it’s tragic that we have to do this.”. See more of The Real Junk Food Project Brighton on Facebook. So far, The Real Junk Food Project has managed to feed 90,000 meals to over 60,000 people, while saving more than 107,000 tons of food from waste. I set up a Facebook group and no one responded, nothing really happened and I was about to give up when the South West environment trust [sic] contacted me and offered to help,” said Box. There’s no ‘Joshua! How We Do It: We bring people together and share the joy of cooking and eating to inform everyone about the… It goes within minutes.”, For Smith, the cafes are just the beginning. We’ve probably got the safest food ever. Hangleton and West Blatchington Food Bank. With the help of the environmental charity, Weller and Banks were given a venue – gold dust in an area of exorbitant rents – a room in a local community centre, the Etna, which includes a small kitchen. We didn’t want this saturation of supermarkets on our high street selling food 24 hours day, manipulating us into purchasing more.”. This academic year, St Joseph’s alone, will prevent approximately 1.56 tonnes of food … The Real Junk Food Project- Twickenham. The Real Junk Food Project Brighton has been recognised by Brighton and Hove City Council as a project taking part in emergency food distribution in the city. There’s a huge demographic of people who are completely uneducated about food.”, Meanwhile, Joshua has picked up an old-looking satsuma from the window display and put it in his mouth. The Real Junk Food Project Cardiff. The Real Junk Food Project at All Hallows Café is part of a growing network of pay-as-you-feel cafés that aim to reduce food waste, feed hungry people and build community. Let’s feed bellies, not bins. Each week at Victoria junior school in Feltham, Griffiths and his colleague Denise Haines from the School and Family Works group set up a stall in the playground which is covered with food rescued from local supermarkets and the local Cavan Bakery. “We’ve got a 6,000-square-foot warehouse just here in Leeds and we’re intercepting between two and 10 tons of food a day. #feedbelliesnotbins. The Real Junk Food Project in numbers. Individually, each cafe is autonomous and often exists as it’s own Community Interest Company. Both of us are good at putting things together out of nothing.”. Please share this video and get the word around. The Saltaire Canteen is as attractive and tastefully appointed as Saltaire itself. Ladywood. I want to talk to him about the Real Junk Food Project, which he founded, and suggest doing it at the cafe he set up in Leeds which uses waste food and operates on a pay-as-you-feel basis. Diners pay whatever they feel the food is worth. Let’s see how you get on with that. Ladywood Health & Community Centre. I was found nearly dead in a car from a suicide attempt. Where supermarkets might have … “It’s about empowering people to change their own lives and when you do that, that’s when a movement happens, and in the space of two years we’ve had thousands of people around the world standing up and doing stuff.”, The idea came to him while he was working as a chef in Australia. https://wastelessfuture.com/news/the-real-junk-food-project “We work in a professional manner, we are food people who make sure everything is the best it can be,” said Sarah Griffen, from Brighton TRJFP. ‘The Real Junk Food Project is a collaborative effort between catering professionals and activists to bring about a radical change in our food system. The Real Junk Food Project is a collaborative effort to bring about a radical change in our food system. There are 30 of them. The idea behind TRJFPB is to […] What We Do Here *****UPDATE – Due to COVID-19 we are not operating our regular cafés, however we are regularly distributing food bags from various locations across the city – please check here for the most up to … It’s a prime example of the kind of thing Smith believes ought to be introduced here but is bound up in exasperating bureaucracy. The project was founded by Adam Smith in Leeds in 2013. The Real Junk Food Project. It’s a simple idea with huge impact. feed bellies not bins COVID-19 Pupils from Richmond Hill Primary School, Leeds, with their headmaster Nathan Atkinson. Welcome to The Real Junk Food Project- Twickenham. Ladywood Health & Community Centre . We work with international and local partners to intercept food destined for landfill and redistribute it through a network of Pay As You Feel Sharehouses & markets, cafes and school partnerships. We had good teachers, a good curriculum, but we realised the children weren’t in a place where they were ready to learn. Little Less Known - Episode 4: The Real Junk Food Project in Armley, West Yorkshire Thank you for watching! Who are The Real Junk Food Project, Birmingham? --- The Real Junk Food Project's 'Pay As You Feel' Cafe has been a key fixture in the community of Armley, Leeds since December 2013. A chef by training, who had, by his own admission, a troubled childhood, he set up the project only three years ago, and it’s been a roller-coaster ride since then. We started on 4 June with hot toasties from Harris and Hoole cooked on an old George Forman griddle and a donated vat of coffee,” said Clare. Address: St Vincent St West, Birmingham B16 8RP. “Our food system is out of control. Primary Menu. For chefs Chrissy and Clare, who have a rota of volunteer cooks, it is a little like being in a MasterChef competition. Yesterday, in the space of about three minutes, we had emails from Indonesia, Spain, Canada, and Loughborough. Emma Green and her daughter Eira at the Etna cafe. …. Primary Menu. And it’s all perfectly good food, which if they hadn’t rescued it would now be rotting at the bottom of the bin. She is really thin. Mothers with toddlers at their ankles sit beside elderly men and women out for a welcome bit of company on a Monday lunchtime. It has improved punctuality and attendance and helped build bonds between the parents and the school, he says. And then, to extend his visa, he’d gone to work for a few months on a farm. or. At the back of the warehouse scanning the shelves for produce is Duncan Milwain. The Real Junk Food Project Brighton intercept food waste to turn into healthy meals to serve to the community, on a 'pay as you feel' basis. I said, ‘Why don’t you just give this to charity?’ And he said, ‘I just don’t have the cost and logistics to get it where it needs to go.’ That’s when it came to me.”. It’s brilliant to be able to provide a bit extra.”. Its mission? Nonprofit Organization. We are a global, organic network of pay as you feel cafes. Posts IGTV Tagged. “I’m sick to death of the media and supermarkets who say it’s all to do with consumers. Primary Menu. We never shut. We accept cash donations as much as donations of your time, skills or experience. Planet Food:The Real Junk Food Project York. “We jumped in the school minibus and straightaway they gave us 27 boxes of bananas and ten boxes of cucumbers.”, The school now provides breakfast every day to 650 pupils, has its own cafe and a weekly “food boutique”. Shopping & Retail. “It’s so simple. An earlier version referred to project as the Real Junk Food Project. “We have no idea what food we will be given on the day. We are part of a global network of Pay As You Feel cafes, making sure perfectly good food is not sent to landfill. “When we started we got everything back to front. Their Vision / Mission: TRJFP’s mission is to ‘feed bellies not bins’ and they are doing a fantastic job of achieving this goal. Address: St Vincent St West, Birmingham B16 8RP. “Since we started we have saved 1.39 tonnes of food. This is a bustling local restaurant in an affluent area of south-west London, but there is one big difference from the many fashionable cafes that line the streets of this London “village”. Twickenham’s once-a-week offering has been running for six months. We weigh everything that comes through the door.”. “Over four cafes we are feeding about 300 people a week, all our food was on its way to the bin. Create New Account. Set up in 2013 by the former chef Adam Smith, there are now 127 cafes preparing and serving waste food in seven countries and 10 “social supermarkets” that collect, store and distribute waste food on a much larger scale than the cafes are able to. Menu Skip to content. Sometimes it’s hard to know what drives people but for some reason a mountain of perfectly good food that’s destined to end up rotting seems to have done the trick. 0:00. “We can feed thousands of people from a warehouse,” he said. Over time we expect to be able to offer a wider range of food and essentials. We aim to address these. Brighton Women's Centre. There’s a mountain of food. We now intercept over 10 tonnes of food each month: food that would be sent to land-fill because regulations determine that it can not be sold even though it's perfectly good to eat. “The ‘save the planet’ focus means there is no stigma. The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham. The food has all been saved from the bin. Some people calculate that we produce 150% of our food requirements globally. The Twickenham cafe has inspired other similar projects. The Real Junk Food Project in numbers. What We Do Here *****UPDATE – Due to COVID-19 we have changed from our usual activities. Its mission? Today there are over 150 projects operating across the globe from Africa to Australia with … The Real Junk Food Project, Birmingham (TRJFPB) was founded in 2014 with the aim to feed bellies not bins. Then come and eat with us. Levels of global food waste are a disaster for our planet and the people that live on it. Richmond Hill Primary, in another deprived bit of Leeds, is just a few miles away. An empty shop unit has become our café and a … Five years ago the Real Junk Food Project Brighton burst on to the Brighton scene. “I’d been in vulnerable schools, schools in special measures,” he tells them, “but when we tried the same things here, they didn’t work. France has recently introduced a law that bans supermarkets from destroying unsold food. They both have full-time jobs but set up the cafe in a community centre owned by the Wigan Warriors rugby league team and have become expert at sourcing fresh food from suppliers in the local area. It’s something they can do. I hop in the van with Annal and boxes of cakes and bags of potatoes and loaves of bread and head off to Parklands Primary School in Seacroft. Primary Menu. Sharehouse Etiquette: We welcome everyone that wants to come and shop with us. These meals are produced in different pay what you want cafes around the UK. “This is not a cafe for the homeless, or a cafe for the elderly, it is not a food bank. The Real Junk Food Project Surplus Food Market Held every Tuesday and stocked with a range of products all destined for land-fill. We now intercept over 10 tonnes of food each month: food that would be sent to land-fill because regulations determine that it can not be sold even though it's perfectly good to eat. therealjunkfoodproject.org; fuelforschool.info. Read what we are up to, why we are doing it and how you can help. This morning (15th Feb) we are joined by a new volunteer Lelia who is helping us out as part of her Duke of Edinburgh volunteering award! Pay As You Feel. <<. Primary Menu. Together we divert perfectly edible food destined for waste and use it to create delicious and healthy meals for anyone and everyone. Because, at the moment, we throw away 15 million tonnes of food a year, more than any other country in the EU, even those, like Germany, which have a bigger population than us. We’ve been serving up lunches here since February 2015 and have grown it from humble beginnings into a community get-together of epic proportions. . He returned to the UK, set up the first cafe in Armley, Leeds, often going skip-diving outside supermarkets to get ingredients, and for the first two and a half years, during which time his son was born, he didn’t even take a wage. They get a text on Sunday night alerting them to what food is available at the local supermarkets and bakeries involved, and early on Monday morning they drive to several venues to collect it. Levels of global food waste are a disaster for our planet and the people that live on it. Where supermarkets might have been slow to act TRJFP has gone door to door to collect waste from stores to force the issue. Marks & Spencer cakes and Ferrero Rocher chocolates and punnets of grapes and tomatoes and posh crisps and jars of olives and out-of-date bottles of that well-known easily perishable food substance – water – and down one aisle, dozens of clear plastic bin liners all filled with bread. It’s a joy working and watching as it comes to life! “I’ve just got off the phone with people in the South Korean government, because we’re launching there. The Real Junk Food Project Doncaster’s entirely upcycled food waste cafe! There are stars and certificates for the children and then, at the end, they and their families file out and there are five tables laden with food, free for anyone to take, in exchange for a small donation if they have it and nothing if they don’t. He’s gnawing on a rock-hard stale loaf instead. The Real Junk Food Project, founded by Adam Smith, has inspired over 100 cafes that turn food waste into affordable, healthy meals. Keith Annal (front left) and other Real Junk Food Project team members at its food rescue warehouse in Leeds. The Real Junk Food Project Brighton intercept food waste to turn into healthy meals to serve to the community, on a 'pay as you feel' basis. Joshua! Part of an international network of cafés and communities serving 100% intercepted food, Pay As You Feel. The network has saved 107,000 tons of food from waste so far, feeding over 90,000 meals to 60,000 people. He declined to be photographed for this piece. The menu now boasts much more sophisticated offerings, including homemade apple tarte tatin, banana bread and soups. These meals are produced in different pay what you want cafes around the UK. Let’s feed bellies, not bins. The Real Junk Food Project . Address: Unit 58, Western Business Park Great Western Close Birmingham B18 4QF. “Eighty people died from food poisoning last year, whereas 75 were hit by lightning. Contact The Real Junk Food Project … To end food waste (and help local schools along the way), Last modified on Thu 2 Aug 2018 14.31 EDT, Adam Smith is blunt and to the point when I call him to suggest an interview. Collected earlier that morning from a number of supermarkets which have been persuaded to hand over their waste food rather than dump it into the dustbin, the ingredients for the latest The Real Junk Food Cafe in Twickenham are used to create wholesome lunchtime meals at a pop-up restaurant. There is more than enough food being produced to feed everyone in the world! “Delicious. We believe that food is valuable and should be eaten not wasted. If some kid from Leeds can do it, they can. Levels of global food waste are a disaster for our planet and the people that live on it. About us. The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) is an organisation that uses food that would otherwise have been discarded from supermarkets, restaurants, and other independent food suppliers to produce meals that are sold on a pay what you want basis. We save perfectly edible food that would otherwise not make it to your plate and make it available to all on a Pay As You Feel basis for money, time or skills. First, there’s what the headteacher, Chris Dyson, calls “Funday Friday!”, or a lively assembly involving karaoke-ing along to Take That and a fiendishly difficult times table competition. Solihull – Hobs Moat . Penelope Rose with grandson Woody and daughter Liz Dolan. “Which cafe? Many local charities and organisations across the borough are going above and beyond to help during the current coronavirus pandemic. We intercept edible food destined for waste from supermarkets, restaurants and shops, and make it available for human consumption through our network of local, community cafes and food markets. Ladywood. The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) , aims to save as much food from the bins as possible by encouraging supermarkets to hand it to the cafes instead. They are some of the biggest waste producers in the country. We save perfectly edible food that would otherwise not make it to your plate, and make it available to all on a Pay As You Feel basis. Volunteers redistributed 6 tonnes of food every week! We come in, in the holidays, to do this. Annal points to the van outside. He did that but then found himself being drawn in. Then, to Joshua, “Have you finished that?” He has, skin and all. He reels off some statistics. I get emails all the time from all over the world. It’s one of the most deprived parts of Leeds and it’s been one of the first schools to sign up to a new initiative the Real Junk Food Project is pioneering called Fuel for School. The full correct name is The Real Junk Food Project. Winson Green – Sharehouse. They get access to food banks but that’s only three times a year. “The parents who are in my family groups talk about how desperate they are and how they are struggling,” said Griffiths. This policy is made possible by the project’s green nature—The Real Junk Food Project intercepts food that is about to become waste and serves it at the café. We have been up and running for nearly two years, thanks to the support of the ETNA Community Centre, Greenwood Community Centre, SWLEN and our team of incredible volunteers.. We are running as a pop-up community café Mondays 11am - 1pm at the ETNA Community Centre, East Twickenham and Tuesdays 11am-1pm at the Greenwood … It is too big and too complex, the supermarkets don’t care unless their bottom line is affected. The only rules are that you must feed everyone, not just poor people, and customers should only pay what they feel the meal is worth. It’s about getting people to understand food.”. This is where it all began for The Real Junk Food Project Brighton. “We had a quiet opening because we had no idea where the food would come from or how much would come, but someone from the project told us ‘set it up and the food will come’. Five years ago the Real Junk Food Project Brighton burst on to the Brighton scene. The Real Junk Food Project is a global network of pay-as-you-feel cafés that was formed in Leeds in 2013 by Adam Smith. Smith’s response has been to invent the concept of a Real Junk Food cafe. Named volunteers have been registered to confirm that they have permission for essential travel across the city. “OK, well, your choice. are back with a Takeaway Café and The Real Junk Food Project Brighton has been recognised by Brighton and Hove City Council as a project taking part in emergency food distribution in the city. And it’s the right thing to do. The Real Junk Food Project. Since the cafe reopened in July it has: * fed over 1200 visitors * diverted 6.5 tonnes of food from landfill * been supported by a team of over 30 volunteers * clocked up over 260 volunteer hours a month. The cafe in Twickenham is one of the latest to be set up under the TRJFP banner in an attempt to tackle the mountain of food waste in the UK, where 1.9 million tonnes of food are thrown away each year. Part of The Real Junk Food Project, intercepting food destined for landfill &... Jump to. It’s a simple idea with huge impact. Then it’s been processed and transported half way round the world for it to be rejected and sent to landfill. So you get a big mix of people sitting around a table talking and eating together.”. In order to be able to carry out our cooking activities and educational events on food waste, we need your continuous support! The Real Junk Food Project Glasgow. Not Now. AboutSee All. >> WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT! I’m here because, after a month or so of phone calls, texts and emails, I’ve finally pinned down Smith. To showcase what was possible, he and the Real Junk Food Project fed 10,000 children across Leeds on one day last autumn, entirely with waste food. Send off for a welcome pack, sign an agreement and then feed people waste food. “We want to make food available to children,” he says. Plates are piled with steaming pasta, couscous salad and warm bread rolls as the chefs wipe sweat from their foreheads in a galley kitchen next door. They divert edible food waste from landfills and turn it into delicious and nutritious meals. “There’s nothing complex about it. Charity Organization. Charity Organization . Sections of this page. Because the project has done deals with certain supermarket chains – Sainsbury, Morrisons, Ocado – at a national level, the food is there, ready for the taking. “It was February 27, 2013 and I’d just seen the farmer get a delivery of a tonne of courgettes, freshly picked, that he was feeding to his pigs. October 2020 sees the 6th anniversary of the formation of The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham. 3 talking about this. I’ve been in prison, I was in care, I’ve been in mental health homes. The movement spreads through a combination of inspiration, shared experience and determined volunteers in each local area where they operate. We feed schools, organisations in the third sector and individuals as well as offering bespoke catering for corporate events, weddings and other celebratory events. And, no, he doesn’t have time to do an interview. There’s poppy seed bread and granary bread and ciabatta and sliced white. Everything we do is always Pay As You Feel. The Real Junk Food Project has been supportive, but they’ve largely done it themselves. The Real Junk Food Project is collaborative network of ‘Pay A s You Feel’ Cafes taking a stand against food waste. We save perfectly edible food that would otherwise not make it to your plate and make it available to all on a Pay As You Feel basis. St Mary’s, Hobs Moat Solihull. “We support food banks, and charities and schools and provide food boxes for 18,000 children a week from the Wakefield one, all of which has a much bigger impact.”, He is driven and focused, and angry about the scale of food waste in the world. It’s certainly eye-opening seeing how much is coming out of a handful of supermarkets in one mid-sized British city. The Real Junk Food Project We are a global, organic network of pay as you feel cafes. The primary activities of the café are to intercept waste food and to prepare food to serve on Tuesdays and Fridays from 10am to 4pm. The Real Junk Food Project intercepts “perfectly edible food that would otherwise not make it to your plate” and provides it to official partner schools, who then offer to their families on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis. The Real Junk Food Project is a collaborative effort to bring about a radical change in our food system. The Real Junk Food Project Wolverhampton is part of a global movement aiming to abolish surplus food through a variety of Pay As You Feel concepts. Forgot account? Commenting has been disabled at this time but you can still, he set up the project only three years ago, we throw away 15 million tonnes of food a year. And then they chuck out so much of it.”, There are rolls and baguettes and bagels and croissants. He turns up with his young son, Joshua, and the words that no interviewer who’s travelled 200 miles wants to hear, “I’ve only got 15 minutes.” He softens up when we actually start talking but it’s calling a spade a spade that has probably got him as far as he has. He’s the partner in a law firm but got involved when he received an email from Smith asking for legal help setting up the company. The Real Junk Food Project has been supportive, but they’ve largely done it themselves. Watch on. WE ARE THE REAL JUNK FOOD PROJECT BERLIN. The teachers in the room nod their heads thoughtfully. Coming to Etna cafe is helping Penelope meet locals. Related Pages. If they have no money, they can volunteer labour and skills instead. It needs to happen now, on a local level. Wastenot. “One single mother of three children has just £30 a week to buy food for herself and her children. It’s much bigger than me now.” It is pretty big, it’s true, but I go up to Leeds anyway and, in the warehouse, it becomes more obvious why the project has taken off so dramatically. Regulars queue down the street as we accommodate for up to … I think a lot of it is about grassroots education. It makes sense. We divert food destined for waste and use it to create delicious meals. It’s called Fur Clemt – Wigan-ish for “I’m starving” – and when a friend of theirs told them about children going into school hungry, they decided to set up a Fuel for School too. “We welcome anyone here to pay as much as they feel for the food, or nothing at all. #feedbelliesnotbins. Food … It’s nothing to do with them. I got 22 boxes of fruit and veg from Morrisons – that’s just three days’ waste from one supermarket.”. The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) are a Leeds based social enterprise who redistribute food that would otherwise go to waste. Named volunteers have been registered to confirm that they have permission for essential travel across the city. The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham. They’re another incredibly dynamic duo. Log In. This article was amended on 31 January 2019. Thursdays 12-6pm. “When I began to see the volume of waste coming in, I just thought it was obvious that something had to be done.”, Two years ago, Milwain gave up a day a week at his job and opened the Saltaire Canteen, a Real Junk Food cafe in the upmarket town of Saltaire, a world heritage site and home to one of the largest collections of David Hockneys in the world. I want to talk to him about the Real Junk. The next generation of junk food pioneers in action. Reducing Food Poverty. And that’s just in Leeds.”, Bluntness may well be Smith’s defining characteristic. Nonprofit Organization. “There’s just so much going on. Saving food is good and important, but it's a lot of work. WE FEED BELLIES, NOT BINS. Joshua starts eating the skin. We’ve fed nearly half a million people in 30 months but there’s so much more we can do.” But the pace of growth has been exhausting. The organic network’s “pay as you will” policy allows customers to pay what they feel they can; if that is nothing, they help with washing up. As have Save the Date in Dalston, east London, Curb Kitchen in Southampton, the Trash Cafe Network in Gosport … the list goes on. We feed human beings with absolutely no … Why has it captured people’s imaginations? “Some people were convinced we should be feeding the poor, not serving cake in the posh part of town, but it’s about food waste, not poverty per se.”. Food Waste and Food Poverty are two major issues that, as a society, we currently face. Read what we are up to, why we are doing it and how you can help. The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) , aims to save as much food from the bins as possible by encouraging supermarkets to hand it to the cafes instead. Between 30% and 50% of all food produced ends up being wasted. “The Pantry will stock a range of essential items, from store cupboard staples, like pasta, tinned tomatoes, and coffee, to fruit and vegetables, and baked goods. What We Do Here The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) is an organisation that uses food that would otherwise have been discarded from supermarkets, restaurants, and other independent food suppliers to produce meals that are sold on a pay what you want basis. The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) | 1,987 followers on LinkedIn. “The supermarkets make so much of it. He was living off £92-a-week tax credits. Many local charities and organisations across the borough are going above and beyond to help during the current coronavirus pandemic.