Tenth birthday for food waste social enterprise

A social enterprise dedicated to tackling food waste and improving access to affordable and healthy meals is celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Food Works Sheffield, previously known as The Real Junk Food Project, offers "upcycled" food through its network of community cafes and markets, with people asked to pay only what they can afford.

The project, which recently took over the derelict greenhouses in the city's Graves Park, uses surplus food to prepare nutritious ready meals for food banks and hospitals.

Its chief executive René Meijer said: "We want a food system that isn't just good for the environment and nature-friendly, but also needs to feed everybody."

Mr Meijer said the project was born out of an idea to "have a slightly better world".

"We came across this project in Leeds that was saving food from being wasted and feeding people with it," he said.

"We gave that a go and 10 years later, here we are."

Mr Meijer said since 2015, the enterprise had evolved beyond being a food waste campaign, and changed its name in 2019.

"We grow food now, we make ready meals, there is so much more to the organisation and we wanted something that really linked us to Sheffield," he said.

There are now 500 volunteers who help run two community cafes in Sharrow and Upperthorpe, a market in Handsworth and grow produce in Graves Park.

"We are just trying to make a bit of a caring food system," said Mr Meijer.

"We want to make this a city where everyone can grow, eat and enjoy locally grown food."

To mark the milestone, Food Works will launch a commemorative book alongside a crowdfunding appeal to support its publication and future initiatives.

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