'Pay As You Feel' Cafe Creates Hearty Meals From Food Waste

by Startacus Admin

Almost half of the world’s food produce ends up as waste every year – this equates to 2 billion tonnes of food waste.

This number is mind boggling to anyone, and that alone should send alarm bells ringing and tell us that something needs to change fast since there are currently over 800 million hungry people in the world. These numbers certainly don’t add up and every mouth should be fed.

This is where The Real Junk Food Project Brighton (RJFPB) steps in:

As their website says “Feed Bellies, Not Bins!”

What exactly is the concept? Well, the directors Adam and Jess want to help people realise the real value of food. They intercept food that would turn into waste from supermarkets, restaurants and even residential areas and together along with their volunteers cook and prepare healthy, hearty and delicious meals for the local community.

They want to create a friendly, comfortable and inviting atmosphere for the people of Brighton so that they can come along and fill their bellies, sit back, relax and have some fun with friends and family.

We absolutely love the concept as nobody should go hungry. Food is delicious – so why waste it?!

But that’s not all – there’s more! If you’re a little short on cash, there’s no need to worry, as the café implements a “pay as you feel” clause, meaning if you have no money to pay for your meal, you can also give some of your time to the café and lend a helping hand by volunteering. You’ll be able to help prepare food, cater to the customers and give something back to the community.

At the moment, in Brighton the Real Junk Food Project have over 80 volunteers and a lot of different supermarkets on board with the concept. We can definitely see why; a full belly is a happy belly.

The concept has been a massive success so far and we hope that this continues. However, in order to make sure that this happens, the project is currently seeking your help!

At the moment, the RJFPB run on Wednesdays at a local farmers’ market, where they offer freshly squeezed juices and sandwiches, and on a Friday at a local community church venue where they run their café, serving up an array of tasty meals to their customers.

This is all great, but they wish to make things even better by securing a permanent location. That way, they’ll be able to run their café seven days a week and keep everybody’s belly full! It will allow them to intercept even more food, you’ll be spoiled for choice! As well as this, they’ll finally be able to secure their own kitchen, meaning that they will be able to host workshops for customers where they can learn how to whip up delicious meals and develop new culinary experiences!

They have a goal of £15,000 with the aim of renting a reasonably priced location in Brighton for a year. They also plan to start giving talks to schools so that they can educate children on the importance of food and highlight the problem of excessive food waste.

The folks behind RJFPB wish to continue making a difference, and if things go according to plan there’s no telling where they’ll end up next! We’re really excited about this concept and we can only hope that it continues to do well. There’s nothing quite like a fresh cooked meal to stop those belly rumbles! You can follow them on twitter to keep up to date with how they're getting on!

 Check out some of our other recent food related posts!

Manchester Veg People, A new practice in fresh produce

Grow-up! Urban farming

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Published on: 20th April 2015