Good Food for Good Causes - 28th February 2014

Repackaged surplus goods © Laura Grossmann

On 28th February, The Food Waste Collective commandeered the Municipal Market (Circus Street) to host their quarterly Good Food for Good Causes (GF4GC) event.  GF4GC was created and organised by a dedicated team of volunteers in order to divert perfectly good surplus food from landfill, and give it to deserving projects throughout Brighton & Hove such as food banks, refuges, community cafes and lunch clubs. This month we repackaged a huge variety of food, including chickpeas, spelt flour, polenta, poppy seeds, brown rice flour, haricot beans and several sacks of gluten-free bread flour. Charities arrived throughout the day to collect the donations, and we were lucky to have volunteers on wheels to deliver to those charities that couldn't make it down themselves. The atmosphere throughout the day was electric, and despite the chill in the air everyone remained cheerful and bursting with energy.

A charity representative inspects their donated dry goods © Josie Jeffrey

We feel it is crucial to address the issues of food waste and hunger together - it is wonderful that we were able to prevent the pointless waste of healthy, surplus food, but even more wonderful that it reached people who truly needed it, and that we were able to make a contribution that allows charities and community groups to continue with the vital work they do. Our next event will be in 3 months time, and we will be looking out for more keen volunteers to help get good food to all the good causes in Brighton & Hove!

Finally, a big thank you to...

• Infinity Food, our dry-goods donor.
• Fanny's of Hanover and the Real Patisserie for their beautiful baked contributions.
• All the volunteers who made the day a success through repacking, welcoming, signing charities up to Plan Zheroes, organising pre-orders, providing recipes and food to share, taking care of the venue, and delivering food by bike to those charities that couldn't make it down.
• The charities themselves who came down to accept the food - your stories were wonderful to hear, the conversations helped to warm us in that chilly venue!

Volunteers still smiling after a hard day's work! © Josie Jeffrey