Volunteers needed for upcoming GF4GC event!

We are pleased to announce the next Good Food for Good Causes event on Tuesday August 12th 2014 at The Old Municipal Market, Circus Street, Brighton. We are anticipating (and indeed already have some!) donations from Infinity Foods, Fanny's of Hanover, The Real Patisserie and TG Fruits, and are so pleased that the Municipal Market has agreed to open its doors to us again.

So now it’s time to rally up the help from all you food warriors and make it happen! We will need lots of people on the day again as usual. With the ongoing mission of saving more food from waste and helping out even more charitable organisations in Brighton and the local area, we are looking to make the event have an even wider impact and need your help to do it.

VOLUNTEER ROLES NEEDED
ON THE DAY:

• General volunteers (arrive 9:15 a.m. prompt for 9:30 start, then can leave anytime. Event ends by 3:30 p.m.)
• Cycle volunteers (arrive 11:30 a.m. onwards until 3:30 p.m.)

If you want to help out on the day, let us know what time you plan roughly to leave and any role you are interested in, and we'll put your name on our confirmed list and email you again closer to the time with more details. All you need to do right now is save the date and we will be in touch again late July.

IN ADVANCE:

• Contact and invite known charities
• Contact and invite new charities
• Contact new food donors

If you are interested in helping to make this event have an even bigger impact and want to help out in advance then get in touch asap and we can have a chat about ideas.

Email foodwastecollective@gmail.com with "GF4GC volunteers" in the subject line.

Don’t worry if you can’t make the day or help this time, we have a few more projects coming up that will need lots of helpers for and make a real difference!

We look forward to having  you join us for a great day of food-saving fun!

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