Empower communities to reduce UK food poverty

FoodCycle’s 5th anniversary: thank you!

5 years ago FoodCycle was simply an idea – that people could come together to turn surplus food that would otherwise be wasted into a healthy meal for the community. It started as an experiment but soon turned into a movement. We now have 18 projects run by over 1,200 volunteers; we’ve served nearly 100,000 meals; and we’ve reclaimed over 110,000kg of surplus food from supermarkets and retailers that would otherwise have gone to waste. This year we will launch 8 new projects: serving nutritious three-course meals in a warm and welcoming space for people who are struggling to get by.

Thank you for your support in May. We raised over £2,000 from your donations (ranging from £2 to £200!), received a £6,000 donation from SC Johnson via blogger Liz Jarvis, and companies like Yumbles and the Little Pancake Company have been kindly donating for every sale throughout the month (total amounts raised pending!).

In addition to this, we reached over 270,000 twitter users through your Thunderclap, got published in The Guardian, and have had heaps of enquiries from potential new volunteers and people interested in setting up a FoodCycle project under our Franchise Model. We also hosted a community event at our Pie in the Sky Community Café, serving up a veggie BBQ for over 140 locals and putting on games and activities for families in Bromley by Bow.

We believe that food waste and food poverty shouldn’t co-exist in the same communities. So we’re doing something about it. Come and join our movement!