But the Good evening - haven't been on here for a while! We are mostly used to posting most things through Facebook, however its been mentioned a few times recently that people have tried to find us elsewhere and we are hopelessly not up to date. As the title states, things have changed, the last couple of years we have been so busy we barely had time to catch our breath. We saved a lot of food, we fed a lot of people, we met some amazing people and still got frustrated on a daily basis about the state of food waste and how it made us mad. BUT things are changing, several apps cropped up such as Too good to go which encouraged shops to sell off their end of day produce at reduced prices which was BRILLIANT, they also sold misshapen or odd sized fruit and veggies slightly cheaper. Also zero waste items, reuseable products, refill shops and end of range clearance websites are all now normal everyday occurances, the world is changing, ASDA is trialling refills on items such as cereal and pasta, lots of corner shops have refillable milk in glass bottles, we are all raving about shampoo bars and knitting dishcloths and making chutney with our end of day wonky vegetables, we were getting on board. THEN 2020 happened, and swiped us all sideways, we started the year off pledging to do our bit to save the environment, reduce out plastic consumption and generally try and be better people for the sake of our planet. The threat of COVID19 had been lingering for a while but we had no idea of what was to come, by March we were being told to stay home and the fear and uncertainty was suddenly very real. Things stopped, people shut their doors, supermarkets were cleared of toilet rolls and essential items in a way that felt almost apocalyptic. Hand sanitiser was as rare as hens teeth and we washed our hands constantly. But the most difficult thing was everything just stopped, no schools, no cinemas, no pubs, shops or coffee shops, city centres were eerily quiet and roads were deserted. The nature of our role in the local community changed almost overnight, we couldn't hold community lunches or events due to restrictions and social distancing, we also had to distance ourselves and staff and lone work on different days to prevent contamination. We changed our role as caterers and became food suppliers to people in the community who were isolated and shopping became a stressful and fruitless activity as the shelves remained empty. Everyone struggled during lockdown, people lost jobs and retreated further, in the beginning we enjoyed being at home with our loved ones and binging on netflix and baking endless banana bread, we cycled and did yoga and our animals were never so well walked, We had it lucky in Cornwall, we had the coast and the moors and woods to explore and wide open spaces, but domastic violence was on the rise, and stress of families cooped up with no money was taking its toll on everyone. Add to that the financial pressures, lack of decent food and lack of routine, people struggled.
We continued to collect food, cook meals and distributed it to people who needed it over the first few months of lock down, some weeks it was overwhelming and we had just so much food to deal with, other times we were scratching around to fill the boxes. Morrison's was amazing and gave us loads and loads of food to help which was fantastic, we distributed over a huge area, including shipping dried goods out to Camelford, Tintagle and the north. The month of August we moved kitchens so we could be in the centre of Liskeard, due to lack of finances we struggled during this period and were lucky enough to receive a grant through the lottery to allow us to do this, we are still building the kitchen but we are slowly getting there. Now that winter is approaching and lockdown has tightened again things are unsure once more, we have lost our sense of community in many ways, but gained it in so many others with people willing to help and try and bridge that gap for those who need it. We are trying to get food out to people who need it, reduce waste and reduce landfill and still maintain a sense of community where we can. We hope to be cooking again soon especially when people needing hot meals. One of the positive things which has come from these difficult times is the cooking classes, empowering people to be able to provide food for themselves and their families is both practical and a huge boost to the self worth of the the provider. We've often felt that cooking is deeply rooted in confidence and the ability to change and adapt and its lovely to be able to teach others to create their own meals. I'm going to sign off for now and show the cooking students success in its own post so they can shine like the absolute stars they are - thank you for reading :-) and thank you for your continued support in helping feed bellies NOT bins.
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It's become the thing we are ALL talking about - we've seen how the oceans are being vastly polluted with single use plastic items and totally nonbiodegradeable items such as straws, cotton b`uds, disposable cutlery and children's toys. We've witnessed the huge response to programmes such as David Attenborough's 'The Blue Planet' and the documentary 'The plastic ocean' and its very much hit home just how much we are destroying our environment with items which aren't really essential, living coastally has also highlighted how real the problem is actually becoming.
Most sessions in the Junk food kitchen are accompanied by a predictable dialogue about plastic - and more precisely packaging. There is absolutely no doubt that plastic has had its uses is food Preservation and transportation - but the amount we are now seeing is absolutely insane and contributing massively to the ridiculous amount of food waste we are producing. There are three main scenarios which we seem to be constantly dealing with which are the most frustrating. SWEATY FRUIT AND VEGGIES We receive lots and lots of fruit and veggies which have started to get a bit sweaty round the edges and have started to wilt in the packaging - often items which didn't really need packaging in the first place. We spend a huge chunk of time removing the offending items - and guess what THEY ARE FINE! they just needed to not be encased in plastic. DATE STAMPED PACKAGING. We totally understand that some things need dates on them to let you know when they are safe to eat, but a lot of the time it really isn't essential - especially with fresh produce where its pretty obvious something is past its best - we know what a manky apple or a squishy tomato looks like and they are not appealing at all and we instinctively know when to avoid them. Where it gets crazy is where items are bagged up and date stamped - and when this date has passed the entire bag is binned. We see this with most vegetables and fruit and the issue is the dates are just far too general. Unfortunately in our times of grab and go convenience shopping we reach for the bags which are on offer, within easy and reach and appear to be a bargain rather than the loose produce. Unfortunately its not only more convenient to grab a bag of apples/bananas/grapes etc but its often cheaper which is insane. In the bad old days, any damaged/spoiled items would have been taken out and discarded, now whole bags are thrown away. You would think that it would be an obvious solution to open up the bags, take out any dodgy looking items and put the rest out with the loose produce - but no - this isn't permitted, whole bag chucked, and to make things worse - they don't even compost BECAUSE THEY ARE WRAPPED IN PLASTIC. PACKAGING NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE At some point - items such as crisps, drinks etc were printed with the 'multipack not for individual sale' message, presumably to prevent shops from bulk buying items and selling them cheaper. BUT in doing this, it has yet again added many perfectly edible items to the ever growing food waste mountain. We receive many items from the results of split/damaged packaging, cereal, drinks, multipack snacks - if any of the external packaging is damaged - yep you guessed it - whole thing gets binned. So what are the answers to these dilemmas? * Where possible, buy simple loose produce - the more this happens the more will have to be available to keep up with the demand. There are lots of box schemes from local growers who use minimal packaging. * Complain to local supermarkets about the above issues * Educate people around you who may not be aware - including children - they are never too young * DO NOT throw out fruit and veg based on sell by/use by dates, use your senses to check if it is edible. *Take as much produce out of the plastic as possible - very few things improve when kept in plastic - get them out as soon as you get home. *Get growing! even the smallest window box can support a couple of herb or tomato plants - kids love this too and love to see their fruits and veg ripening - especially fruits like strawberries and blueberries - sugarsnap peas are super easy to grow and really yummy. * Find your nearest Junk Food Project - or set one up! Whatever you do jut try and be observant of whats going on around you and every small effort helps to reduce the huge issue of food waste and unnecessary packaging. Hello Junk Food followers - and a very belated Happy New Year!!! Many apologies for the silence but we got so crazy busy before Christmas its taken until now to find the time for an update. Things are going very very well in Junk Food Land - we are still intercepting ridiculous amounts of food destined for landfill and getting it into people instead of being binned.
We have been doing fool collections on a Monday for some time now and this has become a very worthwhile thing to be part of. We supply an event at Union Corner with veggies to make soup so that anyone can drop in three days a week for soup for donations - this has been very successful and feeds about 100 people each week. We also supply food to The Red Cross to be distributed to Refugees in the City, the third Monday drop is Mayflower Academy who have set up a pay as you feel shop every week for students and parents - both of these have also been very successful. The Friday Lunches at the Wesley Chapel in Liskeard are going brilliantly and we really love the venue and the community who attends - its a really buzzing positive event and we look forward to it every week and theres always new faces as well as the familiar ones - These are every friday apart from the 1st. We are also still doing our regular lunches, The Bread and Roses (Ebrington street Plymouth) on 1st Sunday of the Month, Barnardos Childrens centre in Efford on the 2nd Thursday. We started a new lunch last week in Upton Cross which was very popular and we are hoping to make it a regular monthly event. We've also got some new events coming up in the future so watch this space! As well as the community lunches we have been catering lots of private events for companies/families. This is a service we really like to provide and often get people asking if we can prepare meals when they have family staying and would like to relax without having to cook, we also do private parties buffet style - all for pay as you feel donations. This week we are all about the weekend - we are in Plymouth on Friday catering the breakfast for the launch of the 'Library of things' which is a really exciting new scheme - photos to follow - then on Sunday we are in the Bread and Roses serving the hungry hoards! Next Sunday ( 11th) we are at another new Venue in Calstock - will be lovely to see some new faces. Anyway here's a few pictures from interceptions - its still crazy - we never really get used to it Hello Junk Food Followers! sorry for silence we have just been insanely busy with our usual madness of collecting, cooking, sorting and running events. In the last couple of months we have upped our food collections and now have a ridiculous amount in our kitchen and the freezer is practically over flowing. We have also been receiving lots of milk from a local dairy and we've been making crazy amounts of paneer cheese for adding to Indian dishes which have been REALLY popular. We've branched out our services slightly as well with running cookery school for some local home educated children which has been going brilliantly. We have started out new community lunch at the Wesley Chapel in Liskeard which runs on a Friday lunchtime ( apart from first of the month) and so far its been really successful with lots of new faces - its good to keep on feeding those bellies! Just some of last weeks collection - we received an extraordinarily massive amount of porridge as they had been left out in the rain and the boxes had become damaged - there was nothing wrong with the inside packs - there were over a thousand!
- Hello junk food followers
For over a year - we have been saying 'we really need a website - so we can show awesome recipes, pictures of all our really cool events and show the crazy amounts of food we deal with every week ' and guess what - we've been so busy dealing with all the food, cooking and serving it etc to get it up and running. So anyway here it is - its pretty basic at the moment but there's a lot more to come - watch this space |
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October 2020
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