Food Works are relaunching a scheme where locally grown food will be made into healthy ready meals sold on a ‘pay-what-you-can-afford’ basis.
Food Works is a social enterprise that aims to build a more sustainable food system in Sheffield by repurposing leftover food from shops, retailers and farms distribution centres that would have been wasted.
Head of food sourcing, Rachael Eyton, said: “The grower scheme allows us to really quickly harvest and redistribute healthy, fresh, locally grown food and keep it within Sheffield. We invite anybody who has space to grow something from a whole allotment site to somebody’s back garden.
“When it gets to harvest time, so often people have got way too many courgettes or they’ve had a particularly good tomato season, but they can’t do anything with them and they go to waste. We can collect that surplus and make sure it’s used and fed to people that need the food.
“We’ll take as much food as we can and then redistribute it. That’s the goal.”
The scheme was born in 2020 over the pandemic where local growers helped provide over a million meals over three lockdowns.
The project has since run annually to support local people who might struggle financially by making the meals accessible to all.
Ms Eyton said: “We ask for a minimum of a pound per meal but then if anybody is able to pay a bit more for each meal then it helps the people that can’t afford to pay more.
“There’s still a huge demand for the meals, especially with the cost of living crisis, people are just really struggling out there so we’re definitely a very used service I’d say in Sheffield at the moment.
“It provides a lot more variety and freshness for people, which is often lacking in places like food banks, for example, sometimes it’s hard for people to access the fresh produce.”
Food Works are asking for volunteers to grow an extra row of fruits, vegetables or herbs so they can be made into as many meals as possible.
They hope this scheme will allow people who get involved to share what they’ve been growing with the wider community.
Ms Eyton said: “When we first launched the scheme I think it was maybe about 10 to 15 different allotments on board so we’d like to expand on that, we’d like as many people as possible.
“It’s really heart-warming to see people from different communities and different cultures, different ages, different backgrounds coming together for a common cause. It’s a very rewarding opportunity for people.”
Any spare food can be dropped off or is collected by their vans, then made into meals which are frozen and distributed to cafe’s across Sheffield.
Their meals go to a range of shops and community centres in the city including the Children’s Hospital.
At the end of July, August and September they will start a collection service to drive around and pick produce from the people.
Individual growers can drop off donations in 2 locations: Food works Handsworth or Food Works Sharrow
They can sign up here, or email farm@thefoodworks.co.uk for more information.
