Volunteers transform surplus food into 6,000 meals

Volunteers prepare meals using surplus food from local supermarkets

A charity has said it has turned food destined for the bin into an estimated 6,000 meals over the last three years.

Volunteers at Waste Not Wednesday, based at Community House in Ripon, collect surplus food from supermarkets and use it to make nutritious meals weekly.

The meals are then sold to people living in the city for £3.00 each Wednesday.

Founder Caroline Bentham said: "It's not about people being means-tested or being skint. This is about saving the planet."

Ms Bentham said every customer gets eight items including tins, packet food, a selection of meals and sweet treats.

Vegetable quiches made using eggs and milk which would have been thrown away

Jody, who did not wish to give her surname, said she has been coming for about a year to save money as she is currently unemployed.

She said the food was great and the idea ties in with her own ethical principals about not wasting things.

"I was in full-time employment and had a good job but then after Covid I got sick so now I'm unemployed and on benefits so this kind of thing is great," she said.

"It's a nice community, too. Everybody's really friendly."

Waste Not Wednesday founder Caroline Bentham used to be a school cook

Even the containers and packaging the charity use are all recycled as they dish meals out in items such as old margarine and ice cream tubs.

"People come in with a carrier bag of empties from the time before and we try not to buy any containers so we can recycle tin foil dishes and people's takeaway containers," Ms Bentham said.

She said the project is a great way to bring the community together and having been a school cook and run a cafe for 16 years it helps keep her hand in cooking.

"All this food would go in a bin so if we can pass it on, then that's fine," she said.

"We're not buying stuff, that's the whole point. We're trying to use things up."

These brownies were made using surplus Easter Egg chocolate

Volunteers Sandra Searle, Pat McLennan and Angela Turnbull said they enjoyed working together as a team in the kitchen preparing the food.

Pat McLennan said she also enjoyed the banter and camaraderie.

“It's also a good cause because it means food isn't going to landfill," she added.

Waste not Wednesday runs each Wednesday during school term between 12:00 and 14:00.