Lincoln: Community cafe turns surplus shop food into ready meals

Manager CJ Drinkall said the idea started after cafe customers asked if it offered takeaways

A Lincolnshire community kitchen and cafe is launching a range of ready meals using surplus supermarket food.

Mint Lane Cafe in Lincoln said it was a way of using unsold items such as vegetables from the community shop.

Manager CJ Drinkall said the idea started after cafe customers asked if they were able to take the freshly prepared meals home.

The ready meals were also a healthier option for customers and helped to reduce waste, she said.

Ms Drinkall said the cafe already served hot lunches, but she decided to expand the operation after a number of customers enquired about taking food home.

"That's basically where it started," she said.

She said the ready meals provided a healthier alternative to hot snack items such as packet soups

Ms Drinkall said many of the items received were based on supermarket trends and the community kitchen was "really at the mercy of what they don't want, or what they've over ordered on", including seasonal items such as pumpkins.

However, she said by using the items in the ready meals she was able to provide "additional value that maybe not everybody can see" when faced with a raw vegetable.

"Ultimately, people are sometimes struggling to know what to do with food sometimes, and not everyone has access to great kitchen equipment, so we are seeing more and more people relying on quick and convenient food - so this is providing an option that's really important," she said.

"It's made by the community and it's made for the community, [and] it's made with a little bit of love as well."