Grow A Row
We’d love you to ‘Grow A Row’ for Food Works!
What do you do with all those courgettes! Got too many beans for your household? The Food Works ‘Grow a Row’ scheme is here to help. We understand that growers can experience ‘gluts’ of veggies over the season. By contributing your surplus to us, nothing goes to waste, and instead is cooked up into delicious and affordable meals for our cafes, or made into our Just Meals.
Through collaborations with community growers, allotment societies and individual growers, we’ve been able to provide over a million meals worth of food to the people of Sheffield over the years that our Grow a Row scheme has been going!
So if you have more than you need, let us ‘Repurpose Your Surplus’ by collecting your produce and using it to make delicious, healthy meals for the people of Sheffield.*
This year we’re running the Grow a Row scheme again across the city so that we can provide even more delicious, healthy food to the people of Sheffield – and we’d love you to be involved!
There are 2 ways to help:
- Grow a Row: Individual plot holders dedicate a row or a bed to ‘grow-a-row’ of the food we need most – even one or two growers can make a huge difference!
- Repurpose Your Surplus: Let us collect the surplus produce grown by your allotmenteers/community growers that they can’t use themselves.
What do we need?
This list isn’t exhaustive, so if you’ve grown something different, please do still get in touch! We have created this list based on the needs of our kitchens, but we always welcome additional fruit and veg.
Where can I drop off donations?
Individual growers can drop off at any of the 3 locations below:
Food Works Handsworth – Unit 12-14 Portland Business Park, Richmond Park Road, S13 8HS
Between 10am and 3pm, 7 days a week.
Enter via the customers’ market door and ask for the Hub Manager saying you have a Grow a Row donation. Please attach details of name, contact number, where produce is from and what it is to your donation.
Food Works Sharrow – Sharrow Community Forum, South View Road, S7 1DD
Between 10am and 3pm, Monday to Thursday.
Our collection box can be found in the Food Works cafe. Please attach details of name, contact number, where produce is from and what it is to your donation.
Food Works Upperthorpe – 18 Upperthorpe, Sheffield S6 3NA
Between 10am and 3pm, Monday to Thursday .
Our collection box can be found in the Food Works cafe. Please attach details of name, contact number, where produce is from and what it is to your donation.
If you are an allotmenteer and your allotment has signed up to our Grow a Row scheme, you can drop off your produce in the Food Works Grow a Row box located on site and we will arrange collection.
Check with your allotment for the exact location or email us at farm@thefoodworks.org for more info.
Want to sign up?
Please complete the survey below or get in touch via farm@thefoodworks.org if you have any questions.
Food Works is a not-for-profit social enterprise, building fair and sustainable food for Sheffield. Food Works does this across it’s kitchens, markets and farm by up-cycling surplus ingredients to turn them into tasty, affordable meals for everyone as well as offering surplus food across its hubs.
*Food Works have gained permission to use allotment surplus from the citywide allotments manager
FAQs
No. There are a few items such as lettuce and salad leaves that are difficult to manage because they wilt before we can collect them and then ultimately may end up going to waste.
No. At the moment we are only able to deal with weekly scheduled collections.
If the arranged collection day for your allotment site doesn’t fit with your schedule then you can drop off fresh produce at Food Works Handsworth (between 10am and 3pm) Unit 12-14 Portland Business Park, Richmond Park Road, S13 8HS; or at Food Works Sharrow, based at Sharrow Community Forum (Drop off 10am to 3pm, Monday-Wednesday) South View Road, S7 1DD.
Hopefully we will have more resources to be able to offer a range of collection options by next season.
Yes. If the arranged collection day for your allotment site doesn’t fit with your schedule then you can drop off fresh produce at Food Works Handsworth (between 10am and 3pm) Unit 12-14 Portland Business Park, Richmond Park Road, S13 8HS; or at Food Works Sharrow, based at Sharrow Community Forum (Drop off 10am to 2pm, Monday-Wednesday) South View Road, S7 1DD.
No. Our kitchens aren’t open over the weekend so dropping off on a Friday wouldn’t give us time to prep the food or make arrangements for its safe storage until the following week. We are therefore only able to accept donations from Monday to Thursday at Food Works Sharrow. The good news is that we can accept produce donations 7 days a week at Food Works Handsworth, Unit 12-14 Portland Business Park, Richmond Park Road, S13 8HS.