The weekly surplus food boxes supplied by Food Works to households all across Sheffield are getting nature-friendly makeover this month.
Food Works patron boxes will help us build a new, better food system for Sheffield – and patrons will get a taste of the locally-grown, nature-friendly food that they are helping us produce.
Just like our current box, the new patron box will contain a selection of food from our surplus supplies. It’s different every week, and our patrons tell us they enjoy the surprise. On top of this, the new box will offer a sample of our produce – a portion of veg, a potted herb for your kitchen, or a food crop you can raise yourself at home. To top this off, patrons will be able to choose one of our delicious zero-waste ready meals to add to their box.
Subscribe
Subscribing as a patron will kick start our community-led growing mission
Subscribing as a patron will directly fund some transformative actions we need to take for better food – starting with our work on Norton Nurseries, which we announced last month, and building from there. This support will help us start work in the huge glasshouses to revive the soils and get an initial food crop sown. It will also help us set up some basic facilities for our volunteers, so that we can start work on getting these nurseries – the size of eight tennis courts put together – ready to grow food.
Next year things will get even more exciting, as we start to use the nurseries to help people across the city grow more food. We’d love to see every schoolchild experience the magic of food growing, and every community organisation to have a beautiful food garden where people can grow and harvest food together.
We’re testing this out from October at Zest cafe in Upperthorpe
We will have a limited number of collection slots available at the Zest Community Centre cafe in Upperthorpe from October to pilot this new box – read on for how to sign up.
How does it work?
- I’m already a patron, what do I do? If you’re already a patron, you don’t have to do anything. We will send you further information when we are ready to move you onto the new system. We will move our patron boxes in Sharrow to the new scheme in the second half of October and in Handsworth in January.
- I’m not yet a patron, how do I subscribe? If you’d like to join our Upperthorpe pilot for the limited pilot of our new box, you can subscribe here – you’ll need to collect the box from the Food Works hub at Zest Community Centre
I don’t want a food box, but I’d love to get involved. What could I do?
Our patron boxes aren’t for everyone – if you want to get involved, there are lots of other ways you can help
Become a supporter: for a minimum contribution of £1 every month, you’ll get a monthly email that shares stories, interviews and special events that take you right to the heart of Food Works life, work and people to see the better food system we are building for Sheffield.
Join us as a volunteer: If you want to get more hands on with our mission for better food, you can also sign up to volunteer at any of our cafes, our market – or join us in the nurseries. We’re especially keen to hear from people who’d like to volunteer in our warehouse or at our Upperthorpe cafe.
Found out about this too late? Join the Food Works Community for a regular helping of insider scoops.
