Sheffield’s Food Waste Scene 101

Food Works Sheffield started life as ‘The Real Junk Food Project Sheffield’ in 2015 when the issue of food waste became a wider known problem.

Projects, apps and initiatives were springing up all over the UK to tackle the problem with Sheffield being no exception.

Picture: Jason Ruffell

From monthly pop-ups to a permanent café at Regather Works in Sharrow, Food Works expanded rapidly to meet the demands of businesses wanting a solution to their own food waste problem.

In Sheffield it wasn’t just Food Works stepping up to the plate. Other organisations such as Foodhall, Save Our Sandwiches and Abundance are all working to make wasted food available to people.

On a national scale there are 100s of organisations directly tackling food waste such as FareShare, The Felix Project, City Harvest, Open Kitchen Manchester, Food Revival Leeds, Magic Hat Café in Newcastle, Community Fridges and of course the many versions of The Real Junk Food Project up and down the country.

Apps such as Olio and Too Good To Go are aimed at the individual to encourage both sharing of surplus food from both home or at the end of service in restaurants – all with the aim of reducing food waste!

We are lucky to live in a City full of active citizens who really care about their living planet. The people of Sheffield have been so welcoming to Food Works as an organisation and have really got behind us every step of the way.