WOW!!! Over 30 people called in today for our first ever "Food for Change" Community Lunch! The idea behind these lunches is threefold: to reduce waste, to provide nutritious, plant-based meals for free or cheaply to our community, and to bring people together to share food and spend quality time getting to know each other following a period of isolation for so many.
Our lunches are made using food which was donated to us and would otherwise have been thrown away (creating greenhouse gases and contributing to the climate crisis).
We had to create a tempting menu based on the random ingredients we were given, and feedback was extremely positive. The food was delicious! We had no idea how many would turn up, and it was lovely to see a steady stream of people coming in to enjoy the friendly atmosphere & tasty food. The meals were "Pay as you feel"- so if you can't afford much, pay nothing or not much - if you can afford it, please give a bit more! Next one in 2 weeks - watch this space.
The menu on offer today was sweet potato & chickpea curry, with rice; or sweet potato rosti, with radish and dill salad, as well as a brussel sprout salad, a fantastic way to use a locally grown, nutritious veg which has a bad reputation but is super versatile and relatively cheap to buy! Hopefully our menu has given people some inspiration on how to cook more interesting dishes with everyday veg. Dessert was blackberry cobbler & custard or blueberry muffins. Everything was vegan apart from the donated cakes.
The bulk of our donated food came via FareShare, who awarded us a grant to cover food deliveries for 6 months while we get this Food for Change community lunches project off the ground. Huge thanks must also go to the Bran Tub in Malvern, Malvern Food Bank, Morrisons and Incredible Surplus Birmingham, who also donated quality food and ensured we were able to make the best of our surplus produce with spices and staples.
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