When I first contacted Adam Smith, the founder of the The Real Junk Food Project, I said how amazing it was that in less than a year, his education initiative Fuel For School was already supplying 33 schools in Leeds.
In today’s @Independent we visit the food waste campaigners feeding hungry schoolchildren in Leeds https://t.co/eW7thHop3K @fuelforschool pic.twitter.com/ezWFqjaVtF
— Far Nearer (@far_nearer) October 19, 2016
That means food waste thrown out by supermarkets all over the city is being used to feed hungry schoolkids in 33 breakfast clubs and stock 33 market stalls run by kids, where parents can pick up supplies in exchange for whatever they can afford.
“That’s nothing,” he replied. “We want to be in every school in Leeds by the end of next summer.”
Realising he was serious, I travelled to Leeds to meet the man in charge of making this happen.
Kevin Mackay was a school teacher until this summer, when he quit to run the educational side of Fuel for School.
I went with him to visit Lawns Park Primary, where he gave an assembly to the whole school about what supermarkets throw away and how much of it can still be eaten.
Lunch at the refurbished @Armley_JunkTion #foodwaste #payf cafe after a fun morning shooting @fuelforschool in Leeds pic.twitter.com/LKyM4r0Uzm
— Far Nearer (@far_nearer) October 5, 2016
Later I watched kids rummage through the crates of waste food he brought with him, touching, smelling and tasting the food to see if it was still good to eat. There were some strawberries that never made it onto the market stall that night!
My visit came the week after the Real Junk Food Project intercepted 75 tonnes of food waste in two days, forcing them to expand their supermarket.
Kevin and Adam are devising ways to handle that amount of waste, but in the long run, they want the Real Junk Food Project to be so successful that they put themselves out of business.
“Our end game is to stop food waste and the best way to do that is through grass roots education,” Kevin says.
Also published on Medium.
