Food Works Sheffield: Appeal to help feed city families this half term

Food Works Sheffield, which uses quality surplus and locally grown ingredients to serve in from its kitchen and distribute across the city.

It is now making meals available to families over the holiday to ensure they coninue to be fed, despite not being able to get school meals.

A spokesperson said: “It has always been our aim to make sure that everyone in Sheffield can access healthy and sustainable food. With bills rising as much as they are, while for most of us income isn’t keeping up, we have seen the demand for our affordable food increase a lot over the past months.

"We know it can be particularly challenging for parents to feed their families over the holidays. And because our children are the very last people we want to go hungry, we will be making meals available this half term to make sure that doesn’t happen."

During half term, Food Works is feeding any child that needs it for free. Children at the Food Works hubs can choose up to three of the organisation’s Just Meals to take home, and if they can’t afford to pay for them, then they can take them without payment, no questions asked.

Just Meals are environmentally-friendly ready meals created using surplus and local ingredients which are frozen on site and packed in 100 per cent biodegradable and home compostable packaging. They can be heated in the microwave or oven at home.

The spokesperson added: "All our meals are cooked in our kitchens from fresh ingredients, including locally grown produce from our farm and partner growers in Sheffield. They are easy, good for you and good for the environment.”

But the organisation is asking people to help as Food Works does not rely on government funding to deliver the meals.

"Funding like this often comes with criteria that we do not support, such as parents proving they are on free school meals to get access. We believe anyone who needs food should be able to access it without stigma, and any criteria we come up with inevitably leave people out who deserve our support.”

To help, people can do one or all of the following:

Buy Food Works food – People who can afford to pay a bit more in the cafe, market or when buying meals then help pay for someone else who cannot.

Volunteer – The organisation can feed thousands of people every week because of the hundreds of volunteers that drive vans, cook food and run the warehouse.

Contribute – Those who are not in a position to help or shop at Food Works is welcome to make a contribution online with the organisation saying every penny raised will go to make ‘a better food system’.

Food Works has hubs in Handsworth, Sharrow and Upperthorpe as well as partner hubs and Just Meals stockists across the city.

For more information or to donate, go online to thefoodworks.org. To find out more about volunteering at Food Works, email [email protected] or visit thefoodworks.org/volunteer.