FoodCycle Sheffield: New scheme offering a free weekly meal to open in Sheffield as people are urged to volunteer

FoodCycle will open its Sheffield project at the Broomhall Centre on Broomspring Lane, Broomhall, on Wednesday, September 28, and will be their third project in Yorkshire, and its 56th overall.

The charity serves up free weekly community meals using food that would otherwise have gone to waste, FoodCycle and says it ‘relies’ on its volunteers to provide nutritious food and conversation across the UK.

FoodCycle Yorkshire and The Humber regional manager Mathew Milner says: "We are thrilled to be opening our third project in Yorkshire this year, introducing the magic of FoodCycle to the Sheffield community.

“As the rise in cost-of-living continues to hit people across the country including parents just coming out of expensive school holidays and the elderly worried about heating homes this winter, our service is more vital than ever.

"We look forward to providing a warm space and a nutritious, three-course meal to anyone in the community who needs it, no questions asked.”

A spokesperson for FoodCycle said the charity is in ‘urgent need’ of volunteers to help run the weekly free meal in Broomhall, which be held at 12.30pm on Wednesdays, and is also looking to recruit project leaders.

The charity does not require those wishing to volunteer to offer a minumum time commitment, in order to allow people to do as much or as little as they are able to.

When asked why Sheffield has been chosen as a location for a FoodCycle project, the spokesperson said: “The short answer is demand! To support the broad range of people who benefit from our services, from older guests to refugees and asylum seekers, homeless people and those affected by mental ill health or tight budgets, we go where we are needed.”

They added: “We look to areas that could benefit from our community dining model, and where we might find a steady source of willing volunteers and local businesses happy to donate surplus food. We found all of this in Sheffield so we started to have conversations with local organisations to provide insight on the needs and problems facing the local residents and that's how we found the Broomhall Centre. We can't wait to open and start providing a weekly free meal to anyone who wants to come along.”

The charity currently has a total of 4,620 volunteers across its 56 existing projects, and when asked what motivates them to show up, 95 per cent of FoodCycle volunteers said they want to help reduce food poverty.

Other reasons included: wanting to help strengthen their local community, which 82 per cent of volunteers chose as their reason for participating, while 88 per cent of volunteers said they are passionate about saving food from going to waste.

A further 78 per cent said they wanted to help tackle loneliness and 69 per cent said they wanted meet new people.

Anyone wishing to find out more should visit FoodCycle’s website at: https://foodcycle.org.uk/.