Gateshead Community meal looking for volunteers to fight food poverty

FoodCycle needs more volunteers to help provide free weekly hot meals for local guests in a friendly and welcoming atmosphere, every week.

Volunteers get to be part of the ‘FoodCycle magic’ – transforming surplus food that would otherwise go to waste into vegetarian dishes, such as soups and salads, pasta bakes, curries, stews, pastries and fruit crumble.

The Gateshead Teams meal is the second FoodCycle community dining project to launch in the town,and the eighth in Tyne and Wear, as the charity expands to help nourish communities across England and Wales.

A similar FoodCycle meal has been running at Felling Community Centre on a Friday lunchtime, since March 2020. There, the team have so far served more than 4,000 meals since opening, and saved more than 13 tonnes of surplus food from going to waste.

Now in its 15th year, FoodCycle runs 98 community meal sites nationally, offering good food and company to guests from all backgrounds.

Everyone is welcome to turn up to eat for free, with regular guests including low-income families, elderly people, refugees, people who live alone, may be homeless, struggling with the cost of living, or simply want to be involved in their community.

FoodCycle Gateshead Teams launched on Tuesday, October 29 wth the kitchen opening every Tuesday at 6.45pm, at the Teams Life Centre, Askew Road West, Gateshead, NE8 2PW.

Volunteers can sign up through the FoodCycle website.

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FoodCycleNorth East Regional Manager Louise Green said: “It’s fantastic to have opened our second FoodCycle meal for the community in Gateshead.

“There is a high demand for free food provision for local people in the town, particularly as the high cost of living continues to affect everything from fuel bills to food costs.

“Every week we provide a safe, welcoming space for anyone who wants to come along to enjoy great food and conversation with us for free. Our vital community service runs on the kindness of volunteers, so we’re asking local people willing to give up a few hours a month to get in touch with us.”