The store will be offering many of the items people need for Christmas in the next few weeks
SHOPPERS, struggling to afford rising food costs or who just want to help prevent waste, can pick up a basket full of 15 leftover food items at Grangetown Kitchen Garden.
The Waste Not Market & Eat Well Cafe runs every Wednesday from 1.30pm to 4.30pm at Grangetown Nursery school and mostly uses leftover food from FareShare, a company that redistributes surplus food to charities.
The café runs thanks to donations and in the run-up to Christmas it will also be running its Eat Well Lunch Club every Wednesday at 12.30pm, which will provide people with a hot meal, although this needs to be booked in advance.
“So people can come in and get warm, have something to eat, something to drink and we don’t charge but if people want to donate that’s fine,” said Amanda Wood, founder of Urban-Vertical, which runs the project with Grangetown Nursery School.
The market will also be offering many of the items that people need in the run-up to Christmas, when a lot of people struggle with money.
“So people can come in and get warm, have something to eat, something to drink and we don’t charge but if people want to donate that’s fine.”
“We’re going to be sourcing all the regular things that people would see in a Christmas dinner to make sure that people have got access, so turkeys, veggies, Christmas pudding, mince pies, stocking fillers,” said Ms Wood.
The market is open for anyone to use, not just people struggling to afford food, as the money generated by the market is used to source extra items for the following weeks.
For Danni Walters, who lives in Grangetown and has recently started using the market, it is a convenient way to find items that would otherwise go to waste.
“It’s kind of like I’m getting some luxury things that I wouldn’t normally buy for myself. I am not food insecure but I would never really buy one of these soups because I could make it cheaper myself and I tend not to buy things like cheese or avocados or any kind of ready meals but it’s nice to have them in the house for when I don’t have to cook and a lot of it is freezable as well,” said Ms Walters.
As more people are relying on food banks than before, according to Welsh Government statistics, Christmas can be an especially difficult time for people to put meals on the table.
People shouldn’t get caught up in buying too much food over the Christmas period, said Ms Wood, who suggests holding a Boxing Day buffet to share with others.
- If anyone has any food to donate to the market or wants to volunteer, contact Grangetown Garden Kitchen via its website.
- To book the Eat Well Lunch Club text or call 07488 579998.
