I’m volunteering with Food Cycle, and here’s why you should too…
Earlier this year I started volunteering at my local Food Cycle community meal - and I’m so glad I did.
I’d been familiar with the charity for a few years prior but had never attended a volunteering session, until one day I discovered that a community meal slot had opened up in Bradford. Not knowing what to expect, I signed up as a volunteer host and on a random Thursday evening walked through the door of the Rockwell Centre.
If you’re not familiar with Food Cycle, they’re a charity that take donated surplus food from supermarkets and produce a 3 course community meal, once a week in locations across England and Wales. You can see on the map below just how many meal locations are currently running.
The unique thing about Food Cycle is that they do not identify as a food bank; they don’t give away food products but instead provide cooked meals with the intention of saving surplus supermarket stock from going to waste, all while fostering community connections and supporting vulnerable people.
Map of current Food Cycle community meal locations across England and Wales / https://foodcycle.org.uk/find-a-meal/
‘We are FoodCycle, and our vision is to make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community.
We connect communities, reducing loneliness and food poverty – working with thousands of volunteers and surplus food to help everyone who needs us. By creating welcoming spaces for people from all walks of life to meet, eat and have conversations, we are supporting people’s health and mental wellbeing.
By cooking with surplus ingredients, we promote healthy, sustainable attitudes towards food and its impact on the environment, and help people to learn more about healthy food.
We aim to inspire greater change by sharing the impact of our community dining spaces and the voices of our guests to encourage more people to join and support FoodCycle, so we can help more people and more communities.’
It was this notion, of not simply being a food bank but a pillar of community, that first enticed me to volunteer. I not only wanted to get more involved in the wider Bradford community and meet new people, but I also wanted to do my bit for those in my city who need this kind of support.
So, back to my first visit…
As I stepped into the Rockwell Centre in Thorpe Edge, Bradford, it was my (now) dear friend Mags who greeted me. I’d signed up to host that session, meaning I’d be setting up tables and serving guests their drinks and meals. However, when I arrived I learnt that the kitchen was understaffed and was asked if I’d be willing to join in there.
Now I am no cook. I can follow recipes, sure, but I am simply useless at improvising meals from a random bunch of ingredients. And yet, something urged me to say yes.
So there I was with the kitchen team, being guided to make a three-course meal for guests arriving in an hour’s time.
[Spoiler] I’ve volunteered in the kitchen ever since.
See, the thing that makes Food Cycle and its volunteers so incredible is the creativity and ingenuity it takes to pull off a brilliant evening every week. For one, the ingredients donated the night of the community meal are a complete surprise until they turn up on the doorstep - and yet every night, 3-course wonders are produced. As well as this, there is no way to predict how many guests will show up each week. To effectively prepare, cook and portion meals in a short amount of time and when your numbers aren’t confirmed until the last minute takes a lot of skill, but skill there is each and every time.
After my first volunteering session, the Bradford meal moved its location to the Deaf Centre. With the new venue closer to the city and more accessible to way more people, our new meal slot on Monday nights immediately picked up traction. Just a few weeks ago our guest numbers were close to 40, where at my first session in Thorpe Edge I’d served 14.
Since then, I’ve also worked with many of the same people each week as well as met so many new volunteers from across the region. We’ve built a solid team in Bradford, which means that every session is fun and something to look forward to. One of the main things I found, even on that very first day, was that I went home energised rather than exhausted. I still leave each session empowered, proud and already eager for the next week. I credit most of that to the people that I work with.
That’s why I couldn’t recommend volunteering with FoodCycle enough. There are a range of roles you can do and signing up for a session is so easy with the FoodCycle app. But best of all the environment, at least in Bradford, is one of family, community and care. You’ll leave with a rewarding feeling of knowing you not only supported people in your area that need it, but also built so many more skills for yourself.
I’ve learnt to make a wide range of new dishes from volunteering in the kitchen and have acquired new cooking skills that make me excited to improvise with ingredients I have at home. One of the main skills that FoodCycle has helped me with, is being able to cook without meat - a skill not that common for someone who grew up in a Cypriot household. I’ve also witnessed, first-hand, how powerful eating a meal with other people can be for boosting morale and tackling a loneliness that so many people face.
As I move to London, I’m sad to be leaving my regular volunteer slot in Bradford but I’m also so excited by the opportunity to start fresh at a new FoodCycle venue.
The pride that I have, to volunteer for such a brilliant charity and help with their amazing work, is immense.
I think you should give it a go too.
