WHAT are you planning for dinner tonight? How about some food saved from the bin?
A pioneering cafe opening in Durham City is bringing a whole new meaning to “junk food”.
From Friday night (June 12), anti-food waste campaigners Nikki Dravers and Mim Skinner will serve up RE-f-USE, a pop-up cafe using only food which would otherwise be thrown away.
Opening night will be at Durham’s Indoor Market and several hundred people are expected between 6pm and 8.30pm.
“We started collecting food a couple of weeks ago and it’s escalated incredibly quickly,” said Miss Dravers.
“Judging from the interest online, we could get 2-300 people.”
The aim of the not-for-profit venture is to show how much viable food is thrown away.
“In a world where around 870 million people, one in nine, are hungry, it’s an outrage that one third of food produced worldwide is thrown away when it’s perfectly fit for human consumption,” Miss Dravers said.
“In the UK, we waste 15 million tonnes of food every year. That’s enough to fill nine Wembley stadiums to the brim.”
Diners will be invited to pay what they feel their meal was worth or offer a service, such as washing up, welcoming other guests or playing music, as payment in kind.
The project is supported by IK Fish and food has been donated by cafes and restaurants across County Durham and beyond. But a big delivery will only arrive from The Magic Hat Cafe in Newcastle, which opened this spring and is also part of the growing Real Junk Food Project, hours before the doors open – so the volunteer chefs will be up against it to deliver the dishes on time.
But Miss Dravers insists the menu will be high-quality.
“We want to prove that it’s really good quality food that gets thrown away,” she said.
Organisers hope to repeat RE-f-USE monthly. Entry is free and open to all on a first come, first served basis. For more information or to get involved, visit facebook.com and search for Indoor Market Pop-Up or email: refusecic@gmail.com
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