2

On Tuesday Year 2 (H Group) and Nursery pupils from the Junior School picked St Chris apples to donate to the Best Before Cafe in Letchworth.

1The Best Before Cafe was set up in 2018 with the intention of solving two problems: food waste and food poverty. The organisers use surplus supermarket food to create delicious meals and offer them to the local community on a Pay As You Feel basis, meaning that everyone – regardless of social or financial circumstances – can eat in an inclusive and fair way.

image2

They work to reduce food waste by partnering with local supermarkets including Lidl, Waitrose, Tesco and Sainsbury’s, intercepting unsold food before it heads to landfill.

In 2017 the UN estimated that almost a third of all food that is produced is discarded and that edible food makes up approximately 1.3 gigatonnes of this. (1 gigatonne = 1 billion tonnes)

The cafe also accepts donations of surplus garden and allotment produce from customers…and St Chris! The apples from St Chris will be turned into apple crumble this week.

image3

On Monday, Suzy from the Cafe gave a Morning Talk to the Senior School about the cafe, its ethos, and how our pupils can get involved to help support their work.

3

The Best Before Cafe costs £70 a week for the project to run, with any surplus customer donations going straight back into local community charities. (This month is an exception as they are donating any profits in September to Macmillan and holding a Macmillan Coffee Morning on 26 September.)

The Cafe is part of the Real Junk Food Project – a global network aiming to abolish surplus food through a variety of Pay As You Feel concepts

The Best Before Cafe runs every Wednesday from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm in the Mrs Howard Memorial Hall, Norton Way South, Letchworth.

For more information visit: https://bestbeforecafe.co.uk/

Photos of the Best Before Cafe by Charlotte Murphy

4