Nottingham Catering and FareShare Midlands Community Meals Project is Shortlisted for a Public Sector Catering Award 2023!
Nottingham City Council and FareShare Midlands’ Community Meals Project is one of 5 organisations shortlisted for the Sustainability Award! This accolade recognises the dedication of those organisations who keep sustainability at the heart of their work, enabling service-users to make more environmentally conscious decisions and contributing to the development of a more sustainable food industry.
The Public Sector Catering Awards, taking place on Thursday 13th April, celebrate individuals and teams that work within the industry. There are 18 awards categories that represent all areas of the sector, ranging from ‘Chef of the Year’ to ‘Education Catering Award’.
Since July last year, FareShare Midlands and Nottingham City Council have been trialling the production of healthy and nutritious meals made using surplus food. Our ‘Community Meals’ are made daily at Loxley House by a hardworking team of staff and volunteers, who prepare, cook and package the meals using surplus food that would have otherwise gone to waste.
These meals then go to charities and community groups across the Midlands, delivering social eating initiatives and supporting those struggling with poverty, loneliness and food insecurity. FareShare Midlands have worked closely with these organisations to understand which meal types are better suited to their communities and to promote the benefits of using our Community Meals Service. Feedback from our members concluded that the meals:- Help reduce their costs and time spent in the kitchen.
- Allow small charities to add healthy, nutritious and warm meals to their existing service.
- Help to reduce the strain and pressures on volunteer time and recruitment.
- Give community organisations the opportunity to build on their income streams by establishing a small charge for the meals.
Find out more:
Nottingham Catering
Community Meals Project
BBC East Midlands feature
FareShare Midlands is the region’s largest food redistribution charity, taking good quality surplus food and getting it out to over 550 charities and community groups supporting over 67,000 vulnerable people every week. Last year we redistributed enough food to make over 13.7 million meals.