Chief executive Mary McGrath runs FoodCycle, a charity that provides community meals in the UK for those dealing with food poverty and loneliness
Hi Mary. FoodCycle organises free community meals at more than 50 locations across the UK once a week. What’s the motivation behind these events?
I can’t stand seeing people go hungry or lonely, especially when there is so much surplus food. It doesn’t feel right in today’s environment that anyone should be going without a meal, or good company. FoodCycle is somewhere for people to come for a couple of hours where they know they’re going to be warm, dry and well fed. It enables people to forget about their worries for a little bit.
The meals are made by volunteers using surplus supermarket produce. It must be a challenge not knowing what ingredients they’ll have to cook with each week?
It adds to the thrill and excitement in our kitchens. Volunteers love that: they somehow have to create this fantastic three-course meal for between 25 and 60 people. We’re also vegetarian, which means the meals are healthy and inclusive. Many people try different foods for the first time because we’ve served them in such an appealing way.
The charity has been organising these meals since 2009, how did it begin?
It was started by Kelvin Cheung, an entrepreneur who really hated food waste. I took over after a few years,having worked in the food industry all my life. While food surplus is still important to us, I also saw that the community building we were doing was so strong and impactful.
What kind of people might attend a FoodCycle dinner?
People often assume it’s only the homeless that suffer from food poverty, when it’s actually a broad range of people. It could be workers holding down regular jobs, who are still struggling to make ends meet. Or it might be an older person who’s living on their own, or an asylum seeker or refugee. This year our numbers have doubled – we
