Kendal food waste charity expands services

A food waste charity is expanding its “pay-as-you-can basis” meal services to cover an extra day per week.

Waste into Wellbeing, which repurposes surplus food in Kendal, Cumbria, will now host a cafe session on Tuesdays alongside its community food larder on Thursdays and Saturdays.

Westmorland and Furness Council said every single item of food that was repurposed by the group, based at the Eddington CIC, would otherwise go to landfill.

Alison Quigley, from Waste into Wellbeing, said food poverty was “quite high in Kendal” so the larder was “open to everyone, supporting us to reduce food waste while ensuring access to a healthy diet”.

The new cafe session will open on Tuesdays between 12:00 and 13:30 BST, the same hours as its Saturday sessions.

Eddington CIC voluntary director Jo Haughton said it was “very important to have food at the heart of it, because that’s the one thing that brings people together”.

“The church is a really versatile space where currently we can seat up to 250 people.

“The aspiration is to have a wide range of activities and events going on in the venue, such as talks and creative performances.”