The Real Junk Food Project Brighton, Intercept Food Waste

Adam Buckingham | The Real Junk Food Project

Brighton People | Adam Buckingham

The Real Junk Food Project Brighton is part of the Real Junk Food Project network, created by Adam Smith.

The Real Junk Food Project Brighton, Intercept Food Waste

It is a national and international movement of cafes, projects and pop-ups with one core objective: To intercept food waste destined for land fill and use it to feed people who need it, on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis.

In this interview we meet Adam Buckingham (pictured below left) who runs the operation at The Real Junk Food Project in Brighton.

Adam talks about a typical day at The Real Junk Food, their ‘pay as you feel’ service and winning the Brighton’s Best Bites on a Budget in the past.

Real Junk Food Project

In 2019 you were recognised by the Brighton public as Brighton’s best bites on a budget, how does this feel?

Bitter sweet if I’m honest.

We obviously appreciate the recognition but feel that we are not always valued for the service we provide and therefore struggle to cover our costs. We aim to educate people about what we are doing in the city, ways to get involved and the benefits of the ‘pay as you feel’ model. We are working on providing more ways to contribute with card machines at all venues, as well as trying to highlight other ways to help us by encouraging volunteering time with us or paying it forward for those that cannot afford to. We are incredibly grateful for the award as it does help us to spread our message around the city.

Bravo Best Budget Bites

What does The Real Junk Food Project in Brighton do?

We save perfectly edible food that would be wasted from all sources and redirect it to the community on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis, either by turning it into healthy nutritious meals and serving it in one of our community cafes, or by allowing people to come and do their shopping in our food hub in Bevendean.

Where can it be found across the city?

Mon – Fri 1300 – 1630 – The Hub – 13 Leybourne Parade, BN24LW
Friday 1300 – 1500 – One Church Brighton, GLOUCESTER PLACE, BRIGHTON, EAST SUSSEX BN1 4AA
Tue and Wed -1300 – 1500 – St Luke’s Church – 64 Old Shoreham Road, Brighton, BN1 5DD
Thursday 1300 – 1500 – Hollingbean Cafe, Hollingdean Community Centre – Thompson Road, BN1 7BH
Wednesday – 1300 – 1500 – St John The Baptist – 2 Bristol Road, Brighton BN2 1AP

A typical day for you?

This varies from day to day, I’m either managing the hub in Bevendean, weighing and sorting food and putting food aside for the cafes, or I’m collecting/cooking food, or strategising; trying to find ways to reduce our overheads, thinking of ways to increase our donations, and methods to both increase and redistribute our surplus food in more efficient ways.

Donation box at The Real Junk Food project

Tell us about your team here in Brighton.

Our team is from all backgrounds. Opportunities include helping us cook, serving customers, weighing and sorting food, collecting food, advertising, artwork, digital media, fundraising. We are really interested in working with people who can help us get our message out there, both within the cafes to customers and across the city to people who do not know about us.

Where do you intercept your food waste from?

From anywhere where food is wasted, which is basically everywhere. Supermarkets, farms, wholesalers, restaurants, cafes, food banks, households, student halls of residence, catering companies or small shops and delis.

Real Junk Food Venue

When is food intercepted?

Food is deemed out of date when it has passed it’s stated date, but this is absolute nonsense.

If it is ok to eat at 11:59 on the 12th for example, why is it not then ok to eat a minute later at the start of the 13th. These dates are a guideline and are by no means a measure of the quality of food. Use by dates are the only dates that we have to adhere to, but we will freeze things that are close to this date and use them within a day of defrosting. Food is intercepted not just because it is close dated or past its date, but because packaging might have been damaged/split, a barcode might have a smudge, supermarkets might have rejected veg for being the wrong shade of white (cauliflowers), or the wrong angle of curvature (courgettes/bananas) or because there is simply too much of something (gluts).

The pay as you feel concept ,does it ever surprise customers and diners?

Yes, sometimes people freak out because they just want to be told how much something is.

I think this is a good thing though, it’s good to shake people up and to encourage them to think outside of the box.

It surprises people when they hear how people donate fag butts, buttons, beads, and the foreign currency or simply nothing at all.
We would like to think that people would value the work we do just as much as any recycled/upcycled/sustainable/organic product, because a lot of time, effort and love have gone into the food we cook and the products we rescue.

Pay As You Feel Junk Food Project

Which other positive practices are you working towards?

Electric vans are the next step for us to try and cut out one of our biggest costs. We hope to have a regular café space at some point next year. Possibly another food hub as well if we can gain more access to surplus food across the city. We would love to continue doing what we are doing; save even more food and feed more people but we need the support of the community as well to do this. Please help and value us the same way we value people and let’s grow a stronger community, together.

We are very impressed that you turn intercepted food into daily changing menus depending on what you have available and at which locations. How come your chefs are this adaptable?

A good chef can cook anything from limited ingredients, it’s all about being creative. It’s like Ready, Steady, Cook, that’s how we operate every day at the cafes, which is challenging but quite exciting.

Where would one find out about opportunities to work for the Real Junk Food Project?

Working for us is something that doesn’t come by too often because we simply can not afford to grow our team with our finances as they are. We would love to pay more people to help us but we struggle to make the rent at the venues we hire. If we can ever offer more work opportunities it will go out on our volunteer newsletter as well as our social media channels.

Work at The Real Junk Food

When did you realise you wanted to work in hospitality?

I didn’t realise it, it was more circumstantial. My first job was k.p at the age of 15 and I worked up from there, always watching and learning as I made my way up.

How and where did you train?

I worked all over the place; various pubs, restaurants, and golf clubs. I worked to pay for my University costs and to earn a living. I stuck to what I knew and what I enjoyed doing. I much prefer cooking for myself and other people now than when I was working 50 hours in one restaurant in stressful conditions.

TRJFP Team

Tell us something you wish you had been told at the start of your career?

Follow what you love and the money and support will come, don’t make money your sole focus, as it won’t make you happy.

What did you want to do when you were growing up?

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

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