Rene Meijer AKA Food Works

“Food has value and so do you.”

Rene Meijer AKA Food Works was first inspired to start Food Works Sheffield – until recently, known as Real Junk Food Project – four and a half years ago. He wanted to make a positive contribution to society, and do something about a third of food going to waste.“If food waste was a country, it would be the third biggest carbon creator in the world. Yet one in six people find themselves going hungry.”Food Works takes food that would otherwise end up in landfill and makes sure it doesn’t go to waste. Through their warehouse market, their bistro nights or their buffets for weddings and events Food Works saves tonnes of food and drink from the bin each year.“People struggle to engage with the food we provide if we call it waste, so we call it surplus.”Food isn’t always out of date or unsellable, often it’s merely a result of poor planning or logistics by the supermarkets, and because of the cost of logistics, the cheapest option is to throw it away.Food Works’ warehouse is sometimes filled with expensive whiskey or fancy chocolates – online shopping orders that the customer wasn’t at home to accept. That food is then available to anyone who would like it, at a price they choose based on what they can afford.“You can’t just ask poor people to have the leftovers. We are not a poverty organisation.”Rene finds using surplus food to feed poor people disrespectful, he believes people, and the food they eat, has value, and that we shouldn’t expect those les fortunate to eat what isn’t wanted. At Food Works’ bistro nights the surplus produce taken in by Food Works is used to create fine dining menus, to be enjoyed by all.For Rene, there’s two things he wants the CM Sheffield crowd to take home from his talk. 1) a croissant for later, because there’s some leftover. 2) For people to rethink who they are in Sheffield. Are you a consumer or are you a citizen of the community? The choices you make are citizen choices, if you think about it that way you may make different choices.“We’re all so programmed into having choice and abundance. We very easily forgot what the impact of those choices are. Choice isn’t free”Words by Molly McGreevy.