{"id":1100982,"date":"2026-07-20T17:57:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1100982\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T17:57:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T17:57:39","slug":"were-open-to-all-meet-the-food-sustainability-volunteers-helping-londoners-one-meal-at-a-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1100982\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We\u2019re open to all!’: Meet the food sustainability volunteers helping Londoners, one meal at a time"},"content":{"rendered":"

With more than 60 branches and more than 8,000 volunteers across the UK, Foodcycle is a charity that uses surplus food to create nutritious meals for communities.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

And in 2025 alone, FoodCycle<\/a> has saved\u00a0more than 300 tonnes of food from landfills while creating safe spaces for people of backgrounds to come together and have a delicious three-course meal in.<\/p>\n

The volunteer-led charity prides itself on being more than just a soup kitchen \u2013 at the heart of the organisation lies human connection, with almost 80% of FoodCycle enjoyers reporting feeling happier after sharing a meal.<\/p>\n

FoodCycle\u2019s Area Manager for London and the South East Alix Guerber said: \u201cWe\u2019re as much about coming for the company as for the free food.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just volunteers in the kitchen and guests in the hall. We hope everyone sits down to share at least a bit of the meal and chat to everyone who is there.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Volunteers are how FoodCycle were able to serve almost 76,000 meals across London and the South East served last year.<\/p>\n

This summer, they have launched their \u2018Summer of Peas and Love\u2019 campaign where cooks, servers, washer-uppers and any keen volunteers are encouraged to sign up and join in tackling hunger and loneliness in the capital.<\/p>\n

They have meal locations across south west London in Fulham, White City, Roehampton, and Wandsworth.<\/p>\n

Alix praised the clear, positive impact the volunteers have on attendees and described a time when a grieving recent widow arrived at a FoodCycle meal after being encouraged to join by a friend.<\/p>\n

Alix said she used this time to take the woman\u2019s mind away from grief for just an hour for a meal. <\/p>\n

Alix said: \u201cShe could be in a space in which she didn\u2019t have to pretend to be okay or not okay, there wouldn\u2019t be any expectations on her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of being a steady community there for her, it definitely felt we were doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being reliable hubs of connection has been central to FoodCycle\u2019s ethos since the start, and were tried and tested during the pandemic. <\/p>\n

They set up check-in chats for participants and even delivered food and support to their doorsteps \u2013 proof of FoodCycle\u2019s commitment. <\/p>\n

And the joy doesn\u2019t end there \u2013 romance even has sparked between FoodCycle volunteers Chadana and Dan!<\/p>\n

Dan said: \u201cBeing around people who have similar interests, you\u2019d hope a relationship might form.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can find out where your local meal location is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Anyone over 18 can register to volunteer with FoodCycle here<\/a> and you can donate here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Featured image credit: Deb James<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With more than 60 branches and more than 8,000 volunteers across the UK, Foodcycle is a charity that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1100983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[45634,748,393,300563,154824,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":["post-1100982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-accessibility","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-food-kitchen","tag-foodbank","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116953602335164359","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1100982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1100982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1100983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1100982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1100982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1100982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}