Bishop to cook up Real Junk Food menu

The Real Junk Food Café at All Hallows Church, Hyde Park, is part of the Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP) network of cafés which prepare meals from donated supermarket and restaurant food that would otherwise go to landfill.

Customers pay what they feel able to - either with money or by volunteering time.

Bishop Paul Slater, a suffragan bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Leeds, will team up with TRJFP founder Adam Smith to create a ‘real junk food’ menu for the Bishop’s Bistro at All Hallows tomorrow.

Diners will be able to taste the bishop’s cooking at the pay-as-you-feel event and find out more about how to set up a Real Junk Food Project café .

Vicar of All Hallows Church, the Revd Heston Groenewald, said: “The café has helped create a welcoming community space and in two years we’ve saved more than nine tons of food from the dustbin. It’s been calculated that every £1 invested in the café has generated £15 in social return. It’s been a massive blessing here and a huge opportunity in terms of justice, hospitality, community-building and mental health.

“Now TRJFP have come to realise the Church’s potential for distributing the huge quantity of ‘waste’ food (which is perfectly edible), and they’d love to partner with as many churches as they can in Yorkshire.

“Of the five days a week that we serve ‘waste’ food at All Hallows we have just started working with the Syrian Community Of Leeds each Thursday. Friends from the community spend the day with us cooking and sharing their culture.”

Leeds-based Adam Smith, a professional chef, set up TRJFP with his partner Johanna in 2013 to revolutionise the disposal of avoidable food waste into landfill.

The Bishop’s Bistro takes place on Tuesday, November 22, from 7pm to 9.30pm at All Hallows Church, Regent Terrace, Leeds.