Pioneering Leeds pay-as-you-feel cafe forced to close

A Leeds charity has announced it is shutting a popular pay-as-you-feel community cafe.

Armley Junk-tion is run by the Real Junk Food Project, who aim to reduce waste by using food discarded by supermarkets to create healthy meals.

Although the charity itself has kickstarted a global movement from its Pudsey base, the cafe has not been profitable and has now been put on the market to enable founder Adam Smith to repay investors.

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It will close tomorrow after four years of operation, and the building is valued at £135,000.

Customers at the trail-blazing cafe paid what they could afford for meals. The concept now has 120 outlets across the world, while the Pudsey 'sharehouse' supports over 20,000 people every year.

The cafe was affected by problems with anti-social behaviour in the neighbourhood, and was forced to reduce its opening hours to ensure the safety of staff and volunteers.

Mr Smith and his charity are now backing projects such as Fuel for Schools, which provides healthy meals for 20,000 pupils every week.

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