Introduction

This chapter is about food sharing in a community cafe in North East England. The chapter draws from an original co-production research project between Newcastle University and a local social enterprise REFUSE Community Interest Company (CIC). REFUSE collects ‘safe for consumption’ surplus food from local food retailers and manufacturers, and by intercepting food in this way, prevents it from going to waste. The food is then transformed into meals and snacks that are available in its ‘pay as you feel’ (PAYF) cafe in the town of Chester-le-Street. This environmentally motivated activism also aims to bring beneficial impacts to the local community, such as greater access to food and reducing social isolation. REFUSE is a member of The Real Junk Food Project, a collective network and effort involving 120 projects in seven countries that intercept, distribute and share food within their communities (TRJFP, 2019). In this chapter, the social and community impacts of the cafe are documented, which are specifically explored through the ideas of reciprocity and ‘quiet’ activism in social renewal actions that aim to improve social justice outcomes.

Context

This research and the cafe project is, in part, located amid the growth in UK food industry donations of ‘safe for human consumption’ surplus foods to charitable and social redistributors, as well as commercial food redistribution organisations (such as social supermarkets) that work to make this surplus food available to individuals and communities either free or at reduced cost. For example, recent UK figures identified that the estimated extent of surplus food used for charitable and social redistribution amounted to 43,034 tonnes in 2017, which was consequently diverted from entering the waste stream (WRAP, 2018). This reflected an increase of 80 per cent in the amount of available food offered between 2015 and 2017, and of the 2017 total amount, UK charitable and social redistributors (such as REFUSE) handled 20,935 tonnes, which was mainly sourced from food retailers (WRAP, 2018).

While the focus of redistribution actions is often associated with preventing safe, edible food from going to waste and improving the provision of food to those experiencing food poverty and insecurity, here, the opportunities that are offered by community cafes and other food sharing offers (which may or may not utilise surplus food) to address the increasing harsh realities of life for many in austerity Britain amid the continued retrenchment of collective welfare provision are highlighted.