MOBILE KITCHEN For the last year, the Brixton People’s Kitchen has been turning food surplus from local businesses into free and healthy meals for local people. We now want to invite local people to design and build a Mobile Kitchen that will travel throughout the diverse communities of Brixton and beyond, to inspire positive action against food waste by acting as an open, convivial platform for food education, community building and skills-sharing. We have just been selected as a finalist in a Waste Reduction Challenge Prize, run by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation, and funded by the Cabinet Office, to do just that! And we would love to get you on board!
CONTACT
Fan Sissoko - 078 1028 8879 fansissoko@gmail.com www.brixtonpk.wordpress.com
HOSTING THE MOBILE KITCHEN While the Brixton People’s Kitchen has served a total of 480 meals to a wide range of people, we feel the need to reach out to more diverse communities, and encourage long-term behaviour change. Our ambition is to build a kitchen on a bike, and host pop-up events in four different South London locations over the summer. We are looking to partner with other community projects keen to get some cooking action going. We will work with you to run a programme of events, which could help you to achieve the following:
OUR IMPACTS SO FAR:
1 year 16 events 882 kg of food saved from going to waste
480 meals served
GET PEOPLE TOGETHER It might be a cliché, but we believe food gets people talking. Our events are collaborative, and we have made new friends at each single one of them.
ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SHARE THEIR SKILLS AND LEARN NEW ONES Another cliché: we love South London because of the diversity of its people. Which also brings a great diversity of culinary skills. We want to build on the expertise that is already latent within communities by, for example facilitating and hosting recipe swaps and cooking demonstrations run by community members.
ACTIVATE UNUSED SPACES Whether you are responsible for an outdoor space, like a community garden, or an indoor space, like a community centre, or a gallery, and even if you already have a kitchen anyway, hosting the Mobile Kitchen will be a great way to bring more people in. Fun and celebration are key to our ethos. We want to avoid moralising and instead inspire people through handson cooking sessions that encourage people to think about and engage in creative ways around food waste reduction.
LAST, BUT NOT LEAST, RAISING AWARENESS OF FOOD WASTE With its markets and numerous restaurants, Brixton is a food hub. It is estimated that 36% of Brixton’s waste is food. The Brixton People’s Kitchen has helped tackle this issue, by cooking with surplus food generated by businesses. However, food waste from retailers only account for a small portion of the total amount of food we waste every year in the UK. The majority actually comes from households. Our Mobile Kitchen will aim to bring about sustainable behaviour change within the communities we work with. We have partnered with Love Food Hate Waste, a national campaign run by WRAP, the UK’s leading waste-reduction non-profit, to give practical information on how to reduce food waste at home to people who attend our events. We will also support people to become ambassadors for food waste reduction, by providing them with a small sum of money to run their own projects. IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN, GET IN TOUCH. We are looking for a diversity of locations and communities. Ideally, you are already working with a group or people, or can easily mobilise a group of volunteers to take part in the project. We believe that we should inspire change rtaher than dictating it, and are keen to hear from you about how to best adapt our idea to your needs.
OUR PLAN ACTIONS
April 2013
May
COLLABORATIVE WORKSHOPS
June
5x2h
GartenStudio share their expertise and facilitate building workshops The Mobile Kitchen is built from scrap materials.
July
POP UP EVENTS
A first free meal to introduce the project, raise awareness about food waste with Love Food Hate Waste, and recruit more volunteers to organise the next meals
OUTCOMES
A functioning mobile kitchen
September
IDEAS FUND
4x4 sites
Two free meals in each location, organised in collaboration with the local community.
An opportunity for volunteers in each location to produce something to sell through the Mobile Kitchen.
The willing sites we have visited have the opportunity to pitch to us for a micro grant and further support to start-up their own food waste reduction project.
The Mobile Kitchen intends to visit 4 different sites (TBC).
A group of Brixton People’s Kitchen volunteers work with young offenders, to design and build the Mobile Kitchen
An engaged team of core volunteers, including young people from the Youth Offending Service.
August
• 4 community meals across 4 locations • 160kg of food used • 80 people engaged
• 8 community meals across 4 locations using surplus food from local businesses as well as households • 600kg of food used • 200 people engaged
• 300kg of food used • income generated for the ideas fund
An emerging network of food waste reduction projects.
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE AVOIDANCE
REDUCING WASTE PREVENT REUSE
People who have attended our events have reported feeling more resourceful in their cooking.
The Mobile Kitchen events will be a combination of awareness raising, inspiration and practical skills sharing.
90% of the food used during a People’s Kitchen event is surplus food from local businesses.
This will contribute to changing behaviours to reduce household food waste, and potentially enable people to set up their own projects.
For each event, we have used around 50kg of perishable ingredients and long shelf life items. The Mobile Kitchen will enable us to significantly increase this amount.
RECYCLE
The Mobile Kitchen will be build from waste materials, sourced through the Remakery, Cycooldelic and Freecycle.
RECOVER
Where possible, the food that cannot be eaten will be composted for community gardens.
DISPOSE