Tag: TRJFP

Irian – a volunteer from Tahiti

There are moments in your life where you need to give your time to other people.

Irian

Soon we will say goodbye to volunteer Irian, a young man who grew up in Tahiti, an island part of French Polynesia in the Central South Pacific Ocean. It’s a French version of Hawaii, Irian says. In total, the islands together have a population of just 275k people. He currently studies Business Studies in France as he was keen to experience a ‘big country’.

A friend of his who had volunteered with us last year told Irian about the Real Junk Food Project Birmingham. Irian wanted to come and help people in Birmingham because it’s something he knows from his home country. In Tahiti people cook for each other and do a lot of charity work and Irian was drawn to our project to feed bellies not bins. Also, his degree requires him to do a 6 week internship and Irian liked the idea of improving his English while feeding and helping people in Birmingham.

Irian has worked at a range of TRJFP Birmingham venues during his internship including:

He was shocked at how much food would go to waste if we didn’t intercept it and feels inspired to introduce The Real Junk Food Project to Tahiti.

Irian’s English has improved a lot during his time with us and he enjoyed speaking to all the different people he met through the project and felt that he was able to make a difference to their lives.

People think where he is from is paradise but Tahiti has all the same problems we have including poverty and excessive wealth.

We’d like to thank Irian for his hard work with the project and wish him well for his future studies and travels!

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We’re still happy for you to have nappies – and baby milk too!

Hello all!

We’ve had a great response to our nappy pant surplus. Lots of people have requested them by email (see details below for what we have and how to get some), but if you haven’t been in touch and would like some (or would like more!) we still have plenty left!

We also have quite a bit of baby milk (formula), if that’s something else you need, and baby wipes too (though not masses and masses of those).

Pampers Premium Active Fit Nappy Pants size 4 and 5The nappy pants/pull-ups, milk and wipes are at our Sharehouse in Winson Green.

 

They are sample packs of two Pampers Premium Active Fit Nappy Pants per pack. These are pretty pricey in the shops. We’re asking for donations of just £1 per 7 sample packs (14 nappies), with no restrictions (until they’re all gone!) on how many packs you can take.

We’ve already passed lots on to local charities, women’s shelters and hospitals, but we have plenty left for the general public, so please feel free to forward this information onto anyone this could help.

We only have size 4 (8-14kg) and size 5 (11-18kg) available, and we don’t anticipate getting any other sizes, so please check that this is the correct size for your needs.

The baby milk we have is lots of different ages, stages and brands, so please specify what you’re looking for and we’ll tell you if we have it.

For wipes we ask for a donation of £1 per 3 packs or £1 per 2 packs of Water Wipes.

If you’d like any nappies, milk or wipes, and are able to get to our Sharehouse: trjfpbrum.com/venues/sharehouse/ to collect, then please:

email trjfpbrum.collect@gmail.com

  • giving your name
  • a contact number
  • if you’d like nappy pants (size 4 or 5) the size and number of packs you’d like (there are 2 pants per pack)
  • if you’d like formula milk, the brand and stage you’re looking for
  • if you’d like wipes
  • approximate times you’re able to collect

and we will get back to you.

Make it snappy if you’d like some nappy pants!

Nappy Pants donation

Do you know any families who use nappy pants/pull-ups?

If so, they might be interested to hear that we’ve had a large donation of size 4 and size 5 Pampers Premium Active Fit Nappy Pants at our Sharehouse in Winson Green.

We’ve already passed lots on to local charities, women’s shelters and hospitals, but we have plenty left for the general public (this pic is just a small selection of the massive donation we’ve had!), so please feel free to forward this information onto anyone this could help.

They are sample packs of two per pack. We only have size 4 (8-14kg) and size 5 (11-18kg) available, and we don’t anticipate getting any other sizes, so this is quite specific, but these are pretty pricey in the shops, usually on offer they still work out at 12p+ per nappy. We’re asking for donations of £1 per 7 sample packs (14 nappies), with no restrictions (until they’re all gone!) on how many packs you can take.

 

Pampers Premium Active Fit Nappy Pants size 4 and 5
Pampers Premium Active Fit Nappy Pants size 4 and 5

If you’d like some, and are able to get to our Sharehouse: trjfpbrum.com/venues/sharehouse/ to collect, then please:

  • email trjfpbrum.collect@gmail.com
  • giving your name
  • a contact number
  • size and quantity of packs you’d like (there are 2 pants per pack)
  • approximate times you’re able to collect

and we will get back to you.

Extended Sharehouse Opening Hours!

Have you visited our Sharehouse* in Winson Green yet?

(*a Sharehouse is a Pay-As-You-Feel supermarket – for more information click here)

If no, is it because our opening days/hours didn’t work for you?

We have good news if that’s the case; we’re going to be extending our opening hours and opening on more days!

Some of our volunteers with TRJFP founder Adam Smith
Some of our volunteers at the Sharehouse with TRJFP founder Adam Smith

Tuesdays

  • 9:00am – 4:00pm

Wednesdays

  • 10:00am – 6:00pm

Thursdays

  • 1:00pm – 7:00pm

Fridays

  • 9:00am – 4:00pm

Saturdays

  • Volunteers Only – check the volunteer Facebook group or WhatsApp for times!

Hopefully this means even more people can join us to #feedbelliesnotbins – we look forward to seeing you there!

Amber

*No Freegan Boxes 28th April*

Sorry

Hi everyone,

Due to preparations for the upcoming elections, some of Ladywood Health and Community Centre will be out of use for us for a few days – including the hall we use for Freegan Boxes.

We looked into alternative spaces, but there were just too many logistical issues to overcome in time, so we have had to take the decision to temporarily suspend some of our services:

There will be no Freegan Boxes (deliveries or collections from Ladywood/Kings Heath) on Friday 28th April.

The Café will be serving lunch only on:

  • Wed 26th April (Front Hall)
  • Thurs 27 April (Downstairs)
  • Fri 28 April (Front Hall)
  • Wed 3 May (Downstairs)
  • Thurs 4 May (Downstairs)

The Boutique will be run from wherever lunch is being served.

Thank you to all our volunteers for their patience and flexibility, and apologies again; we really don’t like disappointing anyone!

Amber

A Grand Day Out Gleaning

This week TRJFP Brum went on an adventure to the countryside! Joining forces with Feedback, we provided a delicious lunch for all of the lovely volunteers, as well as pitching in with the gleaning ourselves.

What is gleaning, I hear you ask?

Gleaning is the age-old practice of harvesting leftover crops. The UK Gleaning Network was founded in 2012 by Feedback, the organisation founded by Tristram Stuart to campaign for an end to food waste. It’s estimated that 30-40% of fruit and vegetables in the UK don’t even leave the farm, mostly due to cosmetic standards imposed by supermarkets. So many crops are left on the tree or ploughed back into the field because it’s just not economically worthwhile for the farmers to harvest them.

12309929_1694401360805000_1220542884444540996_oTis the season for ripe, juicy apples

It was great to see so many people giving their time to rescue a beautiful crop of Braeburn apples that had been rejected due to being “too green”. A team of about 30 people worked hard, despite the rain and the cold, and managed to pick around 4 tonnes of delicious, crisp apples to be redistributed.

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The experience of eating an apple that you’ve just picked is amazing – the taste is so much richer than any fruit you can buy in the supermarket. Yet so many people have never had this experience, and perhaps wouldn’t even think that there is any difference. We’re so conditioned by supermarket standards to think only about how our fruit and veg look, and until you have that experience of truly fresh produce, how can you realise what you’re missing out on? I think a part of our mission should be to share this with as many people as possible, by growing food in the city, and using and sharing all that we grow.

12309584_1694401454138324_445632761523564782_o (1)Meeting our buddies from Bristol!

We weren’t the only representatives of The Real Junk Food Project out gleaning! We were really glad to have the opportunity to catch up with some lovely folks from The Bristol Skipchen. Part of their team are currently on their way to Lesbos to set up a solidarity café feeding refugees travelling to Europe. Check out this summary and head over to their fundraising page to support them if you’re able to.

So spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees and pasta isn’t made from meat?!

One of the best April fools jokes ever was played by the BBC when they reported on the growing of “spaghetti bushes”, showing bushes covered in spaghetti that was said to be drying in the sun after harvesting. Considering this was 1957, people could be forgiven for being taken in by this. However, it seems that there are still worryimage3ing gaps in knowledge about food and its origins.

Just over two years ago the British Nutrition Foundation carried out a survey amongst 27,500 five-to-16-year-olds to find out how much they knew about food and where it comes from. There was some confusion about the source of pasta among younger pupils, with about a third of five-to-eight-year-olds believing that pasta is made from meat (or did they mean wheat!? So, we thought we would do our bit to clarify this.

The aim of The Real Junk Food Project is primarily to use food destined for the bin to feed people on a ‘pay as you feel’ basis. However, we also feel that it is important to help people to help themimage4
selves; to help them use the food and ingredients they have at home in a more sustainable way so that less food is wasted. To this end, two pasta making workshops have been delivered at Ladywood Community and Health Centre over the past few months. The first of these was attended by Ladywood residents with both adults and children alike taking part, the second one in September was attended by adults from further afield to learn more about this lovely Italian carbohydrate.
In line with the aims of the project we used eggs donated by the time Union and pasta flour that was close to its use by date and destined for the bin. So, effectiveimage5ly we made some healthy pasta from waste food. We even used leftover beetroot and herbs to flavour it.
The results were amazing! In addition to taking some tasty food home, the main benefits according to our attendees included the therapy gained from kneading the dough, not to mention the gym membership fees saved (pasta dough is quite stiff, very good for working those biceps). The opportunity to get together with others to share the experience of being creative and learning new skills should not be under estimated either. All this and free aromatherapy from the mix of parsley, chives and tarragon. Look, a tagliatelle tree! We have plans to run more food waste workshops soon, watch this space!