Tag: TRJFPBrum

Happy Easter!

Easter is fast approaching and we want to let you know which of our venues will be closed over the Bank Holidays.

There will be no Freegan Box collections on Good Friday (19th April)

Things will be back to normal from Wednesday 24th April.

We hope you have a lovely time

The TRJFP Brum team

Hodge Hill – The Hub closed this week (28th March 2019)

We are sorry to announce that the Hodge Hill café and boutique are closed this week (28th March 2019) due to unforeseen circumstances. Next week we will be open as usual.

Apologies to everyone who was planning to attend the garden workshop. We will reschedule and let you know the new date.

Hobs Moat Café – Jay


I feel so lucky I’m in a position to be able to help and feel I get more out of it than it gets out of me.

Jay

I first heard of the Real Junk Food Project Birmingham in December 2017 from a neighbour who invited me to come along to St Marys church hall for a bite to eat and a bit of shopping on a pay as you feel basis.

I went along and had a very nice roast dinner with pudding and a decent bag of shopping a chat with some of my unknown neighbours. A very relaxing afternoon with some lovely company for which I gave 4 or 5 pounds, what a bargain.

I enjoyed it so much I offered to help out if it ever happened again, and I’ve not looked back. We now have a great bunch of volunteers and have been going from strength to strength, we have even had a street party for the people living in Trinity Close where quite a few neighbours came and spent a beautiful sunny afternoon with tea, coffee, fruit juice, cakes, biscuits, fruit and music, it was great.

I can truly say that volunteering for the Real Junk Food Project Birmingham is the most rewarding and fulfilling thing I have ever done. I’ve made a whole bunch of new friends and got to know more of my neighbours in the past few months than I have the previous 7 years I have lived here. I feel so lucky I’m in a position to be able to help and feel I get more out of it than it gets out of me.

On a more serious note, it’s truly frightening to see the amount of good fresh fruit and veg, other food stuff and many many household items that would otherwise go to landfill if it weren’t intercepted and fairly distributed by the Real Junk Food Project Birmingham. A great initiative.

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!

Working With Waitrose At Hobs Moat

The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham would like to say a huge THANK YOU to

in Solihull for partnering with us and supporting our Hobs Moat Community Café and Food Boutique, which we launched in May.

Hobs Moat Boutique
Hobs Moat Boutique

Our dedicated volunteers collect items that Waitrose can no longer sell, and deliver them to our Hobs Moat community café. Anything that can’t be used by the kitchen goes to the boutique for
customers to take home, or to our Sharehouse in Winson Green. In this way nothing is wasted as TRJFPBrum’s motto is #feedbelliesnotbins!

Anyone is welcome to eat or shop with us, we just ask for a donation of cash, time, or skills on a Pay-As-You-Feel (PAYF) basis. This makes for a fantastic welcoming environment, breaking down barriers for all members of the Hobs Moat community to attend and get involved.

The Hobs Moat Café and Food Boutique run weekly every Thursday 12pm-2pm at St Mary’s church hall. You can download and print off posters and fliers here:

Hobs Moat Poster

Hobs Moat Flier

For more details about this, or the many other venues run each week by The Real Junk Food Project Birmingham, please check out the venues page on our website trjfpbrum.com/venues.

Local Area Coordination Network

 

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