August bank holiday weekend. The sun was shining, temperatures soaring, and lots of people headed out of Durham to make the most of it. Our Nikki and Stu spent most of the weekend in a pop-up kitchen in a field and a festival campsite. You could say the weekend was intense…. most of the time spent “in tents”…. ahem, sorry, it doesn’t suit me…

Greenbelt festival is “a collision of the arts, faith and justice. Engaged with culture, inspired by the arts, sustained by faith…” – our kind of place to be. A group of us from REfUSE and connections have been going every year for the past few years, and we have always thought the The Real Junk Food Project should be involved in some way. This year, thanks to Christian Aid, it happened!

In one heck of a miracle of a weekend, we joined Duncan and Kerry from Saltaire Canteen (a TRJFP cafe in Bradford), and we served THOUSANDS of meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner, on a pay as you feel basis. It was hot, sweaty, and sometimes a bit dramatic, owing to a pop up kitchen that was on a 10-degree slope. We made some excellent food, sometimes having to be very creative with dwindling amounts of fresh veg, but the brilliance of The Real Junk Food Project shone in all it’s glory when more deliveries came in from TRJFP volunteer Julia, based in Northamptonshire and wanting to set up a cafe in nearby Kettering.

Thanks to Christian Aid and Greenbelt for having us. We proved that serving thousands of people, from a pop-up kitchen in a field, using only food that would otherwise have been wasted, is possible, and can be delicious. We saved hundreds of kilos of food from going to waste, and we spread awareness and understanding about the craziness of food waste. Here’s to many more….