I first heard about REfUSE Durham through Nikki and on social media, around the time it was just starting up. REfUSE recently did an amazing job catering our wedding breakfast (I’m the one in the photo in the wedding dress!). I studied Biology and Anthropology at University and I’m really interested in nutrition, the social and cultural impact that food can have, especially how it can both separate people and bring people together.

My interest in global and local health and nutrition inequalities in England and the North East meant that what REfUSE are doing especially interested me and I wanted to get involved. It is crazy that food is thrown away down the road from people who are struggling to feed their families, choosing between nutritionally valuable food or paying bills.

I’ve been volunteering with REfUSE regularly for over a year and love getting stuck in – from the admin of organising events, driving round the north east intercepting food, to chopping thousands of onions and carrots for our pop-ups and events. I love meeting other volunteers and hearing their stories about why they’ve got involved. I’m thrilled to be starting my new role as Project Coordinator for Fuel for Schools and communicating more about the value of food and the cost of waste to kids in four primary schools in County Durham. I’m really excited to see how this project will grow and develop.