We are so proud of everything we have achieved in our first year. THANK YOU to all who have helped REfUSE Cafe grow into a beautiful community of people from all walks of life, all doing your bit to save the environment and support local people and the town of Chester le Street. We are … Continue reading REfUSE Cafe, year 1:
When it comes to catering for events, it takes some planning, talent and expertise to come up with the menu that has been requested, with all the dietary requirements and special requests, using only food that would otherwise have been wasted. The event organisers give us an idea of their favourite foods, maybe a party … Continue reading A busy summer of catering
On the 1st and 3rd Thursdays of every month, we host REfUSE Restaurant nights. A restaurant-style dinner with a twist: all the food we serve would otherwise have been destined for waste. We rescue it, see the quantity and quality of food deemed 'worthless' and re-value it by serving amazing three-course dinners, once a month … Continue reading Restaurant nights
We love to see the space in the REfUSE café being used by community groups : from coding workshops for three year olds to mental health support groups to church meetings, open mic nights and birthday parties. On monday mornings, we host a toddler group ran by Emmanuel church : this is one of the … Continue reading Emmanuel Tots
Hi everyone ! My name is Barthélemy, I am a French student doing an internship at REfUSE. Working here is part of my education as I needed to spend a few weeks in an English-speaking country in order to improve my English skills. I heard about REfUSE with my teacher who is part of “The Real … Continue reading Tackling food waste and northern accents.
Christmas Opening Times for REfUSE Cafe: We're aiming to feed up to 80 people on Christmas Day, a very special dinner made from crazy amounts of surplus food supermarkets throw away on Christmas Eve. Taking bookings from local organisations supporting people experiencing homelessness, mental health issues and loneliness. It promises to be a fun-filled festive … Continue reading Christmas Time at REfUSE
There are a few different figures around, and there has never a full study on it, but Unilever/WRAP estimate that in 2014, 2 million Christmas dinners were wasted across the United Kingdom: equivalent to 263,000 turkeys; 7.5 million mince pies; 740,000 slices of Christmas pudding; 17.2 million Brussels sprouts; 11.9 million carrots and 11.3 million roast potatoes. … Continue reading Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas….
BEFORE AFTER Huge thanks go to : Stu Clark for leading the whole project and electrical expertise Catherine Muir interior design for beautiful design and ideas Chester-le-Street Area Action Partnership for funding some of our kitchen equipment McCarricks Construction Ltd for giving weeks of their time to get us ready to open on Christmas … Continue reading Before and after…
We were given keys to the property on 1st October 2017. From that day onward we were in the building almost every day, evening and night, calling upon anyone we can to help us. Stu Clark is the builder mastermind behind most of the work, coming after work every day he worked pretty much the … Continue reading The building project
After the success of our crowdfund in December 2016, we launched straight in to trying to find a building. We looked at a number of properties, but in the end we put all our eggs in one basket for one place, and worked on things like planning permission and Change of Use for a few … Continue reading The cafe story…
