• 143c Front Street, Chester le Street, Durham, DH3 3AU
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  • 143c Front Street, Chester le Street, DH3 3AU
Opening times

Tuesday 10am-4pm

Wednesday 10am-4pm

Thursday 10am-4pm

Friday 10am-4pm

Saturday 10am-3pm

Frequently Asked Questions
Local shops, cafes, markets, restaurants, allotments, other charities, wholesalers, food photographers, events, small businesses…. wherever we can rescue it, wherever it really would otherwise have gone to waste.

Yes our menu changes everyday as we do not know ahead of time what kinds of food we will intercept.

We always have food that caters to vegan, vegetarian and gluten free dietary requirements, alternative milks are available for our drinks, but please chat to a member of staff as we take all allergies very seriously and are happy to talk you through the day’s menu with your diet in mind.

No we do not, but we are happy to adapt our menu as much as we can on the day to suit your child(ren).

We have a small play area with toys and books in our cafe, highchairs are available, as well as baby changing facilities and a potty/potty seat.

REfUSE cafe runs on a “Pay As You Feel” basis: we want to challenge everyone who eats with us to re-assign value to food that has been wrongly labelled as waste, acknowledging the resources, time, energy, and effort that went into making it – from farm to fork.
In the same way, we value every single person who comes in our doors, not by the money in their pockets but the skills, time, energy, and personality they bring. Guests can pay with their time, money, or skills.
Food is not free: running REfUSE takes a LOT of time, money and energy. We need £330 and up to 28 hard working volunteers per day to keep the cafe open, so please consider what you can contribute generously. We give a suggested donation of £5 for a hot meal.
You can do this by:
– giving an anonymous donation of cash into an envelope, or a card payment
– ‘paying it forward’, using a post-it to pay for a meal or drink for someone else
– taking an idea slip of practical things you might be able to do to help out in the cafe
Please chat to the cafe manager on the day (wearing a black t-shirt) to find out more or ask any questions.

We’re a community interest company, which means that the money we make all goes back into running the project.

We pay rent, we buy petrol, we run our electric van, we buy equipment, we pay our staff to make it all happen, and lots of other costs.

Any extra money we get will go towards serving more people and saving more food. We try to earn enough through projects like Waste Not Boxes to fund our core work, but we still need to fundraise and receive grant funding for new projects such as our education projects.

Yes!

We can take food donations if it is within its use by date, in unopened packaging and not needing to be stored in the fridge/freezer.

However we suggest that the first place to donate unwanted food should be the Food Bank as we would only like to take food if you would otherwise throw it away and we are able to take food on if it can’t be used by them.

We feed everyone. We don’t just feed ‘homeless people’, ‘the needy’, nor do we just feed refugees, or elderly people,..

In order for us to prove the value and safety of food wrongly labelled “waste”, we couldn’t just feed specific demographics of people. We believe that food we collect is absolutely fit for human consumption and so that’s who we feed – human beings.

Read more about our dilemmas with the food poverty issue here.

We adhere to all Environmental Health regulations, and have a 5* Food Hygiene rating to prove it.

This includes transporting food, storing, preparing, cooking and reheating it safely.

We never serve food past its use by date which is a safety standard but we do intercept food that for a whole variety of reasons is unwanted and otherwise would be thrown away.

This includes food past its best before date: a label only designed to signify food quality not safety. Some retailers have a new scheme where they freeze food on the day of its Use By date and give it to us, where we then keep it frozen, defrost and cook safely within a month.

This is the only time we would ever serve food past its use by date, and this is legal and perfectly safe.

However, we actively encourage all to not rely so heavily on date labelling, which we believe is a flawed system.

Best before dates on tins of beans mean nothing.

Use your own judgement on whether you believe your food is fit for human consumption or not, by smelling it, tasting it and visually inspecting it.

Built by volunteers, run by volunteers, and fuelled by food waste, our cafe is a beautiful place of inclusive community and creativity.

We are open Tuesday to Friday 10am until 4pm, and Saturdays 10am until 3pm.  We serve barista coffees and homemade cakes at a set price, and hot, home made food for breakfast and lunch on a ‘Pay As You Feel’ basis. The menus change every day depending on what food arrives from our food surplus collections. We have a children’s play area, accessible toilets, 50p tea and instant coffees available, and a ‘pantry’ area where you can collect bags of food shopping for a monetary donation. Our cafe is run by volunteers except for one paid manager each day. 

Please browse our ‘FAQ’ section on this page to find out more.

If you would like to find out more about volunteering with us, read our volunteer information page.

Other groups and organisations use the cafe space too, for one-off or regular events outside of our normal cafe opening hours. We also have a training kitchen, hot desk and office space available for hire.  Click here for more information.