Food for Thought 24th October
Sorry about the delayed blogging! So many things going on and so little time to tell you about them! Food for Thought is an event Beth has been working on with Jade from Cathedral Archer Project since September.
Cathedral Archer Project opened their doors for an evening of food and live music in October to celebrate the Harvest season. Forks on Wheels sourced food surplus donations from various Sheffield-based cafes and shops and a team of volunteers took over the CAP kitchen to whip up a vegan curry storm!
Thanks to the efforts of Llion, Ann Nee, Jade and Ruby for collecting food donations and a coincidental party on the following evening resulting in the hall being decked out in full fairy light glam, by 5pm things were starting to shape up. The only issue we’d encountered so far was a lack of mic stands and leads, but plenty of mics themselves!
With a team of friends from university, we took over the kitchen and started mass chopping and prepping. We had squashes, cauliflowers, a tub of tomato soup, beetroot leaves, onions, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, spinach, and even a lone coconut! We were also given soya yoghurts, olive and sunflower spreads, a huge selection of sandwiches, pork pies and 50 scones. The only non-donated food was the rice and spices.
The turn out was pretty good; the hall was full with everyone comfortably sat down. Jupiter in Jars played a wonderful set, whilst everyone tucked into curry, which was awesome (if I don’t say so myself). Caroline Francess played piano and sang stunningly, also thanks to Caroline for her PA system!. By this point, the curry was almost demolished, sandwiches gone and people were tucking into the 50 scones we had with olive spread.
We were then fully entertained by Jade’s raffle, which had some great prizes – thank you for contributions, in particular Lush for the lovely bathing products. Then to explain about Forks on Wheels, this was the first time our project was explained to a group of people. Beth gave a short description of the project and highlighted what was, for her, the most important message from this event: with the contributions from only 6 local shops we managed to comfortably feed around 50 people. This is why our project is so important and why we should all spare some thought, time and effort to thinking about the source and story of the food we eat. The importance of this seemed even clearer whilst everyone sat there, drinking and eating, in a centre that in the daytime supports homeless and vulnerable people. People that do not have a security that many of us take for granted: food. If we can feed 50 people, with minimal effort, from food destined for landfill there is clearly a fundamental problem in the food supply chain.
Finally, the room was hit up by the funky loudness of the University Samba Band. Always a joy to listen and bounce around to! The event was a success and I loved it. I am proud to have organised it (with the help of friends and CAP of course) and I am hugely thankful for everyone for attending.
We are happy to say that the evening raised £240 for Cathedral Archer Project, a fantastic local cause that provides a variety of services and support for the homeless and vulnerable people. We are looking at running another event in January or February, so keep your eyes peeled!
