Our thinking

Fighting loneliness one meal at a time

5 January, 2024

The post Christmas season leaves many of us feeling like we’ve over-eaten, over-socialised and overdone it. However, that is not the case for many people, facing food insecurity, rising costs of living and loneliness. Enter FoodCycle, a generous initiative to fight hunger, food waste and loneliness by providing free community meals using food supermarkets would otherwise throw away. 

In the UK 1 in 7 people are food insecure, whilst every year 9.5 million tonnes of food are wasted. This devastating inefficiency is tackled head on by the wonderful volunteers at FoodCycle. In 2022, FoodCycle’s pop-up café’s serves almost 500,000 meals across the UK, saving nearly 209 tonnes of food from going to waste! This may seem a small percentage, but for those who attend, it is a huge win. Attendees are treated to a three course, vegetable-packed meal with others from their community. And does it work? Well with 87% of attendees saying that coming to a FoodCycle meal makes them feel a part of their community, 82% of guests rating the food received as excellent and 84% making friends, we’d say yes. 

Hard not to been moved by such an intelligent, warm initiative. Food Cycle are always looking for volunteers, so if you are keen to cook, chat or manage these community meals reach out and join the initiative to “make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community”! 

By Anna Heis