We have everything we need - food and friendship

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“We’re people from different walks of life,” Peter Smith tell me as he waits for his three-course meal to be served.

After spending the last 20 years volunteering in Africa, Peter found himself back on Yorkshire soil two months ago, without a roof over his head.

The 69-year-old says his first visit a "necessity".

"I didn’t have a cooker or hot water; I was starting from scratch."
Across England and Wales, FoodCycle runs 93 community events each week where they serve food that would otherwise have ended up going to landfill.
The charity aims to tackle not just the throwing away of food but also provide an antidote to loneliness as well as those facing food poverty.

"They’re saviours, if I can get through winter OK, it will be thanks to what they do," Peter adds as he eyes up a piece of crispy garlic bread.
As well as the menu, Peter says it is the "camaraderie" with fellow diners which keeps coming back.

"I was homeless but now studying English" Adam says, settling into what he tells me is his usual seat.

His friendship with Adam Hromada, 31, is, by his own admission, an unlikely one.
Originally from Czech Republic, Adam came to Yorkshire as a refugee five years ago.
"It’s amazing, I've never experienced support like it.
"We have everything; food and friendship."
One of the other 40-plus guests looking forward to their meal is Bernard Clark.
The 78-year-old is keen - not just to eat but to also lend a hand.
"We like to help", he says, setting out cutlery on green gingham tablecloths.
"We’re so appreciative of what they do."
Bernard tells me before she had a stroke, his wife was the cook at home.
"She’s now being well looked after in a home and I buy ready meals.
"The sense of community I get here is important."

In the kitchen, a team of busy volunteers prepare food that would have otherwise have been destined for the dump.
It is provided by another charity which sources it from supermarkets, shops and others suppliers, with the produce often on or near an expiry date.
So far, according to FoodCycle, which has been around for 15 years, 200 tonnes of surplus food has been saved and fed to those at its events.
The volunteers aren’t able to order what they want, rather they show culinary flair by turning what is delivered in crates into mouth-watering meals.
On the menu tonight is broccoli and cabbage soup with garlic bread plus pasta bake bursting with aubergine and sweet peppers.

There’s apple crumble - with lashings of custard - for afters.
"The first thing, is to see what we’ve got to work with" Carol Snowball, project lead at St Luke’s says, assessing her delivery as the smell of sizzling onions seasons the air.

She has volunteered for the last two years and says they "couldn’t manage" without people donating their time.
The charity is now appealing for more volunteers willing to give up a few hours a month.
They highlight a new service, in Huddersfield, as one that they are looking for help with.

Running on Mondays from 18:30, they are after cooks, potwashers and hosts for the event at St Joseph's Catholic Church in Aspley.
Sophie Aoun, FoodCycle’s regional manager, says the demand is "huge" and says they charity has served more than 100,000 meals so far this year.
"It’s a sad state of affairs, there’s so much food poverty, so much isolation."
"This is dining with dignity," she adds.

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