Eight volunteers from GLL’s management team in Lewisham mucked in at the local Irish Centre in Catford this week, preparing a hearty, three-course meal for almost fifty visitors.

Working with the charity Food Cycle, colleagues split into two groups to prepare and serve carrot and coriander soup, vegetarian spaghetti Bolognese and croissant bread pudding. 

Food Cycle exists to help tackle food poverty and wastage by making meals out of locally-sourced, surplus food that would normally go to landfill. This may have become damaged in transit, might be past its ‘best before’ date or might have been over-ordered but even so, is still perfectly edible. Food Cycle provides free meals at the Lewisham Irish Centre on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Matthew Houghton, GLL’s Community Sport Manager in the region, comments, “The management team thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and we would like to thank Mel and her team at Food Cycle for their patience, guidance and support. It all ran very smoothly and we were complemented on our professionalism – although we did have one of the team chop enough garlic to feed the five thousand!

“Other than that, it turns out that if we didn't have a career in leisure, catering could be our second calling. Now we’re itching to get going with our next challenge so if you know of a group looking for volunteers, please get in touch – matthew.houghton@gll.org.”