'Fantastic' food charity calls for volunteers

A "fantastic" charity is asking for volunteers to join its "Ready Steady Cook" style community food café.

On Thursday FoodCycle is launching its Reading Community Meal, the 100th weekly event across the UK.

As part of the initiative, volunteers take surplus food and turn it into a three-course meal for the local community.

Head of marketing Carly Shutes said the Reading team was in need of cooks, pot washers and hosts, who help with things like laying the table and serving food.

"It's really, really easy to volunteer and we have lots of different roles," she said.

Ms Shutes said the scheme was a "really simple idea", using food "destined for the bin" and turning it into a meal for anyone in the local community who needs it.

"People come for all different reasons. Some people come for the food, some people actually come for the company," she said.

"It's about creating a restaurant experience for people and just to create a nice space for people to share a meal together."

She said inventing a meal based on the ingredients available meant the cooks have to "be a bit creative", but that did not mean volunteer cooks had to be experienced - some volunteer as a way of learning to cook.

"So many of our volunteers say they that they learn so much from each other so they will learn different cooking techniques or menus or recipes from different cultures," she said.

"It's a real mixture of people that come along and get involved and everyone learns from each other."

The Reading Community Meal takes place on Thursday at 18:00 GMT at the South Reading Community Hub, with volunteers needed from about 16:00.

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