The Real Junk Food Project started in Leeds and has grown into a global phenomenon. Its mission? To end food waste (and help local schools along the way)
Adam Smith is blunt and to the point when I call him to suggest an interview. I want to talk to him about the Real Junk Food Project, which he founded, and suggest doing it at the cafe he set up in Leeds which uses waste food and operates on a pay-as-you-feel basis. “Which cafe? There are 30 of them. And that’s just in Leeds.”
Bluntness may well be Smith’s defining characteristic. A chef by training, who had, by his own admission, a troubled childhood, he set up the project only three years ago, and it’s been a roller-coaster ride since then. He reels off some statistics. “We’ve got a 6,000-square-foot warehouse just here in Leeds and we’re intercepting between two and 10 tons of food a day. It’s just gone crazy. There are 125 Real Junk Food cafes worldwide now, not just in Britain, but in Israel and Australia and we’re about to launch 16 of them in America.”
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