Recently, we were delighted to bring together our amazing food members at two Community Partners Forums, creating a positive and engaging space to share insights, discuss challenges, and explore practical solutions to food waste. These sessions offered a valuable opportunity to exchange ideas and highlight the incredible work being carried out across our communities.

Together, we explored key themes such as reducing food waste, identifying ways to improve our service, sharing best practices, and strengthening collaboration across the community.

At our Middlesbrough session, our new Community Chef prepared a fantastic meal using surplus ingredients from the warehouse. The menu included Thai green curry with rice, Bombay-style potatoes, and homemade onion bhajis and naan breads, all of which went down a real treat. Alongside enjoying the food, we had valuable discussions about how we can better support our Members in managing surplus and explored practical ways partners can share resources to further reduce waste.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Whitley Bay Big Local for hosting our Newcastle session. It was a privilege to meet in a space that plays such an important role in the community through its Surplus Shop, which we are proud to support with food. The sessions sparked thoughtful conversations about the wider impact of surplus food, particularly how it can be used to bring people together through shared meals and community initiatives.

Finally, we would like to say a sincere thank you to everyone who attended the Forums. Your contributions, openness, and commitment to supporting your communities made these events truly meaningful, and we look forward to continuing these conversations and building more opportunities for partners to connect.