The Food Rescue Kitchen is now running out of the New Forest Basics Bank. The intrepid Jane Overall and a small team of amazing volunteers are dedicated to reducing food waste. They rescue surplus ‘waste’ food and redistribute or transform this into meals to give to those struggling to put food on the table in these challenging times.

We are fortunate that various organisations allow the Food Rescue Kitchen to use their commercial kitchen. It is our ambition to have a dedicated commercial kitchen for the Food Rescue Kitchen. Please contact us if you can assist.

Rescued Food

Every evening the Food Bank van and a small group of volunteers collect surplus food from supermarkets and shops around the southern New Forest. Over 90% is redistributed via the New Forest Basics Bank into food parcels.

If you have surplus food on a regular basis please email us to start a conversation about collections. For one-off surplus kindly contact us and, if possible, please deliver to the Food Bank Monday to Friday 9am-3pm.

Treats

Treats are often the first items to go when a family or person is in crisis. Being able to offer our Clients treats, created by the Food Rescue Kitchen, is a huge boost to morale when people are forced to rely on a Food Bank!

Each week Jane and her team bake banana cakes using up soft bananas that are past their best. Depending on the items that are collected as surplus or donated to the Food Bank, we have also had pancakes, lemon cake, Victoria sponge and surprisingly tasty chickpea and treacle tarts!

As of 24 July 2022 the Food Rescue Kitchen baked 6,000 banana cakes!

Collection Baskets

We are always keen to receive baking ingredients to support the creation of more treats! Please pop ingredients in our collection baskets or drop them off at the Food Bank Monday to Friday 9am-3pm.

Home Cooked Meals

Many of our Clients do not have cooking facilities or may not know how to cook a meal. Hampshire County Council kindly issued a grant to the Food Rescue Kitchen to enable the provision of home cooked meals using surplus rescued ingredients. Clients who collect their food parcel are offered these delicious meals to take-away.

Cooking Skills

Jane provides lessons in basic cookery skills via Christians Against Poverty (CAP) and their jobs club. In addition, she develops budget tips and recipes to help people struggling to cook nutritious meals with ingredients commonly provided in our Food Bank parcels.

Find out more about The Food Rescue Kitchen on Facebook