Welcome

Welcome to Rainbow Junk-tion – the All Hallows’ Cafe.

This cafe, founded by Paul Magnall, opened its doors on 11th September 2014 as part of The Real Junk Food Project network. A lot has happened in that time and in 2018 it became an independent Pay-As-You-Feel community cafe. The aims of the cafe continue to be to reduce food waste, feed hungry people and build community. You can read more about our aims here.

Rainbow Junktion is one of many cafes that  intercepts food that would otherwise go to waste from supermarkets, restaurants and a number of other sources, and turns it into healthy, nutritious meals for anyone and everyone on a pay-as-you-feel donation basis.

About

We take food that would otherwise be destined for the bin even though it is perfectly OK and we turn it into wholesome meals. We don’t know what food we will have each morning so we always have the challenge of how to create an amazing meal within the limitations of the food that  turns up.

Projects like this can only run because of it’s volunteers and the Rainbow Junk-tion Café is no exception. We have an amazing group of volunteers already but if you would like to join them then why not drop into the café and speak to us.

Here are some of the things that you might do as a volunteer:

  • act as a waiter / waitress in serving our customers
  • help prepare or cook food in the kitchen
  • if you are a chef or aspire to be one then you might help with preparing the menu – you will need to be creative as you never know what food we might have intercepted!
  • help with collecting intercepted food
  • distribute leaflets, posters or generally advertise the café, the project and what it is all about
  • help with the website and social media
  • oh, and washing up, emptying the bins, cleaning the floor and all those other “nice” jobs!

Among other things we offer our volunteers the opportunity to gain food hygiene qualifications and to have a lot of fun together!

If you want to volunteer or find out more please contact us via the contact page.

Aims

Our three main aims are:

  • to reduce food waste
  • to reduce food poverty
  • to build community

Reducing Food Waste

Between 30% and 50% of all food produced ends up being wasted. Some of this food has involved huge amounts of time, energy, care, fertilisers, pesticides, and money to produce. Then it’s been processed and transported half way round the world for it to be rejected and sent to landfill. This is seen by some of us as criminal when so many people are starving and when we are also concerned about Climate Change.

By intercepting waste food and using it to help feed people we aim to reduce food waste and to educate ourselves and others about how unsustainable this is.

Reducing Food Poverty

There is more than enough food being produced to feed everyone in the world! Some people calculate that we produce 150% of our food requirements globally. It’s just that it is not distributed fairly. By intercepting waste and using it to feed people on a Pay As You Feel basis we aim to reduce food poverty without taking away people’s pride.

Building Community

Many of our communities have been devastated over the years. We are encouraged to think of “them” and “us” and to fear “them”. By bringing people from all walks of life together around a table of food, side by side in the kitchen and working together to reduce food waste and food poverty “we” hope to build better community where “we” can trust and support each other.

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Rainbow Van

Rainbow Junktion cafe uses intercepted waste food to serve lunch every Monday, Thursday and Friday to anyone that walks through the door. We are trying to fight food poverty with food waste and we really need a vehicle to carry out this mission! In order to pick up the food from various places around Leeds …

Continue reading “Rainbow Van”