Manchester gets its first taste of waste food
- Real Junk Food turns waste into fast food
- NQ's Freddie Bruin-Price visits their latest location in Manchester
A restaurant called Real Junk Food Manchester has opened on Oxford Road which only sells dishes made using waste food products.
The restaurant also has a “pay-what-you-feel” policy which asks patrons to decide what they think their meal is worth.
Manchester-based restaurant manager and food-waste campaigner Tom Gray runs the premises of Real Junk Food Manchester.
Tom is encouraging people to come and try some of the six to eight hot dishes on the menu, which changes every day, with each meal made exclusively with ingredients that would otherwise have been thrown away.
Most surplus food is destined for landfill sites which produce harmful carbon and methane emissions. Real Junk aims to raise awareness of this fact while providing the city with tasty, nutritious food alternatives.
Real Junk offers a separate breakfast menu, and vegan and vegetarian options are available all day, every day.
“We’ve even got an alcohol license coming soon,” says Tom.
The restaurant has a cafe-like upper floor at road level and there’s room for more than 40 diners in an ambient setting downstairs.
In-keeping with the restaurant’s “no waste” philosophy, some of the downstairs seating is made from an upcycled bath and any waste the restaurant itself generates is sent to Re:Food, who harness emissions from their landfill sites to use as energy.
Real Junk Food Manchester relies on volunteers to keep it going as it is a not-for-profit community interest company.