Waste Not, Feast More: Chefs hosting 'amazing' three-course charity dinner in aid of Burnley Community Grocery

Burnley Together is inviting foodies to enjoy Waste Not, Feast More on Thursday, November 23rd, from 6-30pm at Down Town Kitchen & Cafe (above New Look) in Charter Walk.

Burnley Leisure & Culture chefs hope their “amazing” culinary creations will inspire people to waste less, with more than 80% of the ingredients being edible items that would have otherwise been chucked out, like vegetable off-cuts or food taken off supplier shelves due to damaged packaging.

Guests will be asked to pay what they think the dinner is worth, with the aim of funding more than 400 hot, nutritious meals for hard-up people visiting Burnley Community Grocery.

Mark Dempsey, Head of Hospitality & Culture at Burnley Leisure Trust, part of the Burnley Together group, said: “Our chefs will create an amazing three-course meal that you’d never imagine in a million years would be mostly made of products that would have ended up in the bin.

"[At Down Town] we waste very little – it tends to only be when we scrape what’s leftover on a plate – and use products in different ways.”

He added: "There are lots of different reasons for food waste. It’s not necessarily about being careless: things happen everyday, fridges break etc. But the event is about making people aware that actually everyone can do something to reduce food waste.

"There are huge pressures on growers following the war in Ukraine; wheat is going up in price. But we can all do something to help. It’s amazing how much you can actually freeze. If you have apples at home that you forget to eat and think they look a bit past it, you can probably use them to make an apple pie but as a society we don’t because it’s easier to bin them.

"If we can help close the loop of wastage, if we could all bin one or two items less, that would be great.”

To book a place on the dinner, please contact the Mechanics Box Office on 01282 664400 or email [email protected]