Lou is a home educator who lives in Armley , with her son O.
Her work experiences include many years in the National Health Service and academia, as a Registered Nurse and educator. Her personal development has included studies in the Arts and Sociolinguistics.
She is well known in the local community regarding lost and found pets and is a volunteer co-ordinator with Doglost.
Lou loves Armley and likes to be involved in getting good stuff done there.
Keith joined The Real Junk Food Project in October 2015 after being made redundant from Food Manufacturer Mondelez International (Kraft Food Subsidiary).
He had previously worked for Cadbury UK for 29 years in various sales positions predominantly in Man Management and account roles where he worked in the Grocery, Retail,Wholesale and Foodservice areas.
Keith has seen food waste in many forms throughout the years and a chance meeting with TRJFP founder Adam Smith led him to volunteer for the project. Keith is now a Director of the Armley Cafe and a trustee of the charitable foundation.
He lives in North West Leeds with his partner Jane and two cats.
Nigel is a 52 year old, long time political activist, and describes himself as a “tree hugging leftie”. Having spent 15 years working in a Textile Laboratory environment; as a Quality Controller in chemical analysis, Nigel changed careers, and became a Social Care Practitioner. He was also a Foster Carer for Leeds Social Services. Nigel came across The Real Junk Food Project, when he moved to Armley, and now splits his time between his duties as a co-director of the Armley Junk-tion cafe, and his new career, as a self-employed writer and actor.
Teresa Milligan first entered Armley Junktion in June 2014 when looking for work whilst on Job Seekers Allowance. After speaking with Adam Smith (founder), and him explaining the concept, she decided to become a volunteer until she found work. In October 2014 she became co director at Armley Junktion. In June 2015 Teresa became the first member of the team to be paid a wage. Speaking of TRJFP she says “After just a week of volunteering I knew it was a special place to be and it was something I wanted to be part of. Not only was it tackling the environmental side of food waste but was also making an impact on the social side of things which has become important to the residents of Armley”
After returning to Leeds in 2006 & working for O2, Payam joined the companies core CSR ThinkBig Team in Leeds driving a number of key initiatives relating to Food Poverty as well as supporting organisations dealing with supporting the cities Homeless & Rough sleepers. Also outside work Payam started to support some of the rough sleepers on a daily basis which led to setting up a regular monthly event which continues to this day.
As a continuation of this work Payam started to volunteer with the team at TRFJP ( re named Armley Junk-tion) & became a Co-director in October 2014. Currently Payam is also the Non UK Regional co-ordinator on behalf of TRJFP.
Payam is looking immigrate to the U.S.A by the end of 2016 to be closer to his family, also with the aim of driving and supporting the growth of the TRJFP across North America.
Adam Smith is a founder and co-director of the visionary, multi-award-winning, global initiative: The Real Junk Food Project (TRJFP). Set up in December 2013, to revolutionise the disposal of avoidable food waste into landfill, the pioneering movement’s manifesto is to: feed bellies, not bins.
A professional chef for over ten years, Adam has held a wealth of head chef positions, internationally. Whilst in Australia, Adam witnessed the scale of food waste, agriculturally and within the catering industry. Upon his return to the UK, together with his partner, Johanna, he was inspired to set up TRJFP.
Adam and TRJFP have received numerous plaudits and awards from organisations ranging from NESTA to The Observer. In 2014, Adam was voted one of the forty most influential men in the world by AskMen.
Adam was a featured speaker on the TedX broadcast from Warwick University on February 28th 2015.
A look back at 2015
The Real Junk Food Project set up stall in Trinity Kitchen, Leeds
28th December – 8th February we ran a pop PAYF in Trinity Kitchen to help raise fund for our #saveyourcafe appeal and increase awareness of food waste. We worked alongside 4 other vendors Mama’s Jerk Station, Nelly’s Barn, You Doughnut and Busan BBQ who also operated on a PAYF basis.
Our friends at a little less known came along to capture the event for us, take a look at our youtube video below –
Aside from raising funds and awareness of our cause, it was fantastic to see the support we have gained from people and that we inspired other street vendors to reduce their food waste, which will go some way to reducing the problem of food wastage in the UK, and definitely in Leeds.
We made it as finalists for the people’s choice Sustainable Restaurant Awards 2015
http://awards2015.thesra.org/rjfp/4588159414
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) Awards are an annual celebration of everything that is good about the food-service industry and the people in it.
The awards honour; restaurants, cafes, pubs, bars, contract caterers, cookery schools and hotels, who are members of the SRA, and who in the last year have made extraordinary accomplishments to drive forward their organisation’s and industry’s sustainability.
From over 850+ nominations from the British Public, we made it into the 5 shortlisted restaurants. Unfortunately we did not win however we were absolutely honored to make it into the nominations and amazed when we reached the final 5!
Knit as you feel with stitch
We began collaborations on a PAYF basis with Stitch Up, Leeds a local Innovative Social enterprise dedicated to teaching and promoting knitting and yarn crafts in a modern world and showcasing local makers #craftforlife.
CRAFTS AND LAUGHS
Our very own Adam Smith gave a Tedx talk
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Starting in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. At TED, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Benoit Mandelbrot, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Adam was invited by TED to highlight the issues of food waste and talk about The Real Junk Food Project movement and the Pay As You Feel concept that was started right here in Armley. The video has already been seen by over 7500 people on YouTube and is still continuing to grow. Check out Adam’s talk below.
https://youtu.be/HcwCt_8pXb4?list=PLsRNoUx8w3rOiW1BA3J6zAeo9JhOO6E_s
Our Official Rename – The Real Junk Food Project to Armley Junk-tion Cafe
You may remember when we started out life we first opened our doors as The Real Junk Food Project. Due to the success of the cafe and the concept we had built, we began to receive global media attention and contact from people around the world asking if they could replicate the idea, and so The Real Junk Food Project became a charitable foundation and the network began. It was at this point we needed to rename the cafe and our community cast their vote and Armley Junktion Cafe was born. Although we are no longer named The Real Junk Food Project we are still incredibly proud that this is where it all began.
BBC 3 film our Food interception at Kirkgate Market
We were approached by the BBC to film a video with us for the launch of their new Short Form online show. They came along with us as we intercepted food from Leeds Kirkgate market to highlight the atrocity of the quantity of perfectly edible food that was destined for landfill if we had not intercepted it, and to show what can be done with the food that is classed as “waste”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YS1HkUJ__ME
Al Jazeera Earthrise films at Armley Junktion
Al Jazeera, focus on people and events that affect people’s lives.They bring topics to light that often go under-reported, listening to all sides of the story and giving a ‘voice to the voiceless.’
They reach more than 282 million households in over 140 countries across the globe, keeping viewers informed, inspired, and entertained.
Their impartial, fact-based reporting wins worldwide praise and respect. It is our unique brand of journalism that the world has come to rely on.
They are seen to be reshaping global media and constantly working to strengthen our reputation as one of the world’s most respected news and current affairs channels.
Due to the ethics and ethos of Al Jazeera we were absolutely delighted when they approached us about filming a short video about our story here at Armley Junktion and how The Real Junk Food Project movement.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pUxnL8EaFpk
Mik Artistic performed live
Mik is one of Armley’s local celebrities he is not only known for his music he is also known for his artwork, his portraits drawn on brown paper bags, his appearances on Emmerdale as an extra and his cameo in Phoenix Nights.
It was a pleasure having him perform at Armley Junk-tion and it’s safe to say the crowds enjoyed his unique mix of punk, funk and a whole host of familiar songs.
Armley Junktion launched weekly men’s group in partnership with BARCA
BARCA-Leeds is a multi-purpose charity in Bramley. They provide specialist services to help people overcome a broad range of issues. BARCA-Leeds supports all members of the local community, and we are pleased to be working with them to offer a men’s group here at the cafe.
Cheese toasties!
19th May became a landmark date for us here at Armley Junktion. It started out like any other Tuesday but with limited food options and a lack of volunteers it was left in the hands of Teresa our cafe manager to feed the masses with what we had. Luckily we always have an abundance of bread and Teresa is a dab hand at making a cheese toasty. What could have ended in disaster turned out to be one of our record breaking days it was so successful we are thinking about making it an annual event.
Our new Logo was launched
As we had renamed ourselves Armley Junktion Cafe we needed a new logo to go with our name. We wanted to keep the Garden Fork as part of our logo as this has become synonymous with The Real Junk Food Project however we needed something specifically for the cafe. Luckily for us the lovely Isobel Wilson was on hand and created our new logo that you will see at the top of our newsletter.
We became the proud owners of Armley Junk-tion cafe
After a successful crowdfunding campaign we were able to purchase the Armley Junktion premises securing the future of the cafe and preserving the heritage of The Real Junk Food Project. Non of this would have been possible without the generosity and support of the public and the help and determination form our directors and volunteers. To everyone involved we are truly thankful.
We became a living wage employer
Refugees welcome sign
Best Before Bistro Launched
We wanted to offer our local community a fine dining experience as well as a daytime cafe so we opened our Best Before Bistro 3 evenings a week (Thurs, Fri, Sat) We offer 2 sittings per evening 6-8pm and 8pm-10pm and allow our patrons the option to bring their own bottle. The Best Before Bistro also runs on a Pay As You Feel concept and has been hugely successful since we opened our doors in November. Our volunteer Chefs have created meals that could compete with high end city centre restaurants with the ingredients we have been intercepted. it truly is amazing what you can make from other people’s “waste”.
TRJFP 2nd national AGM at Richmond hill , 2nd year birthday AJ
126 hour Xmas marathon – supplying food to flood victims