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.