Many of you have probably enjoyed a coffee and a bite to eat at the Albany Cafe, so we wanted to go behind-the-scenes and find out more about this hub of our community…
The eco-friendly secret behind a lot of our ingredients…
What you might not know about the Albany cafe is that one of our suppliers are Fare Share. What is Fare Share? It is a company who collects fresh, tasty and in-date food that is surplus in the food industry and redistributes it to charities and community groups at a low-price. Not only does this mean we have more money to spend on the community, but it also helps us to continue to be an eco-venue as we are ensuring that no good food is thrown away!
Why is the food surplus?
Food being surplus just means that it isn’t going to be sold, and this can happen for a number of reasons:
- Over-production (we wouldn’t want all those tasty biscuits to go to waste!)
- Labeling Errors (a cake by any other name would taste as sweet)
- A Short Shelf Life (no lettuce left behind!)
Ready-Steady Cook…
The quirky thing about being supplied by Fare Share is that you never know exactly what ingredients you are going to get. You state your preferences e.g. vegetables but you could end up with a carrot or an aubergine, whatever happens to be surplus.
Of course we do order from other suppliers, and we always have the vegetables we grow ourselves, but essentially our chef Brad is constantly having to think on his feet and come up with new and interesting recipes every week.
We want to share some of Brad’s recipes with you, so we have started this Albany cafe blog where we will be regularly posting new autumnal recipes for you to try out. So watch this space.
How Fare Share is helping others in our community…
Not only has Fare Share benefited us, it has also been helping other worthwhile causes in Deptford. The Deptford Park School Breakfast Club is also supplied by Fare Share, who want to make sure all children have the brain-food they need to perform well no matter what their financial situation. To find out more: http://fareshare.org.uk/fareshare-case-studies/childrens-breakfast-clubs/
…So now you know that quiche isn’t just a tasty quiche it’s an Albany-eco-friendly-community-helping-brain-child-of-Brad-quiche! Yum.
The Albany, Deptford 