Frome’s pay-what-you-can community restaurant returns next month in Victoria Park, offering affordable and nutritious food for all.
The August Canteen will run on Friday 15th August and is a special collaboration between Victoria Park Community Café, The Community Fridge, Frome Town Council and the Frome Seed Library, run by Kerry Meech.
Kerry has enlisted the help of over 100 Frome residents, who have been growing potatoes to serve up a community potato salad, alongside sausages on the grill, dips and salads, plus a tasty dessert.
Canteen has popped up at Trinity Hall five times over the past 10 months and has received great feedback from diners.
Frome Food Network founder and Canteen co-organiser Hugh Thomas said, “The August event will be the first time the restaurant has been outside, and it is hoped the new location will encourage lots of new faces from across the town to come and enjoy the delicious local food with a serving of community spirit.
“Meanwhile, Canteen chefs will be tapping into Frome’s Community Fridge to help save any surplus that might be available – including food grown at Broadway Community Gardens – or perfectly edible food otherwise destined for the bin. Any surplus food made by Canteen’s chefs will be boxed up and made available in the Fridge.”
Food will be served from 5pm to 7pm, or until it runs out. No reservations are needed, and there will be plenty of chairs and tables for diners.
Hugh added, “This is a really exciting collaboration between five Frome organisations helping people reconnect with and celebrate food – where it comes from, who’s growing it and how we might waste less of it – as well as the benefits of bread-breaking and generally sharing good food within the Frome community.”
Frome Seed Library founder Kerry Meech said, “With the food disconnect ever-widening – a survey of UK primary school pupils by the British Nutrition Foundation showed almost a third of pupils think cheese is made from plants – the aim is to help bridge that gap between seed and plate, while introducing discussions on the increasing importance of provenance, sustainable food, and seed sovereignty.
“As part of this project, seed-saving workshops will also be provided so that the lasting legacy of this collaboration will live on in the form of open-pollinated seed, which will then be made available for free from the Frome Seed Library.”
Canteen was set up by the Frome Food Network to make local, responsibly sourced food more accessible.
The model is designed to be affordable for all, with the cost of a meal dependent on what the diner chooses to pay. Diners can pay more, less or nothing at all – whatever is affordable.
This special seed-to-plate project is made possible by Citizens Advice Somerset’s Food Resilience Grant, which supports charities, not-for-profit organisations and community groups working to improve food security in Somerset. It is also supported by Hubbub.
Further information about Canteen and the Frome Food Network can be found at: https://www.fromefoodnetwork.co.uk/canteen
