Chef cooks up new healthy food centre at church in Wolverhampton
A former chef is serving up something good for residents of Wolverhampton and is determined to highlight the hypocrisy of food waste.
His Hub for Grub venture, a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, aims to help families access healthy nutritional food, whether they have a busy life-style and cannot find the time to cook or are finding times difficult.
Tim Southan, aged 55, from Wolverhampton, has recruited the help of his whole family to help offer hot food from St Albans Church in Ashmore Park on Fridays.
His wife, Karen, aged 55, son Michael, aged 30, and daughters Chloe, aged 27 and Molly, aged 24, work on a part-time basis to help provide the meals while holding down other jobs.
Demand for the food has been so great that Tim is already in talks in the hope of expanding the service around the Wolverhampton area.
He hopes to offer his healthy meals to people several days each week and to recruit volunteers to help.
Tim, who has worked at private restaurants and hotels across the UK and who set up a chef recruitment agency in 2009, said: "We are predominantly feeding families and individuals with healthy nutritional meals and partnering with Fare Share and Neighbourly to save surplus food from going to landfill.
"These organisations take surplus food from supermarkets and farms and stores.
"We have also been funded by UnLtd.org, who provide grants for social entrepreneurs to help community businesses.
"They have donated £5,000 to the project.
"We started the business in 2020 but were stopped in our tracks by the pandemic.
"A month ago we restarted and really hope to help highlight the hypocrisy of food waste while helping individuals and families access nutritious food.
"At the moment we serve hot food on a Pay As You Feel basis from noon to 4pm on Fridays.
"However, because of the popularity of the venture we hope to expand very soon to other areas of Wolverhampton."
by sue smith - pic to come
