The founder of a quietly-growing empire of social cafes has called on a change in the law to prevent the UK’s "criminal" levels of food waste - especially by supermarkets - while so many go hungry.
Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project, in Armley, Leeds, feeds his punters on goods that would otherwise have been thrown away by supermarkets, independent grocers and food banks.
The 29-year-old trained chef cooks up stews, casseroles, soups and cakes with the unwanted food, charging a “pay as you feel” policy - allowing punters to pay what they feel they can, and if that is nothing, they can help with the washing up.
In just 10 months he has fed 10,000 people on 20 tonnes of unwanted food, raising over £30,000.
The cafe has had such resonance in a world with such high food wastage and high hunger levels it has inspired 47 other "pay as you feel" cafes to spring in the past few months in Manchester, Bristol, Saltaire – with the concept even exported as far away as Los Angeles and Brazil, Warsaw and Zurich.
But Mr Smith says The Real Junk Food Project – which is in the process of being registered as an official charity – is about more than simply feeding those who might otherwise go hungry. "It is bringing people from different demographics together that doesn't involve money. People are opening Junk Food Projects because they have had enough of what is going on in society and care about what is happening to other human beings," he said. "It is a revolution."
Mr Smith wants the law to be changed to prevent supermarkets throwing so much food away for fear of prosecution - and he wants more pressure on supermarkets to be compelled to work with organisations like his.
Currently, a retailer will be prosecuted if it sells food after the use-by date, but not before the "best-before" date. Despite this, supermarkets from across the sector regularly throw food out before its "best-before" date and, in Mr Smith's experience, are scornful about working with enterprises like his, which would happily take it.
"Supermarkets are a pain in the arse," Mr Smith said. "They do not want anything to do with us. Many look down on us, I've had one manager of one well-known supermarket even spit in my face. We are breaking the law in their eyes. But we want to fight the law and take the fight to the general public."