Sainsbury's Newcastle Monument Metro Station Local

I work at the Tyneside Foyer supported accommodation service in the city centre of Newcastle, that provides support to 82 vulnerable homeless young females and males between the ages of 16 – 25. All residents have complex needs and mental health difficulties. A lot of our residents are on low income and struggle day to day financially .

The Food Rescue Group in Newcastle mobilises an enthusiastic network of students, volunteers, and community partners committed to greener living and responsible consumption in an urban setting. This expansion reflects a strong and growing commitment to environmental sustainability and local action. As communities face increasing challenges from climate change, resource depletion, and ecological imbalance, the mission of the Food Rescue Group has become ever more urgent. A central focus of the group’s work is tackling food waste, an issue that leads to unnecessary resource loss, landfill use, and methane emissions, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. Addressing food waste is therefore both an environmental necessity and a social responsibility, as surplus food can be redirected to support individuals and families across the city. The group works closely with local producers and retailers to ensure surplus food is used rather than discarded. These partnerships help businesses reduce disposal costs while delivering clear environmental benefits and strengthening community resilience. Pickup and distribution in Newcastle are coordinated by Ishaan Saurya and Saule Narsutyte, who manage volunteer scheduling, oversee collections, and ensure rescued food is delivered promptly and safely. Their coordination ensures operations remain efficient, reliable, and firmly community-focused. The volunteer network includes students and staff from Newcastle University, Northumbria University, and Newcastle College, alongside members of the wider community. Surplus food is collected from partner retailers and redistributed within 15 minutes of pickup, maintaining freshness while removing the need for storage facilities. All items are inspected immediately, and any unsuitable food is disposed of responsibly to minimise environmental impact. Operations are coordinated through a dedicated WhatsApp group, providing real-time updates on collection schedules, locations, and quantities. Volunteers are supported with guidance on rapid but thorough food safety checks to ensure all redistributed food meets strict quality standards. Through this work, the Food Rescue Group in Newcastle diverts significant volumes of food from landfill, reduces methane emissions, conserves valuable resources, and strengthens community connections. The initiative delivers meaningful environmental and social benefits, supporting both the planet and the people who live in the city. As the group continues to refine its approach and expand its reach, it remains committed to building a more sustainable and inclusive future. Together, meaningful change is possible, one meal, one volunteer, and one community at a time.

ReCoCo is an independent peer-led mental health charity commissioned by the NHS and others to deliver groups, courses, activities, engagement work, training and research in and around mental health (interpreting mental health in a broad inclusive fashion, thus acknowledging crossovers with drug and alcohol issues, troubled family situations, poverty, learning disability and autism spectrum problems etc.). Everything we do is guided, steered and delivered by people with direct lived experience of distress and “complex needs”. That said, we are reluctant to talk in terms of complex needs, because when people relate their stories, they aren’t complex, but very understandable, with intersecting factors. The complexity arises with the traditional system’s response to people, and its tendency to deal with problems singly, and in a linear fashion. ReCoCo works in collaboration with mental health service providers and other organisations that share our aims, in an ‘open source’ and non-proprietary way, to provide a safe space where people can learn from each other and form connections and friendships which aid and sustain their recovery. Improving people’s human connectedness is at the heart of what we do, as those who’ve experienced mental distress typically experience multiple disadvantages and are marginalized by their problems, by people’s responses to those problems and by the material poverty that usually accompanies severe and enduring mental health problems. For the past few years we've been a warm hub in conjunction with both Newcastle and Gateshead Councils. The need for something to eat and somewhere to connect is all year round though. With small donations - both monetary (from a couple of generous donors) and some food surplus from a local bakery we've managed to extend the hub year round, becoming a community hub running our Tea and Toast session in the summer and serving homemade soup with bread in the winter. As the cost of living continues to rise and both wages and welfare stagnate we wish to continue this extension of service, utilising surplus food to reduce food waste and help our most students out with groceries and cheap and easy recipes for cooking at home. We have a strong and abiding passion for people-powered health, peer-support and examining power structures and imbalances in mental health and healthcare more broadly. We work together to dissolve traditional boundaries and transcend socially constructed barriers; professional vs layperson, statutory sector vs voluntary sector, primary vs secondary care, health vs social care, teacher vs learner to better utilise and mobilise finite resources for the good of the entire community.