Episode 1 The Big Food Rescue

The UK throws away more food than any other European country.

10 million tonnes a year.

That's enough to feed an estimated 145,000 people for life.

What absolutely shocked me was,

why is all this waste being allowed to happen?

With millions of Brits struggling to put food on the table,

it's a food crisis that makes no sense.

But have these two men found the solution?

Every town, every city, every community in the country

can have an operation which brings surplus food

and people in need together.

Can they change the food habits of a nation

by focusing on the fresh food that supermarkets and wholesalers

are throwing away?

Seven years ago in Oxford,

David Cairns and Robin Aitken set up a radical new scheme

to deal with the scandal of food waste in the UK.

Their simple answer was to use it to try and help people in need,

and do it by focusing on the fresh and healthy food

suppliers were putting in the bin.

We go to supermarkets and wholesalers

and take their surplus food,

which would otherwise go into landfill or go to waste,

and distribute it to charities that feed people the next day.

It's a brilliantly simple idea, and from humble beginnings,

David and Robin's project in Oxford

now rescues £1 million worth of fresh food a year.

So we've got lots of fruit and veg, which is what people love.

So let's have a go at this, Kevin. You want to take those?

And when you come across a box like that,

chocolate biscuits and raspberries, you think,

somebody's going to really like those.

I love the fact that we can give raspberries to people that just

would never, ever be able to buy them.

Once sorted, it gets delivered to their network of 80 charities.

This fresh food is then used for home-cooked community meals

or given to those in need.

What a great idea, to give something to the community,

people what struggle.

It's working in Oxford.

Their challenge is now to take on a city 55 times the size.

What we're looking at trying to do

is to set up a food recovery system in London

which will rescue literally thousands of tonnes of food,

good edible food, from going to waste.

This new charity is called the Felix Project.

It's named after Felix Byam Shaw.

He died from meningitis at 14, but was always concerned about

people not having enough money to eat properly.

He really was a very kind and unusually compassionate 14-year-old,

and I do think the causes that this supports, he would have liked,

he would have approved of.

David and I have a look at the opportunity,

and it's a big task,

and, you know, it's going to take a lot of hard work to do it.

Every community, in every part of London

there'll be food going to waste, and there will be charities

who could use that food.

But the challenge of expanding right across London is a big one.

The Byam Shaw family set up the charity in London

with David and Robin as trustees.

The model relies on a few simple ingredients.

Suppliers with fresh food they're going to throw out...

-There's the few carrot cakes in there.

-Just a few!

..volunteers to pick it up...

You're going to be picking up from Costco in Wembley.

..transport...

Just got to decide what spectacular discount you're going to give us now.

..and charities who need the fresh food.

Oh, this is fantastic, guys. It's such a great help.

We were at a point where we were really struggling to continue.

It's an absolute saviour.

Robin has high hopes for the project in London,

but has even bigger plans for the future.

The final ambition has to be

that this sort of operation runs across the country.

Everywhere in every town and city in the country

should have this kind of operation, because it makes sense.

It's surplus food, people in need.

Bring those two things together.

The new London base is in Park Royal, in the west of the capital.

It's only been going for a few months, and with

ambitious plans for expansion, there's lots of work to be done.

We're going to shift some of this stuff, aren't we?

Straight down to business, I see. Haven't even put the kettle on yet!

When you're handing out fresh food, hygiene is a top priority.

Today, the pest control officer is inspecting the depot.

Certainly, with this pest control service, it's important that

everything is cleared and safe, because obviously,

the risk of contamination from disease is always likely

with rodents, particularly from the urine and faeces,

and obviously, if that gets onto a product and then it's handled

by a human being, it can then obviously be consumed,

and for the young and very old, it can be fatal.

And obviously, if it's going to charity and vulnerable people,

we need to make sure that everything is healthy when it arrives and

healthy when it goes, and that's really what this service does.

Special bait was set down six weeks ago.

If any of it has been eaten, it could mean the depot has to close.

This is a rodent bait, which contains a chronic poison.

If there's been take, I will know there's been take.

The model and inspiration for the London project is the Oxford Food Bank.

Set up by David and Robin seven years ago,

it's become so successful that its army of volunteers has swollen

from just two to more than 100.

They're the backbone of the organisation. Without them,

the perishable fresh food wouldn't get out to the charities in time.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any charity, really,

but for this charity, they're absolutely essential.

Now, in Oxford, we've got 120 volunteers that allow us

to operate eight hours a day, seven days a week.

In seven years, I think there's only three days where we've

failed to make our commitments.

Up to 40% of UK fruit and vegetables is rejected before reaching the shops.

At the Oxford depot,

Jude has just picked up excess food from a supermarket,

food that would otherwise have gone straight to the bin.

For some reason, spring onions are hugely popular.

I have no idea why people like the spring onions so much.

OK, this one, this is really useful.

This is potatoes.

We can never have enough potatoes,

because even though we love the sexy stuff... Look at this.

Here's some macaroons. Everybody loves macaroons!

But in truth, when it comes to it, it's potatoes that matter.

On the other side of Oxford,

Jude's colleagues are with one of their main suppliers, Roots.

Roots is a wholesaler, providing fresh produce to upmarket clients.

Their excess food now gets rescued six times a week.

Usually, they have pretty nice stuff here, cos they

take the food for the colleges,

so we quite often get some quite unusual things,

but we also get quite a lot of bread.

What have you got for us, then?

Oh, nice.

Blackberries, we like those. Right.

With over 80 charities to supply, it all gets used up very quickly.

Our van's bit chaotic.

We've got rid of most of the food we took out this morning.

Yeah, this should all go out tomorrow.

I'm sure the bread will. We've not got much bread.

Bananas might last a couple of days, but most of it will go out tomorrow.

With discerning customers, Roots has to be choosy about what it sells.

Anything deemed imperfect is never sent out.

So, these bananas...

Some people prefer the bananas like that,

but I couldn't go to some of my customers and say

that these bananas, I'm going to charge you X pounds for these,

because they've just gone that little bit,

and it's not something that you could retail,

but the fruit inside will be perfect.

Blackberries, we've got the blackberries here

that are just bleeding a little bit.

There's nothing wrong with the blackberries. They'll make

fantastic blackberry puree, or even edible as they are now.

But again, you couldn't sell them to a customer.

It's a repeated story.

If the food bank didn't pick up the waste,

Roots would have to throw out

a quarter of a million pounds' worth of food every year.

Finding suppliers like Roots in the capital is critical

if the London project is going to be a success.

David is in north-east London.

Surplus food is a reality in the food industry.

It's there on a daily basis.

So all you've got to do is connect with the industry and say,

"We will take your surplus food away and we will give it to charities."

-These are boiled chickpeas.

-Yes.

These are obviously how they should be, but sometimes, you know,

you will get a damaged tin, or, you know, a damaged box.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it, but I can't sell it.

So, yeah, that was the chickpeas. We also have

ambient anchovies, as an example.

They have passed their best-before dates.

Once again, I cannot sell them.

It's an expensive product.

And I either have to get rid of it or, ideally,

I can give it to a charity where they can make something out of it.

No, but I mean, if you can't sell it, then, you know,

you've got to compensate in your prices,

so it means other stuff will be slightly more expensive,

or somewhere along the line, you've got to take the hit.

You have to factor in your costs. You have to factor in your cost.

There's always going to be wastage.

Getting rid of surplus food actually does cost the industry money.

So if you're a supermarket and you have to send a skip load of food

away to waste, that costs you something.

So we can help there, because we take away the food for free.

Everyone can see the benefit.

Well, we've just been to see Marathon Foods,

and he is absolutely the type of supplier we would love,

and they would much rather see something done with surplus product

than have it thrown out.

At the new London depot,

the pest control officer is finishing his inspection...

..as manager Anne Elkins shows some potential volunteers around.

When the food comes in, the fresh food is kept here in the chiller.

Do you want to come and see?

So we've got things like eggs here, these pots of olives, and cheese,

all sorts of things over here that get stored in the chiller, OK?

As you can see, we pick up a real variety of things.

So we pick up from some small supermarkets, who might give us

a real mixture of things, like we might get, you know,

one pack of this, for example.

And then we pick up from wholesalers, who give us

really big quantities of things.

These sacks of sugar, for example.

Behind you, you can see the big mountain of pasta.

So we had 24 of these, of spaghetti.

So this was one truckload, and they had 11 truckloads.

So we could only really take one!

Just because of space.

Investigation complete, the pest officer delivers his verdict.

-Excuse me.

-Sorry.

-Hiya.

-Hello.

Just to say, everything's absolutely fine.

Great! That's good news.

-No signs of any infestation.

-Crisis averted!

I'll go and report everything is fine. Thank you very much indeed.

-Great.

-And I'll see you again in another six weeks.

No rats, no mice, no infestation.

In Oxford, another key to the great success of David and Robin's model

has been finding the right charities that need the rescued fresh food.

There we go.

One of their most successful partners is Trax.

Set up more than 20 years ago,

Trax helps young people with behavioural issues

to gain qualifications.

It's one of those charities which has a single mission,

which it carries out remarkably well.

They've turned around a lot of young people's lives.

The food bank delivers to the charity once a week.

The rescued food is prepared by their catering students

to create around 30 fresh lunches every day.

Ciaran has a speciality.

-What's your speciality?

-Oh, mushrooms, yeah.

Garlic mushrooms is Ciaran's speciality.

Don't know how many times you cooked it last year.

Probably all year.

-All year round.

-50?

Ciaran is a 16-year-old catering student.

He works in the kitchen with Mitch the chef.

-Yeah, that's proper good.

-Good?

-Yeah.

-What do you think it needs?

-Probably a bit more cheese.

I think it perhaps requires some salt first.

Yeah, do some salt.

But I'd say more cheese.

Over the six years of fresh food deliveries,

the charity has noticed a remarkable change with the trainees.

Because what was happening was, they were having

a bottle of Lucozade and a Mars bar at about 11 o'clock,

and by one o'clock, their blood sugar was low,

they were getting angry, and since we've been feeding them a proper

balanced meal throughout the week, their behaviour's got a lot better.

By working closely with Mitch,

Ciaran's got one-to-one support and encouragement.

He's completed a BTEC catering course in his first year,

and has grown in confidence.

He will take a lot of stick off the other students, I think,

cos the kitchen is the main hub.

They'll come in and they'll say, "Oh, Ciaran, get us a cup of tea!"

"Do this, do that," and he gives them a bit of cheek back.

But he's always kind, he's always helpful.

Today, he's using fresh food given by the food bank

to cook lunch for fellow students.

But not everything's going to plan.

Oh, that is really salty.

You've put too much salt in there.

Because they defuse the tension with humour,

they have a really good laugh in the kitchen and they get the job done,

and they are organised.

Ciaran really excels when he's given a bit of responsibility,

so Mitch will say to him,

"Ciaran, you're going to be responsible for doing the dessert today,"

and he will really take a lot of pride in that,

and he will do it properly and passionately.

His confidence and his self-worth grow as he's doing that meal.

Ciaran!

Ciaran's old teacher John checks up on progress every two weeks.

What are you doing today?

Just cooking. I'm doing pasta.

Doing pasta?

Are you cooking for the people at Trax today?

-Yes.

-What about the onion? Are you going to be chopping the onion?

-Nope.

-You've decided not to. Why's that, then?

Why are you worried about chopping the onion?

You don't want tears to come?

-Yeah.

-You don't want to have tears.

I've done a lot of cooking of it last week.

Too much onion last week.

Ciaran really, really struggled within the mainstream classes,

with his peers, and what happened was that he was very, very

easily distracted within those classrooms.

He found taking teachers' directions quite difficult.

In his year ten at school,

there were a number of significant behavioural problems with Ciaran.

He was formally excluded from the school on a couple of occasions.

All of this ceased as soon as he started the Trax course.

Opportunities like this would be impossible for Trax to provide

if it wasn't for the excess food that David and Robin's organisation supplies.

-Want any cheese on it?

-Yes, please.

Scotch egg?

We've run out of cheese.

The cooking has gone well.

Catering for his friends at the centre is one thing,

but Ciaran now faces a bigger challenge.

He's been asked to help cook at a private dinner party.

This will give him experience

in what it's like in a real working kitchen.

All in all, it's turned out well, hasn't it?

That's filled me up, that has.

Not me!

David and Robin are making headway,

replicating their success in the capital.

Charities they've signed up to the London project are already busy

providing fresh food to people who wouldn't otherwise have it.

And that's the thing about London, that, actually,

you've got...cheek by jowl, you've got quite serious deprivation...

..a couple of streets away, you've got quite serious affluence.

One of the charities already benefiting in London is Sufra,

a community food bank and kitchen based in Brent, north-west London.

It was set up in 2013 by Mohammed Mamdani.

There isn't really a type of person that comes to the food bank,

because poverty is so indiscriminate,

it can affect so many different types of people.

So all your total costs are going to be £35 a week,

which means you have about £5 a day to live on.

Recent benefit changes appear to be increasing the need for Sufra

and the Big Food Rescue.

They've cut my benefits.

I've got £46 to live on a week.

-Would you like these tins?

-Oh, yes, please.

I think in so many communities that are fragmented,

spaces like this provide an opportunity for people

to get to know one another, to share experiences,

and indeed, poverty and disadvantage is not just about

financial insecurity, it's also about not having

a community around you, a support network around you.

The organisation is kept moving by an army of volunteers,

many of whom are unemployed.

With the aim of getting as many people back to work as possible,

the charity only engages volunteers for four weeks a year.

Helping out in the charity's garden is Roy,

who found himself unable to work after tearing ligaments in his knee.

It really set me back.

I fell into a deep depression,

but I'm always looking forward to coming and doing what I do at Sufra.

The garden was created on former wasteland to teach local people

the benefits of growing their own produce.

It's also used to supply fresh food to the food bank,

with any access given to the Felix Project.

There's not just this. There's another two rolls like this.

I'll take this now, and then I'll call in on the way back

when the van's a bit more empty.

Sufra is about to start a catering course, retraining

older adults and using food that would have been thrown away.

Roy is keen to take advantage of it.

I feel I can do it.

I've always been interested in nutrition

and once I've got the qualification,

I'm hoping to cook the meal for the community kitchen one evening.

The different ways that Sufra uses food

makes it an ideal partner for the London project.

What I like about Sufra is the kind of self-help, the kind of

"we're going to do it for ourselves" sort of spirit.

That's great to see.

It's made me discover skills that I never knew I had.

And the big thing is, it's therapeutic for me as well.

Over half the food we throw away at home could have been eaten.

In Oxford, the idea of using the food around us to supply

a food bank has inspired a group of volunteers.

So, we're just going to pick up some apples that a group of friends

harvested last week, members of Abundance Oxford,

and then we'll take them to Oxford Food Bank, where

they'll be shared with lots of charities

and charitable organisations across Oxfordshire.

There are approximately 110,000 tonnes of apples destined for waste

every year in the UK.

That's £89 million worth of fresh apples that could be eaten.

So these are all cooking apples.

You'll see that they're not really the same size as ones you get

in a supermarket, so, I mean, I don't know the last time

you bought an apple that big in a supermarket!

They're part of this huge abundance that is happening all across

Oxfordshire, where things are going to waste because

people can't get access to them.

The fruit is perfectly usable,

and if left unharvested, just goes to waste.

When I first arrived in the city, I arrived in November,

and I just remember cycling around exploring and seeing all this fruit

on the ground, and thinking, what a shame that it wasn't being eaten.

And I found out about how much food poverty there was in Oxford,

and it felt like it was even worse.

Dot supplies David and Robin's Oxford charity with as much fruit

as they can harvest from locals.

They collect batches of fruit as often as they can.

This kind of shows you the scale of the amount of fruit that can

come from just one tree. And this is not uncommon.

This isn't something that is a rarity. This happens a lot.

Today, Dot is off to meet her volunteers.

They're going to harvest an apple tree at a student's house.

So, Abundance volunteers helping harvest is great.

Dot and the volunteers make a start on harvesting.

They never know how much they're going to collect.

-Oh!

-Oh, God.

I wasn't ready!

There aren't loads and loads of apples on this tree,

but because they're all green, it's quite hard to tell.

So you look up and you're like, "Oh, I can't see that many,"

and then you look again, and there's...

There is quite a lot. There's a lot.

The trip is a success. They add their haul

to the apples they already have and head to the depot.

So, we've got a good number of apples to take to the food bank,

and they're all quite big,

so I think they're going to go down really well,

so we're going to head over to the food bank with the bike trailer.

Dot and the volunteers have had a fruitful day,

with 80kg of free apples going to the food bank.

That's fresh food that would have gone to waste

now on its way to those in need.

-Oh, that's a beauty. Look at that!

-Beautiful.

So, yeah, it's really good that the food bank can deal with

as much fruit so quickly, because if we were trying to deliver it

all ourselves, it would take a long time, but

they're just so efficient at what they do and they're doing such

a great job, so it's really nice to have all been a part of getting

this fruit to some charities, really nice.

These are really great!

David and Robin's original waste food organisation

has been life-changing for many in Oxford.

Trax, a charity helping young people with behavioural problems,

has benefited greatly.

The rescued food has help them expand their catering courses.

Student Ciaran has already had a successful first year

at the charity. Tonight is a big night.

He's helping Andrew, an ex-student,

cook a three-course dinner for a private party.

As a graduate of the course,

Andrew can explain a menu whilst wrestling with a blender.

What is the menu, Andrew?

The menu for tonight is duck leg

with pistachio, watercress, cucumber,

watermelon and chicory.

And then for main is beef fillet with

roasted carrots, roast onions, with carrot puree,

which I am just about to blitz up.

We've got the sauce there for it, and horseradish mash,

that's what else is going with it.

And then for dessert, it's croque-en-bouche.

What the hell is that?

Clearly, Ciaran still has a lot to learn.

Tonight's going to be quite high pressured, I think,

and when Ciaran's worked with us before, he does get quite stressed.

It is a very stressful environment,

but part of being a chef is being able to cope with that stress.

So we do test him.

He will be given some responsibility by Andrew.

But I think Andrew is a great mentor because he has been through it

himself, and he knows where Ciaran's come from.

He's got a lot of empathy and understanding, a lot of patience,

so I think they're going to make a formidable team tonight.

Even after a year of studying,

cooking with Andrew will be a challenge for Ciaran.

But it's just the sort of pressure he might face

working in a professional kitchen in the future.

Straight in, and you want to mix it around a little bit.

So add your one and get your half in, straightaway.

Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick!

Mix it in quick! Quick, quick, quick, quick!

All in, properly, all of it.

Hopefully, it will be good.

Otherwise I'll got to make another one.

Fingers crossed, or we'll have to do it again, yeah?

Ciaran has a tendency to be a bit slow,

so I have do try and speed him up somehow.

David and Robin's organisation in Oxford

is providing fresh ingredients for tonight's event.

Part of what makes their charity unique is the fresh food they deliver.

Food chucked out of the back of a supermarket

is very often the kind of food that, a few hours earlier,

you as a customer might have been buying off the shelf.

You might be getting avocados which have reached their sell-by date.

You may be getting fruit which is just looking slightly tired.

These foodstuffs, fresh foodstuffs,

are often too expensive for charities to buy,

and we can provide those free of charge.

Pretty much all the prep's done now, so we just need to get

all our utensils and stuff together for tonight.

You can never be too sure of what equipment people are going to have at their house.

Just to make sure, obviously, nothing goes wrong.

Get all that packed up in the next 20 minutes,

and then we'll be shooting off and getting a head start.

With the fresh ingredients chosen,

it's nearly time for Ciaran to prove himself to Andrew.

David and Robin set up their original project when they saw

the incredible amount of edible food being thrown away and wasted.

Job done.

The pair are now taking on an even bigger challenge,

trying to recreate this extraordinary idea in London.

To expand the project is going to be challenging.

It will take effort, it will take, you know, blood, sweat and tears,

I'm quite sure.

It's going well, but with more local suppliers

signing up and new charities coming on board, there's

increased pressure on the London project to get more transport vans.

What do you pay for the other ones, out of curiosity?

-Do you remember?

-16.

-About 16?

I don't know if that's plus or minus VAT.

As long as it's medium wheelbase, high roof, which I think it is,

-that's what we need.

-Yeah, it is, it definitely is.

-Right. OK.

-Have a nice time!

-All right. Thank you.

Michael Millership, a trustee of the London project,

is on a mission to get another van out on the road as soon as possible.

Saving money is key.

Every pound that Michael manages to get off the price

can be spent on fuel, and more food can be delivered to charities.

If we keep our costs to a minimum,

it means that the cost benefit that we are providing is huge.

When people talk about donating to a charity, for example,

they will automatically think, "Well, what percentage

"of my pound will end up going to the end user?"

Well, with us, it's not a percentage, it's a multiplier.

So we'll be able to say to people who give us money to keep the operation going,

"You give us a pound, and we'll deliver £15 worth of food."

So there has to be a relentless pressure on keeping costs down.

We're off to the Ford garage,

and I'm very keen to get the van out on the road as quickly as we can.

We are under a lot of pressure to take advantage of the people

who very kindly volunteer to work with us,

so that means we're going to have to get more vans

in order to increase our distribution.

And he doesn't waste any time.

-Yeah, Michael, hi.

-You all right?

All right, good. Good to see you.

-All right?

-All right.

-Is that the van there?

Yeah, let me get the keys.

-I even brought a cheque.

-Oh, you brought a cheque.

-Assuming that we can agree on a price.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

We're doing it the old-fashioned way.

Why did you bring a cheque? Bring a debit card!

Yeah? I don't think my debit card will raise to...

to £30,000.

Once he's checked the van over, it's down to business.

Well, it looks great. I think we're kind of lucky.

We've just got to decide what spectacular discount

-you're going to give us now!

-Yeah. Your discount's already done.

With fresh food sat in the depot,

Michael needs to secure the van so the food can be delivered to the charities.

But it doesn't look like Paul will make it easy.

You're giving us an extra grand off it?

An extra grand? That's a lot of money.

-Yes, but it's going to...

-I don't have a grand in it.

-What?

Michael needs to get the best deal,

but he also wants to get the van on the road to make

the much-needed deliveries of fresh food.

Around the corner from the London depot,

another charity has now started taking food from the project.

There are all sorts of community groups which can benefit

from the Felix Project.

I mean, a good example is the Armenian community project.

It's very nice to get together with people from the old country,

and to share old customs and cook traditional foodstuffs.

Recently, we received 50, 60 green peppers.

That enables us to, for example, cook a dolma,

which basically is stuffed peppers with mince and onions, whatever -

luxuries which we wouldn't normally go out and purchase to make these meals.

The centre provides a focus for the Armenian community.

Elderly Armenians are cared for by their own relatives,

so their Friday meal is an important opportunity for both to relax.

We've got a strong sense of community.

Mother gets all updated with her friends and gossip lines.

There's something very special in sharing a meal.

I know it's nice to have a cup of tea, but sharing a meal,

it's something more bonding.

And even if the menu is regional, some pastimes cross all cultures.

Mother was ill last night, and then she realised the bingo time.

Suddenly...

Suddenly, she is feeling fantastic and blood pressure's gone down,

and she hasn't stopped talking.

Yeah, if I see her happy, I'm happy.

For the London project, it's a perfect example

of how rescued waste food can bring people together.

In Manchester, another group has also been inspired

to use food that supermarkets were going to throw away.

What I think is happening at the moment is that

there's a growing awareness of food waste,

and what is building up is a networking effect.

I think this networking effect is drawing people together.

The Junk Food Project was set up three years ago,

and turns waste food into a delicious menu at pop-up cafes,

and everyone's invited.

Hi, guys. How are you doing?

-Have you booked for the pop-up restaurant this evening?

-Yeah.

The group is also educating their customers on food waste.

This is not a project about food poverty.

The Real Junk Food Project is about the fact that the vast majority

of the food that goes to waste in the UK and across the world

is perfectly edible, and that food should be eaten,

and the system needs to change.

The cafe works on a pay-as-you-please basis.

You pay what you want to pay or what you can afford to pay,

and nothing more.

Well, one of the things we want to do is make people feel included.

One of the things that I don't like about a lot of projects that

focus on food poverty is that if you target people

who are in food poverty, what you also do is

separate them from people who are not in food poverty,

and there's a really nice social aspect to that,

to just bringing loads of people together and serving a nice meal.

Being a pop-up has its challenges.

Corin needs to set up a whole restaurant every time they open.

The clock is ticking.

When you run pop-up restaurants and you have no idea

what food's going to turn up,

if your volunteers are going to turn up,

if the volunteers that turn up are going to be helpful

or if they're going to need a lot of help and a lot of managing...

There's just a limit to the number of things that can go wrong.

Beyond a certain point, you just start going,

"Oh, we'll cope, we always do."

It's ten to now, so if someone could just open the bar

and we could get some music on, so we've got a bit of ambience...

With the food only just arriving, it's time for some last-minute changes.

So, dishes tonight, in this order.

We're going to have the grilled garlic sourdough

with olive and sundried tomato tapenade.

-That's changed since I wrote the menu...

-Yeah.

..which is why it doesn't say it on the menu, you know.

-It always does!

-Of course.

Right, where am I going to put you two?

-I will pop you two on this table, if that's OK.

-Yeah.

And with a changed menu, the pressure is on in the kitchen.

The only change in terms of the standard seating and greeting blurb

is that we're making sure we tell people that one of the ways

we reduce food waste is to serve people a selection of dishes

to share, so the menu is a guide,

and we're giving people dishes based on their dietary requirements,

so not every table will necessarily receive every dish,

just so we don't get people going,

"I've had that one and that one but not that one."

So they'll get a selection of what's on the menu, but not all of it.

Ten covers at half eight.

Three twos and a four.

But Corin still seems confident about the night ahead.

We've done quite a few of these now,

so we're starting to get a bit more of a rhythm.

And I shouldn't say that, something will go horribly wrong!

Even with a full restaurant, Corin's hoping that, one day,

the Junk Food Project will stop serving rescued food.

I like the mix of

stopping the food from going to waste and doing something practical,

and also trying to change the system.

I think if you work in something like food waste or food poverty,

if you're working in a social or environmental problem,

your end goal, really, should be to do yourself out of a job by

changing the system to the point where you're no longer needed.

Some of the customers are still trying to get their heads around the concept.

So your groceries for tonight,

how much did it cost for everyone that you served tonight?

-For the food?

-Yeah.

-Nothing.

-Nothing?

-We never buy any ingredients at all.

We thought it was really brilliant.

It was innovative, it was a great way of using leftover food.

We think it's a really good way of reusing food,

and the amount of food that goes to landfill

just beggars belief, really.

At the end of the night, Corin and her team stick to their motto

and eat the leftover food that would have gone to waste.

It's something that we always try and do,

so our staff and our volunteers never go home hungry.

Everybody always gets fed. Everybody always get a drink

to say thank you.

Back in Oxford, the charity Trax is providing catering courses to young people.

They're cooking at a private dinner party, with supermarket food waste

donated by David and Robin's food bank project.

The majority of the food banks that people will know of are

where it's canned goods that are donated.

What's specifically different about us is that

the stuff that we distribute is fresh.

It's fruit, veg...

Trax is increasing career opportunities for young people

who didn't get what they needed out of school.

There is definitely a bit of pressure here for Ciaran.

Obviously, it's a professional event.

Ciaran's been in college now for 18 months,

so he's got to show that he's improving and that

he's learning all the time.

Ciaran, one of their students, has been employed to work with Andrew,

former student and professional chef.

So, about to start doing the beef.

If you carry on working that butter into that mash for me.

You might need to season it up a little bit.

No, the butter that's already in there, mate.

Don't need any more. Well, have a look.

Might need a little bit more.

With the clock ticking, the pressure is increasing for Ciaran,

and he looks to be feeling it.

What's different about this mash, Ciaran?

-Softer.

-What have we put in it?

Do you remember? We were just tasting it, weren't we?

-A couple of minutes ago.

-Oh, horseradish.

-Yeah, so it's horseradish mash, yeah?

-Yeah.

Stressful, but I'm getting there.

Trax founder Olivia is maitre d'.

This is the pressure point now. I think Ciaran's not used to

that extra pace, and that's the difference,

I think, between our normal cooking at work

and working in a restaurant.

Andrew's used to stepping up and getting it done,

and I think Ciaran's struggling now with that, the pressure.

Need to work on that presentation, mate, yeah? It's important.

This is...the most...

Do you want to come away from the edge a little bit, all right?

But with Andrew's guidance,

they work together and get the food on the table.

And their diners are impressed.

The horseradish mash is, is...

..beautifully smooth. The steak is cooked absolutely to order.

With such fresh and tasty ingredients given by the food bank,

the boys have served up a banquet.

Oh, I say! Look!

The steak was cooked to perfection,

and the dessert, with profiteroles, was top notch.

Ciaran has proved he's up to the challenge.

He's one step closer to working in a professional kitchen.

Gorgeous.

Because of David and Robin's organisation,

good food has been enjoyed that was destined for the bin.

The pair set up in Oxford to deliver the fresh food

supermarkets can't sell to charities across the city.

And the founders of this innovative project have high hopes for

replicating the model with the new charity they're rolling out across London.

If you look at the impact we've had here in the space of six months,

if you replicate that in five or six places around London,

I think the potential for what we're doing is huge,

to say the least.

To get the thing as a London-wide operation, you know,

you're thinking quite big there, and there's going to be an awful lot

of demand on what is, at the moment, a very small organisation.

With more volunteers offering their help and more charities

asking for food, they need more vans to expand their operations.

Michael, a trustee of the project,

is determined to get another set of wheels on the road,

and every penny counts.

£27,000, that's how much the recommended retail price

-of the vehicle is, 27 grand.

-Right.

We've discounted the vehicle by nine grand.

What about giving as an extra grand off it?

An extra grand? That's a lot of money!

-I don't have a grand in it.

-What?

-I don't have a grand in it.

If Michael doesn't succeed in buying the van,

perishable fresh food will take longer to be delivered.

Determination is the key. Time to speak to the big boss.

-Hi.

-Hello there.

-Hi.

-Good morning! I wasn't expecting this.

-Michael Millership.

-Hello, nice to meet you.

-How are you?

-Good, thank you.

-Please, take a seat.

-He's got the cheque ready!

OK, so I'm ready with a cheque,

but the only thing I haven't filled in is an amount,

because I'm rather hoping... It's just been explained to me this is

the last...the tail end of a 150-van cancelled order,

so I was rather hoping that you would want to give it away for free.

So this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship, in fact,

because we may well be buying many, many more vans.

So do us a good deal here, and we'll be friends for life.

This time, the charm offensive doesn't work,

but he's still getting £9,000 off the list price.

-Thank you. As I say, it's a good cause.

-Thanks very much, yeah.

Well, you know, let's hope we'll be buying more.

I mean, you know, this is just the beginning.

He heads back to the London depot to give them the news.

The...

I'm not complaining.

We got a new van for 19 grand, including VAT,

rather than 28 grand, including VAT.

You know, so what's not to like about that?

We've got a fantastic new van, and, you know, it'll allow us

to increase quite substantially our collections now.

The extra vehicle means the project can continue to expand,

taking on ten new routes every week.

That's around 40 new collections and deliveries

and tonnes more fresh food being saved from the bin.

OK, we're a three-van charity now.

-Oh, did you buy it?

-Yeah.

-That's exciting!

We have a third vehicle, which basically means we can put out

two more routes every day, going off to completely different areas.

So, yeah, that means that we can increase the amount of suppliers

that we have, increase the amount of charities that

we're delivering to, so it's wonderful news. Wonderful news.

Next time - the expanding London project

struggles to get boots on the ground...

At the moment, we need at least six volunteers a day

to sort of function properly. And yesterday, I think I had...three.

..we meet Oxford's busiest waste food chef...

Thank you very much.

..and its waste food overload.

There's onions and a cake on her front seat,

there was pastries behind the seats,

there was fruit juices down the bottom.

It's very low!

Car's nearly scraping the ground.