IN APRIL food waste social enterprise Open Kitchen MCR joined forces with local independent brewer Beer Nouveau to create SURPLUS! an evening of beers and street food, all created from food that would otherwise go to waste.
Steve at Beer Nouveau, ever the innovtive brewer, loved the challenge of creating small batches of interesting beers using gluts of fruit and herbs (provided by Open Kitchen MCR) that would have ended up in a bin. And the OK MCR chefs, missing the (Real Junk Food Manchester) restaurant, jumped at the chance to flex their street food muscles, and create a menu of sexy small plates for the craft beer crowd.
Since then the monthly events have been gaining a following, and now from Friday, November 15, it’s going weekly – in a trial run until Christmas. It’s a challenge to the eco commitment of Mancunians, albeit featuring some seriously tasty ale and comestibles.
Open Kitchen MCR intercepts perfectly edible food that will otherwise end up in the bin from a huge range of food businesses (supermarkets, wholesalers, small artisan producers, and lots more). For every tonne of food that they stop from going to waste, they stop around 4.2 tonnes of CO2e from being emitted is the claim.
It ran Manchester’s first waste food pay-as-you-feel restaurant from 2017-2018, and now operates the city’s first waste food outside catering enterprise. All their ‘for profit’ catering projects subsidise their work with communities. Every week Open Kitchen MCR delivers food and supplies to homelessness hostels and independent food banks. Plus they work with local support organisation Coffee4Craig, providing hot nutritious meals to people in crisis.
Beer Nouveau Brew Tap, 75 North Western Street, Manchester, M12 6DY. Every Friday night. Bar from 4pm, food from 5:30pm until they run out (usually around 8.30pm). No need to book, just turn up.
