Fridge for Roundhouse Community Kitchen

CLAVERHOUSE ROTARY DONATE COMMERCIAL REFRIGERATOR TO ROUNDHOUSE COMMUNITY PROJECT

In October 2021, the Roundhouse Community Kitchen took delivery of a 400 litre commercial refrigerator, donated by the Rotary Club of Claverhouse, to equip the unit to accommodate an ever growing demand for their services.
Staffed by a dedicated team of 12 volunteers and led by Caroline Bentley, Food and Health Development Officer, the Roundhouse Project gets straight to the heart of practically addressing the critical issues of poverty, food waste and education.
Over 26,000 tons of food goes to waste in Dundee each year while many families on very low incomes are unable to feed themselves. The Roundhouse Team actively source surplus food from supermarkets and food retailers and transform the ingredients into nutritious and tasty freshly prepared meals for supply to foodbanks and larders in Dundee.
The project, still in its infancy and dependent on charitable donations, has grown like topsy and has served almost 5000 meals over its first five months, utilising five and a half tons of surplus food which would otherwise have gone to waste. It is now serving upto 100 freshly prepared meals per day, only limited by the number of volunteers and the charitable funds it receives to run the operation.
A new Roundhouse Café will open at the premises on Lothian Crescent in the next three weeks to act as an income generator.  It will serve delicious soups and meals cooked in the kitchen, attracting people who work and live locally and further afield. At the same time, links are being built with Dundee and Angus College and Abertay University to offer students hands on opportunities to become involved with the work of the project.
Caroline, a charismatic, dynamic and passionate driver at the Roundhouse, left her career as a solicitor to embrace her passion for good food and pursue community based initiatives with the environment at their heart.  She said ” I love cooking and creating dishes and the idea that our food could be helping families who have had a long day and are struggling to make ends meet is a lovely one. The team here at Signpost International want to create a place where others can thrive and that includes helping them to have a go at cooking good food inexpensively and without fear of failure.”
Robert Burns, President of the Rotary Club of Claverhouse commented “ The work of the Roundhouse Team is truly impressive, offering a tremendous benefit to the community in these challenging times. This project has the potential to expand to address ever increasing local poverty and the unnecessary waste of food.  It can only thrive if it receives the funds and volunteers to support it. We aim to keep in touch”.