A Dundee community kitchen who serve over 100 meals a day, will be opening a new cafe to help support its volunteer work.
The Roundhouse Community Kitchen, which opened at the end of March, has served more than 5,000 meals in its first five months.
They have used more than five and a half tons of food which would have gone to waste, to provide meals to those in need.
The team of 12 volunteers, led by Caroline Bentley, provide around 100 meals a day.
However, Caroline said that the new cafe will allow them to be able to provide more meals to those who most need them.
Caroline, who left her career as a solicitor to run the Roundhouse Community Kitchen, said she was excited for this next step in the kitchen’s story.
She added: “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.”
The community kitchen is run in partnership with Dundee Food Insecurity Network, Dundee Volunteer and Voluntary Action (DVVA), and Alexander’s Community Development.
The new cafe will be opening with help from the Claverhouse Rotary Club.
The club recently donated a 400-litre fridge to the community kitchen, allowing them to step into this new adventure.
When will the community cafe open?
The cafe will open on Lothian Crescent in the next three weeks and will give a much needed income source for the community kitchen.
It will serve soups and light meals made in the kitchen, as well as offering hands-on experience to Dundee and Angus College and Abertay University students to volunteer at the project.
Claverhouse Rotary Club president Robert Burns said: “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.”
More than 26,000 tons of food goes to waste in Dundee every year, while many families on low incomes across the city struggle to feed themselves.
The kitchen works in partnership with a number of local supermarkets to bring in extra food that would go to waste, to create meals for the kitchen, as well as supplying them to foodbanks and larders across Dundee.