Community for everyone, by everyone.
From 2015 to 2022, Foodhall hosted a public dining room and kitchen at the heart of Sheffield city centre.
Core activity
Managed by the community, for the community, we created a place for everyone to share food, drink, company, skills and time – all on a contribute-what-you-can basis. With no hard line between our volunteers and visitors, we developed an engaged and collaborative community outside of the bounds of the transactional relationships we often associate with food.
Our core activity was the running of a community cafe, where communal meals made from surplus food. Food waste streams from local traders were intercepted to supply our kitchen, which cooked up weekly hot meals for our community as well as hosting other one of social eating events.
While our social eating project has now come to an end, the Food Delivery Project which sprang up around the COVID-19 pandemic still works to enable local groups and organisations to utilise food in their activities and get food to people in need. Click here to check out what they’re up to.
Branch Projects
Alongside our core activity, Foodhall has also been home to numerous community-led branch projects.
Platforms for community members to pursue their own interests or share skills with others, these branches have ranged from cinema screenings to bike repair classes, pottery workshops to DJ nights. Branches developed in line with the needs of the Foodhall community, driven by the passion of people to take responsibility for developing something that inspires them, and something which others can share in and benefit from.
Check out past and still-operating branch projects:
A community of picklers and fermentors saving food waste through preservation
Evenings of music and arts showcasing the best of Sheffield’s DIY talent
Evening meals often centred around a theme, to provide a thought provoking community meal
Other branch projects/
Having included:
TV Dinners/ Cinema evenings with a shared meal
Open Journal/ A zine capturing the spirit and essence of Foodhall
Foodhall Community Radio/ Sharing Sheffield’s DIY DJ talent to the masses
Bike Hall/ Community bike workshop
Foodhall Catering/ Taking our repurposed meals out into the world
Pottery studio/
Temporary gallery and exhibition spaces/