Lee – Guest

Lee lives 30 minutes away from two FoodCycle Projects: Peckham and Lewisham and has been coming regularly for the past fours years.  He first attended a community meal after the person he was caring for passed away.

He says “I had been caring for my aunt for 15 years, and once she died the idea of eating alone was unappealing and I wanted to meet people.  There are lots of different people that come to FoodCycle, some people want to talk and some people don’t.  One of my friends who also comes along says that he just likes to be there to be around people, he doesn’t have great social skills and he doesn’t necessarily want to talk but it’s just that feeling of connection.  It’s not about the food on the table it’s about being around the table.

I class myself as a fallen professional, I did have a good career and did earn a lot of money but I don’t have much now.  I don’t go because I’m desperate, I did worry at first that I might not be allowed in as I might not be poor enough but FoodCycle isn’t about that.  Some people come for the food and some people come for the company, I go mostly for the community.

I go to a few different food services and they really do vary but at FoodCycle the quality of the food can be as good as you get in a restaurant.”