A community café in East Twickenham aiming to 'fill bellies not bins' has opened up its inside space for visitors thanks to lockdown regulations easing today.

The Real Junk Food Project Twickenham café sits in the ETNA (East Twickenham Neighbourhood Association) Community Centre and collects surplus food from nearby supermarkets and independent shops – and sometimes from local residents too – to prevent it going to waste.

The café is a precious community space run entirely by volunteers, which operates on a pay-as-you-feel basis so everyone is welcome.

It now has eight tables inside in addition to eight outside where it serves freshly-cooked food as well as fresh cakes and pastries, tea, and coffee.

"We don't make any judgements," says Penny Vegting, one of the project directors.

"Our purpose is offering delicious food, that has been diverted from landfill, on a pay-as-you-feel basis.

"It's a welcoming space for everyone that lives locally."

The project collects around 250kg of food a day that would otherwise have gone to landfill, and feeds 50-60 people over just two hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

The café also has a food hub full of items people can take home.

You can read more about the café and the work of The Real Junk Food Project in our Up Close With feature here.

Jane, one of the chefs, has to invent a new menu each day depending on the food she is given, but said that she doesn't find it too difficult to get creative.

"We get used to the type of things that we often get," she said as she whipped up a plate of stir-fried vegetables and noodles from today's offering.

"We are very lucky, everybody brings so much food."

The café will celebrate its third birthday at the ETNA Community Centre in June.

"ETNA had the vision to have a community kitchen, and they liked our values and ethics," explains Penny.

"The purpose of the project is all about preventing food going to waste.

"We do quite a lot of food redistribution as well at the café.

"We divert it to other local organisations if they can use it."

During the first lockdown the café closed, but volunteers redistributed food directly to households.

During the second lockdown the team provided a takeaway service at ETNA.

They also ran an outdoor stall while the project's second venue at Greenwood Centre was taken over as a vaccination centre.

You can read more about The Real Junk Food Project Twickenham on its new website here.

The cafe is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 11.30am till 1.30pm inside the ETNA Community Centre.