FoodCycle chosen as Ashtons’ Cambridge Charity of the Year

Ashtons Charitable Trust, set up by law firm Ashtons Legal in 2014, has recently chosen FoodCycle as the Cambridge office’s charity of the year.

The money will be raised throughout the year supported by corporate and charity fundraising events, via internal activities such as raffles and social events, as well as through the Ashtons Legal Wills Campaign where the firm donates £10 for every new Will created throughout the year. These charities and causes are supported by staff nominating and voting for their Charities of the Year who then go on to receive an annual donation.

FoodCycle was founded in 2015 and is a volunteer-run charity dedicated to combating food poverty, loneliness and food waste by taking surplus food and turning it into free meals for the community. Their main goal is to help connect communities by bringing people together to share healthy meals, support mental health and well-being and by creating welcoming spaces, for all people from varying walks of life, to have conversations reducing loneliness. As a collective, they help to nourish the hungry, focussing on improving the nutrition in meals eaten by the community and reducing hunger by using donated food from supermarkets, shops, food banks and food surplus charities and creating three-course, vegetarian meals for communities to enjoy.

FoodCycle helps to promote sustainability and tries to inspire change by altering attitudes towards food. They have helped save over 239 tonnes of food from going to waste and over 5,800 volunteers have donated their time to help this cause.

Chair of Ashtons’ CSR Committee, Natalie Westgate says: “It is always a pleasure to support such worthwhile causes in our local communities and I thank all our staff for their support and fundraising efforts.”

“Looking ahead, we really want to form meaningful and lasting relationships with our Charities of the Year, so we have decided to increase the term we support them to two years. I am therefore delighted to announce that in 2024 and 2025 we will be working with Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, FoodCycle Cambridge, St Elizabeth Hospice, Young Lives vs Cancer and YMCA Norfolk.”