A NEW café that is helping to reduce food waste has been launched in Blackburn that aims to fill 'bellies not bins'.

The Stone Soup café, offers healthy, affordable, tasty food, available to eat in or take away.

The Café is a real junk food café that offers 'pay what you can afford' to those on a low income, a pay one on to help someone on the food poverty line.

The majority of quality ingredients have been donated by supermarkets, restaurants and food recycling distributors, drastically helping to cut down on food waste and to reduce food poverty.

Cafe co-ordinator Lyndsey Place said: “We intercept food that would otherwise go to waste from a number of sources, including local restaurants and supermarkets.

"We take the surplus and turn it into healthy, nutritious meals.

"We aim to use food as a way of aiding people on the food poverty threshold, helping the environment and bringing the community closer together.

"We are also doing our bit to help people save money, eat a healthy nutritious meal, all whilst helping to fund a good cause and help reduce unnecessary landfill, 10 million tonnes of food a year is wasted.

"We are encouraging people to come and give us a try, we’ve had great feedback so far.

"We have some great plans in the pipeline and it would be really good to have people involved and see how many ways we all can help if we work together."

Cllr Phil Riley, Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive member for regeneration, praised the innovative concept as 'fantastic'.

He said: "I was very impressed by their offerings and would encourage people to support this worthy initiative and give it a try.”

The Stone Soup Café is located inside The Bureau Centre for the Arts, just behind the Old Town Hall, Blackburn.

It is open Monday to Friday 10am until 4pm and selected Bureau Events Days.

For more information email thestonesoupcafeblackburn@gmail.com