I started volunteering at Eggcup at the beginning of 2022 every Thursday as I was getting restless working in admin from home. I heard about Eggcup through a friend, and got in touch as I believe in the values surrounding food waste, sustainability, and of course food justice. I enjoyed volunteering so much that it became the highlight of my week, so when the opportunity to work full time with Eggcup arose, I couldn’t resist. I enjoy how varied working here is and I’m always amazed at how fantastic all the Eggcup team are and what both volunteers and staff achieve together.

Outside of work, I’m a bit all over the place, but I suppose mainly I’m a Manchester United fan, I love singing and I practice yoga – oh and I enjoy the odd visit to the moon.

I’ve been involved in the voluntary and community sector for most of my working life, including in community supported agriculture. I’ve seen first hand how those who grow our food at one end of the supply chain and those who consume it at the other, seem to get the poorest deal. Not only is food an essential to life, I believe it’s also an essential ingredient for family, friendship and community. For me, Eggcup is one of those important organizations that aims to think globally and act locally and I’m proud to be part of this fantastic, team of volunteers and staff!

In my spare time I enjoy volunteering for Lets Be Friends, the National Plant Monitoring Scheme, growing veg and generally being outdoors.

I started at Eggcup as a volunteer during the first lockdown in 2020. Since then I’ve worked in the warehouse and at the Morecambe site. My role now is in getting food into eggcup, and I enjoy being able to work with distributors and especially growers to get more food through to our members. It’s very eye opening heading to the farms and seeing the amount of waste our farmers have to create in our current systems, and I look forward to a day when what we eat is dictated by what local people can grow, not megacorp profits. Outside of work I like rock climbing, tabletop gaming, and eating (or cooking, is that what people normally say?)

In my previous work life I was a manager of a Bed and Breakfast. I started as a member at Eggcup Morecambe and quickly decided to volunteer at the shop I enjoyed it all it was good to be helpful and useful. I loved the Morecambe shop as you got to know members on a personal level it’s like a little community you looked forward to seeing them each week and asking them how their week had been. I then started coming over to Lancaster to volunteer in the prep room there and found it very therapeutic and it was also great to see the the other side of Eggcup operations so when the job of Prep Room Supervisor paid post came up it was a natural progression for me to apply. My role entails training up volunteers to ensure they are working to appropriate food hygiene standards and we are now able to repack food from catering sized packs to manageable portions to distribute to the public. This is another important way we can prevent food wastage. I’m a Mum so outside of work we enjoy family time, diamond art and exploring new places.

Darren started volunteering at the Morecambe outlet in January 2024 and was a mainstay of the Wednesday volunteer team. He never missed a shift as a volunteer and says it is good for volunteers to get out and do something in the community. When Eggcup was looking for an outlet Supervisor in June 2025 Darren was ready to take up the reins and started helping supervises the Morecambe Shop on Albert Road. Now we have moved to Euston Road Darren is proving Eggcup with much needed administrative support. Darren has always lived in the area, and has had a series of manager jobs, including managing the bookmaker in Heysham that is now the Bookmakers Micropub.

The encouragement to volunteer during the pandemic pushed me in the direction of Eggcup so I signed up to do some driving. I find it appalling that in one of the richest countries in the world some people can’t afford to eat. For some time too I have become aware of the awful waste of food there is in the developed world. Since becoming involved with Eggcup I have seen the potential of community based activities to both support people in need and to help educate others in the importance of food sustainability. Being an Eggcup trustee gives me a great opportunity to use the experience and skills acquired over 40 years in teaching and management consultancy to help make a difference to my local community. In my other life I love playing golf, cooking and spending time with my family.

I have a PhD in soil science and initially studied how we can manage soils better for food production. My recent research has focused on looking at how we can produce food more sustainably .I increasingly found that it was impossible to talk about sustainable food production without understanding more about the economic and social problems in the wider food system. In 2022 Rachel joined LESS as the project coordinator of Closing Loops – a climate action project that has emerged from the Food Futures partnership. This project creates community-led approaches to transform waste into a valuable local resource, promote sustainable consumption and support a regenerative, circular food economy in North Lancashire. Rachel is also a member of Claver Hill Community Food Project. Rachel is also a member of Claver Hill community Food growing project.

As well as being an Eggcup trustee I am also chair of the Lancaster District Food Justice Partnership. I am also a trustee of Morecambe Bay Foodbank which has helped to work together a lot more closely. I have been part of the Morecambe Bay Poverty Truth Commission facilitation team since the start up group stage. I am one of the co-founders of Let’s BeFriends, a homeless charity, and manage the staff. I also sit on the Lancaster District Health and Wellbeing partnership board.