Turning waste into community meals with Norton Robinson

Host Deepa Thomas-Sutcliffe speaks with Norton Robinson, director of Fungall CIC, about tackling food insecurity sustainably through community mushroom farming. Nortonshares how his interest began at university and through exploring “speculative futures,” leading to a bedroom mushroom lab and then community-based projects. Fungall builds local mushroom farms that transform waste—especially brewing and coffee waste—into mushrooms that become community meals, supporting people facing food insecurity and loneliness. Norton outlines a vision for a scalable, ethical, franchisable network of community-owned farms across city wards. He discusses the challenges of having no blueprint, managing burnout by setting boundaries, plans for a research master’s on brewing-waste scalability, and ways people can support orvolunteer.Did you know:  ·     Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain access to adequate, nutritious food needed for a healthy life, often due to lack of money or resources. ·     Brewing waste in Manchester is being increasingly managed through sustainability initiatives, including converting wasted beer into green energy, reusing spent grains for livestock feed, and researching ways to extract chemical compounds from byproducts. Major efforts involve onsite composting, packaging reduction, and using waste for biogas. Key resource:Fungall Time stamps of key moments in the podcast episode &transcript:(00:50) Meet Norton Robinson(01:35) Origins and inspiration(03:16) How Fungall works(03:46) Scaling the vision(05:29) Impact stories and meals(09:06) Founder challenges(10:31) Staying motivated(13:05) Future plans and mushrooms🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or www.meetthemancunian.co.uk#Manchester #SocialImpact #Podcast #CommunityFarms #FoodInsecurity