As part of our iCan Week – five days of news stories, features, interviews, slideshows and videos in support of a local charity initiative that tackles food poverty – we visited Better by Half which, in conjunction with charity Under the Bridge, offers opportunities for the homeless, addicted and excluded to get back into work and improve their lives.

Manager Malcolm Hook spoke with student reporters Bob Cooper and Sophie Stubbert about the food he and his chef provide for clients at their hostel in Byker; about the relationship with FareShare North East, which supplies the food on a weekly basis; and his support for the iCan initiative. He also introduced them to some of the charity’s clients. Watch a video of their interviews here:

iCan is a scheme from FareShare North East whose organisers believe that if each person in Newcastle upon Tyne donated a single can of food, food poverty in the city could be eliminated.

The accumulated cans are collected by FareShare and distributed to 36 different projects across the north east, including drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres and children’s breakfast clubs providing food to those most in need – including some who may go a day or more without a meal.

Our iCan week concludes on Saturday 19^th November, with a fundraising/can-raising night at the The Mixer on West Jesmond Avenue.

For more iCan details, visit www.icanfeed.org