On tomorrow’s episode of The Optimist: Unplugged, Jas and Eloise will be talking to Alice Forbes, the president of a University of Sheffield society called Save Our Sandwiches.
Save Our Sandwiches works towards tackling food waste at the university by picking up leftover sandwiches from all the university cafes at the end of the day.
The sandwiches are then donated to sheffield-based charity ‘The Element Society’; an independent charity that provides a ‘safe space’ for young people and inspires them to give back to their community.
Alice says: “It’s really nice because sometimes we get to go upstairs and see everyone doing the activities when we drop off the sandwiches.
“They do get excited, which is really nice to see. They really appreciate the food, even if it’s just a few sandwiches.”
Alice has only been at the university since September, and joined Save our Sandwiches on a whim.
She says: “I was looking for a society to join, and it was the first one I went along to.
“It seemed like such a cool idea, and I’ve always been interested in charity work and tackling food waste.
“It seemed like the perfect combination between the two.”
After only attending two sandwich pick-ups and two socials, Alice ended up stepping into the role of secretary. This position holds a lot of responsibility, and is the right-hand man of the President.
“ I just got sucked in to be honest, because it was so good.
“The Secretary was leaving, so I just took over from her. I’ve always wanted to be part of a committee, and it’s a really good society to be a part of.”
In university culture, it is extremely rare for first year students to be on the committee of a society, let alone part of the executive board.
Since taking on this role, Alice has had her eye on the presidential role, and has recently taken over from previous president Noemi after being voted in by the rest of the society.
Our next episode of our podcast, The Optimist Unplugged, drops tomorrow. Listen in to find out about the big ambitions Alice has for the society during her candidacy, and how the work Save Our Sandwiches do has inspired our production team to share their volunteering stories and aspirations on the pod!
Keep up to date by listening to our last episode, where we talk to Jeanie Vowels about her journey to becoming a stand-up comedian, and why following her passions is her number one priority.
Every Friday, you can find a new episode of our podcast on our Spotify, Youtube, or on our website, so you can listen or watch from wherever you are.
