We are not a food bank - we provide fresh, healthy produce without stigma in settings where people feel comfortable. We distribute in two community centres, hold a monthly film and feast, and do homeless outreach to support people not currently supported by anyone else. Currently, we are able to divert 200+kg of food per week, but our operations are limited as we have to rely on volunteers using their own private cars which are also very small.
We want to purchase a catering van, and fundraise for a driver three days a week, this will enable us to distribute food to local partners who will be able to give it to their beneficiaries, we have been discussing with centres which support refugees, young mums and older generation residents.
Beyond this the van would enable us to reduce our reliance on grants, so our work can be more self sustaining. We plan to expand on our catering offer and our recent trial running a street kitchen; these will also offer training/employment to young peopl
What we'll deliver:
- Food distributed to at least 6 partner organisations to reach their beneficiaries
- Street Kitchen twice a week founded; offering training/employment to young people, and providing food for homeless
- At least 400 kilos per week more food waste diverted (19.2 tonnes over a year)
Why it's a great idea:
In the UK 10 million tonnes of food and drink is wasted each year, associated with 22 million tonnes of greenhouse gases. On the other side, there are people going hungry and accessing food banks - this comes with a stigma and often they don’t offer fresh produce.
We have been closing this gap in our local area, building relationships with local markets to bring high quality healthy food to our residents, and teaching healthy cooking and bringing the community together at the same time.
We have a lot of demand from local organisations who want to access the same resource for their beneficiaries and are unable to. We have worked out that if we did four drop offs a day to local partners and they were able to get donations of as little as 50p from beneficiaries the ongoing costs of the van could be covered and would become self-sustaining after the first year. Any shortfall could be met through carrying out fundraising activities to ensure minimal pressure on beneficiaries.
Steps to get it done:
- Purchasing the van
- Relaunching the street kitchen
- Initiating our first three partner deliveries
- Signing up an additional three partners to receive deliveries
- Refining our offer and opening it more widely in the local area
We will also look to create an arrangement where other community organisations could also access the van for their own purposes when it’s not being used for food distributions or fundraising and outreach activities.
