Setting up a food charity in my area

ravravrav

Hi all, this is something I have been thinking about for a few months but endless procrastinating has delayed me - I'd like to set up a simple food charity where we feed people. The idea is basically to cook food and serve it to anyone who wants it. Obviously there must be health and safety implications in serving food to the public but can anyone else give me advice on setting this up with absolutely zero funds? Thanks,

kingfisherblue

I think (and am happy to be corrected if I am wrong) that you need your charity to have an annual income of at least £5000 to register as a charity. Perhaps a community group would be a better idea, at least initially.

First, is there the demand for what you want to do? How do you know this?

Can you recruit enough volunteers? What about Food Hygiene certificates?

Where would you serve the food from? The kitchen would have to meet strict standards and you would also need sufficient seating.

Insurance - a necessity. Shop around.

How are you going to fund this? Apart from insurance, you will need rent/room hire, the cost of the food, the funds to purchase crockery, cutlery and cooking equipment (but these might be included in room hire).... The list goes on. Volunteers can request reasonable expenses, and any PPE should be provided.

It is a costly business, even before you get started. This is assuming that people will want their food cooked for them.

Depending on where you live, could you volunteer at a food bank or a homeless shelter for a while? This can help to give you more of an idea of what is already available and how these existing charities are struggling. You are more likely to be able to make a difference to those in your community this way, than trying to set up a charity or community group with no experience, no funds, no idea of funding opportunities or experience in applying. Once you have these skills, it may be different, and you might find it possible to set up a scheme doing exactly what you want to do, but I think it is likely to be a non-starter at the moment.

Whatever you decide to do, I wish you well.

Savvy_Sue

I can only agree with what kfb said. rav, if you give more details of your idea, we might be able to make other suggestions, but having had some involvement with charities which do feed people for free, one thing I would like to add is that some people who use such services have problems which make them 'difficult'.

Worth saying that some foodbanks are attached to a cafe, and getting to know any that are local to you would definitely be worth doing.

PasturesNew

Free food ....to anyone that wants it.
You DO realise you'll end up inundated with all the wrong sort of people don't you....

grumpygardener

Me too. I worked for a couple of years in a staff canteen. The food regulations are pretty strict and even if you are offering a free service you will be subject to visits by the health and safety brigade. Stainless steel equipment costs a small fortune. Cleaning has to be done systematically and thoroughly. Skip on it and you're subject to being shut down or, at worse, sued. Your setup costs, including training, certification and equipping may leave you well in debt.

knightstyle

First make sure there isn't one already in your area. If not contact the local Salvation Army and talk to them.

absolutereturn

Nothing can be done with zero funding, how would you buy the food to start with? Cooking and serving food is very involved, it's a lot easier to distribute food such as tins of beans, pulses, rice, dry pasta/noodles, etc. which are all cheap. Some fresh produce such as apples and potatoes are cheap, long lasting and not as delicate as other produce.

It would work better if you target certain groups such as the elderly, families with young kids or people with a disability. If you are going to give them free stuff that should give you the right to ask them for proof of being in receipt of JSA/ESA or of having been sanctioned.

ravravrav

Thanks for all your comments and I think the right thing for me is to contact existing foodbanks and see if I can work with them first. Thanks,

absolutereturn

ravravrav wrote: »

Thanks for all your comments and I think the right thing for me is to contact existing foodbanks and see if I can work with them first. Thanks,

That sounds like a good idea, if you haven't got money to donate food you may be able to donate your time.

There is a difference between food banks and 'soup kitchens', food banks usually just distribute food for people to eat in their own homes as opposed to preparing cooked meals as you proposed.

This may be useful: http://www.trusselltrust.org/map