Payback Pathways to Post-Covid Food Security – project summary.

 

What would you like to do?

Community Payback (CP) is a court sentence requiring offenders to undertake up to 300 hours unpaid community work. During lockdown CP workers in Stockport worked in surplus food centres (https://fareshare.org.uk) and pantries (https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk) packing and delivering food parcels for families in food poverty. Many in food poverty themselves continue to 'do their hours' at Fareshare and pantries. But increasing demand for surplus food, together with supermarket efficiencies and labour shortages is reducing surplus food available and many pantries are seeking new sources of income to bulk-buy non-surplus food to supplement what surplus food is available, without having to put up pantry membership fees, which would debilitate their mission to help families out of food poverty. Our project will use CP workers to raise funds for pantries while providing a pathway into paid employment for themselves, lifting them and pantry members out of food poverty. They'll start their CP work as pantry volunteers and complete it as work trials with supermarkets who'll guarantee at least an interview for paid employment on successful completion of their CP work at the supermarket. The supermarket will make a charitable donation to the pantry equivalent to the monetary value of the CP worker's unpaid work trial as fulfilment of the CP community benefit requirement and their own Corporate Social Responsibility commitments. This will enable the pantry to bulk-buy food to supplement dwindling surplus food supplies without increasing membership fees. Piloting over 12 months in Stockport, people will learn about the project through pantry members. It'll provide a sustainable way out of food poverty for CP workers and pantry members and a new source of pantry income while easing labour shortages at supermarkets. We will base a national roll-out on learning from the project and produce a template for CP with other charities and employers nationwide.

 

 How does your project meet at least one of our funding priorities?

The project changes and adapts the role of CP workers supporting pantries, enabling them to become more resilient and respond to the new and future challenges of post covid dwindling surplus food supplies. It builds strong relationships within and across communities by strengthening pantry membership and the pantries' offer to their local communities. It rebuilds a pro-social relationship between offenders and the communities against whom they have offended and strengthens the relationship between supermarkets and the communities they serve. It helps more people to reach their potential through pantry membership by supporting them at the earliest stage to get out of food poverty. It helps offenders to reach their full potential of crime-free lives by providing an opportunity for them to pay back to the communities against whom they have offended and provides a pathway to paid employment to lift them out of food poverty and sustain a crime-free lifestyle.

 

How does your project involve your community?

The idea for the project came from a group of 5 CP workers at the Greater Manchester Fareshare surplus food distribution depot. The idea was subsequently tested with other stakeholders - Brinnington pantry members in Stockport while they were doing their weekly shop; Greater Manchester CP Manager; Co-operative Group Head of Community Affairs; south Manchester Cooperative Group Member Pioneer Co-ordinator; the board of Foundations Stockport (https://www.foundations-stockport.org) who are the franchisors of 'Your Local Pantry' social franchise (https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk); Fareshare Greater Manchester (https://faresharegm.org.uk) and The Bread and Butter Thing (https://www.breadandbutterthing.org) CP workers will be involved in the delivery of the project through initial CP placements at Fareshare, Bread and Butter Thing and Stockport pantries, followed by completion of their CP unpaid work requirements at local Co-operative Stores and supermarkets, all of whom will be involved as CP placement hosts. Placements will be brokered and supervised by the Greater Manchester CP Manager and his team in partnership with pantry volunteers, Fareshare, Bread and Butter Thing staff and Co-op store management. Charitable donations by the Co-op to the pantries will be managed by Co-op Head of Community Affairs. A project steering group will be established with all the above stakeholders and chaired by Nornir.

PAYBACK PATHWAYS TO EMPLOYMENT AND FOOD SECURITY

PROGRESS REPORT 21^ST MARCH 2022

Community Payback and Food Security during lockdown

Community Payback (CP) is a court sentence requiring adult offenders to undertake up to 300 hours unpaid community work. During lockdown CP workers across Greater Manchester worked on allotments and community growing projects and in surplus food distribution centres like Fareshare https://www.faresharegm.org.uk and in pantries like Your Local Pantry https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk , growing food and packing and delivering food parcels for families in food poverty. Many CP workers are in food poverty themselves and continue to ‘do their hours’ in the same way post-covid lockdown.

Dwindling Surplus Food supplies and Pantries

Increasing demand for surplus food, together with supermarket increased efficiencies and labour shortages are all reducing the supplies of surplus food available. Many pantries are now seeking new sources of income to bulk-buy non-surplus food to supplement what surplus food is still available as well as looking for new supplies of locally grown food without having to put up Pantry membership fees to pay for it, which would negatively impact their mission to help families out of food poverty.

Payback Pathways to Employment and Food Security

Our proposal is to road test two possible solutions to these problems and then roll them out nationally once proof of concept has been successfully achieved. Both use CP workers to raise funds for pantries to bulk-buy non-surplus food supplies and access locally grown food, while providing a pathway into paid employment for CP workers themselves, lifting them and pantry members out of food poverty.

Model One

CP workers start their sentence working on allotments and community growing projects or as Pantry volunteers and move on to complete their hours as a work trial with supermarkets and other food services companies once they’ve ‘proved themselves’ in the initial placement. The host company guarantees them at least an interview for paid employment once they’ve successfully completed their CP work trial. The host company then makes a charitable donation back to the Pantry or community growing project equivalent to the monetary value of the CP worker’s unpaid work trial. This fulfils the CP community benefit requirements and the Corporate Social Responsibility commitments of the company concerned and it enables the Pantry to bulk-buy non-surplus food to supplement the dwindling surplus food supplies as well as sourcing more locally grown food without having to increase pantry membership fees.

Model One – Progress to Date

Stockport Homes have agreed to pilot this model at their Bridge Hall Pantry site with CP placements in the Pantry and working on a community allotment with Panty members and other volunteers which the Bridge Hall Pantry is in the process of developing.

The Co-operative Group and Compass Group PLC Food Services have agreed in principle to provide CP work trial placements in their Stockport sites for CP workers progressing from the Bridge Hall Pantry and the community allotment as outlined above in Model One.

However, Probation have identified a potential issue with CP placements with commercial for-profit organisations like the Co-op and Compass and together with Nornir they are seeking clarification from CP nationally at HMPPS.

The Stockport Youth Offending Team however do not see this as a problem for young offenders who are subject to an Unpaid Work requirement of a Youth Rehabilitation Order. They are keen to explore how this element of the model could be piloted in conjunction with the Bridge Hall Pantry, the Co-op and Compass.

The Unpaid Work requirement of a Youth Rehabilitation Order is the young offender equivalent of adult Community Payback. It requires 16 and 17 year old young offenders to undertake unpaid work of benefit to the community for between 40 and 240 hours depending of the severity of the offence. It has the same aims as Community Payback and offers the same sort of placements, but it is run by local authority Youth Offending Teams rather than the Probation Service.

Model Two

This works in a similar way to Model One. CP workers start their sentence on allotments and community growing projects and in Pantries and then move on to complete it with an intermediary social enterprise which buys up surplus food produced by the allotments and community growing projects and prepares and processes it ready for onward sale at discount rates to supermarkets and other food services companies. In return for the discount rates these companies sign a form of ‘Local Labour Agreement’ committing them to recruit new paid staff from those successfully completing their CP work with the intermediary social enterprise. The social enterprise then makes charitable donations back to the growers and pantries out of the proceeds from the onward sales and equivalent to the monetary value of the CP workers’ work in the social enterprise.

Model Two – Progress to Date

Discussions are ongoing with Foundations Stockport https://www.foundations-stockport.org SP Square CiC  https://www.spsquare.org  and Pure Innovations https://www.pureinnovations.co.uk about the development, ownership, management and operation of the intermediary social enterprise that is integral to Model Two as outlined above. The same issues around Probation and Youth Justice apply here as well to Model Two in exactly the same way as with Model one.

Three social enterprise business opportunities have been identified, with discussions ongoing around whether they should be developed as three separate social enterprises or one single legal entity trading in the three sectors identified as the intermediary social enterprise for Model Two.

The first social enterprise to be developed in any event is likely to be a small scale demonstration organic liquid fertiliser production facility based on the community allotments identified and developed in Model One. This will supply local garden centres and online sales. A ‘Local Labour Agreement’ will be trialled with the Garden Centres, the Co-op and Compass to enable CP workers working on the allotments and fertilizer production to move on to paid employment with those employers on successful completion of their CP hours.

The second social enterprise will be a commercial Urban Mushroom Farm, replicating and  developed in partnership with the Newcastle YMCA Urban Mushroom initiative https://ymcanewcastle.com/urbanmushrooms Like the allotments and fertilizer production facility, this will be staffed by people on Community Payback and young offenders subject to an Unpaid Work Requirement, under the supervision of a Community Payback or Youth Rehabilitation Supervisor. All profits will be gift-aided to Stockport Pantries to provide additional funds to bulk-buy wholesale non-surplus food supplies to supplement dwindling  surplus food supplies. This will form the ‘community benefit’ element required by the Community Payback and Unpaid Work placements in the social enterprise.

The third social enterprise will operate along the same lines, juicing and bottling the allotment produce to make speciality juices, smoothies, soups, chutneys, preserves and relishes and supplying ‘hyper-local’ markets - local  health food shops, independent grocers, ‘Liquid Lunch’ Delivery Services/Meals on Wheels etc. as well as local branches of national chains at discount prices. In return for this favourable pricing these customers will sign the ‘Local Labour Agreement’ whereby they undertake to recruit new paid staff and apprentices from the pool of people successfully completing their payback with the allotments and social enterprises. All profits will again be gift-aided to Stockport Pantries to provide additional funds to bulk-buy wholesale non-surplus food supplies to supplement dwindling  surplus food supplies.

It is anticipated this third social enterprise  will be facilitated by an application to the Co-operative Group’s ‘Apiary Incubator Programme’ https://www.co-operative.coop/media/news-releases/co-op-launches-new-incubator-programme-the-apiary-creating-a-buzz-amongst and/or other specialist third sector consultants in this sector eg  Small Scale Bottling www.smallscalebottling.com and SP Square CiC  https://www.spsquare.org

It is also anticipated that Model One and the fertilizer plant in Model Two will be established  as the main activity of the Awards for All funding. Further funding applications will be required to develop the Mushroom Farm and Juicing and Bottling Plant elements of Model Two.

Payback Pathways to Post-Covid Food Security – project summary.

 

What would you like to do?

Community Payback (CP) is a court sentence requiring offenders to undertake up to 300 hours unpaid community work. During lockdown CP workers in Stockport worked in surplus food centres (https://fareshare.org.uk) and pantries (https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk) packing and delivering food parcels for families in food poverty. Many in food poverty themselves continue to 'do their hours' at Fareshare and pantries. But increasing demand for surplus food, together with supermarket efficiencies and labour shortages is reducing surplus food available and many pantries are seeking new sources of income to bulk-buy non-surplus food to supplement what surplus food is available, without having to put up pantry membership fees, which would debilitate their mission to help families out of food poverty. Our project will use CP workers to raise funds for pantries while providing a pathway into paid employment for themselves, lifting them and pantry members out of food poverty. They'll start their CP work as pantry volunteers and complete it as work trials with supermarkets who'll guarantee at least an interview for paid employment on successful completion of their CP work at the supermarket. The supermarket will make a charitable donation to the pantry equivalent to the monetary value of the CP worker's unpaid work trial as fulfilment of the CP community benefit requirement and their own Corporate Social Responsibility commitments. This will enable the pantry to bulk-buy food to supplement dwindling surplus food supplies without increasing membership fees. Piloting over 12 months in Stockport, people will learn about the project through pantry members. It'll provide a sustainable way out of food poverty for CP workers and pantry members and a new source of pantry income while easing labour shortages at supermarkets. We will base a national roll-out on learning from the project and produce a template for CP with other charities and employers nationwide.

 

 How does your project meet at least one of our funding priorities?

The project changes and adapts the role of CP workers supporting pantries, enabling them to become more resilient and respond to the new and future challenges of post covid dwindling surplus food supplies. It builds strong relationships within and across communities by strengthening pantry membership and the pantries' offer to their local communities. It rebuilds a pro-social relationship between offenders and the communities against whom they have offended and strengthens the relationship between supermarkets and the communities they serve. It helps more people to reach their potential through pantry membership by supporting them at the earliest stage to get out of food poverty. It helps offenders to reach their full potential of crime-free lives by providing an opportunity for them to pay back to the communities against whom they have offended and provides a pathway to paid employment to lift them out of food poverty and sustain a crime-free lifestyle.

 

How does your project involve your community?

The idea for the project came from a group of 5 CP workers at the Greater Manchester Fareshare surplus food distribution depot. The idea was subsequently tested with other stakeholders - Brinnington pantry members in Stockport while they were doing their weekly shop; Greater Manchester CP Manager; Co-operative Group Head of Community Affairs; south Manchester Cooperative Group Member Pioneer Co-ordinator; the board of Foundations Stockport (https://www.foundations-stockport.org) who are the franchisors of 'Your Local Pantry' social franchise (https://www.yourlocalpantry.co.uk); Fareshare Greater Manchester (https://faresharegm.org.uk) and The Bread and Butter Thing (https://www.breadandbutterthing.org) CP workers will be involved in the delivery of the project through initial CP placements at Fareshare, Bread and Butter Thing and Stockport pantries, followed by completion of their CP unpaid work requirements at local Co-operative Stores and supermarkets, all of whom will be involved as CP placement hosts. Placements will be brokered and supervised by the Greater Manchester CP Manager and his team in partnership with pantry volunteers, Fareshare, Bread and Butter Thing staff and Co-op store management. Charitable donations by the Co-op to the pantries will be managed by Co-op Head of Community Affairs. A project steering group will be established with all the above stakeholders and chaired by Nornir.

Nornir have recently developed software that is being used in the compliance industry. The to be compliance in the private sector is an essential fact of life and in fact the requirements to be compliant evidence your compliance is set to increase rather than decrease.

Unfortunately, the Third Sector does not have the resources of the time to set up and evidence their compliance and therefore it’s often ignored. To help to overcome this problem we have adapted one of the commercial projects to allow the risk and compliance requirements to be set up by the user (organisation) without the need for expensive consultants and experts.

 We are currently looking for funds to help us develop the schemas that are required and have produced a promotional video to help promote the  work.

We have recently developed a simple and cheap e-commerce web site. The main aim is to allow individuals and small organisations to advertise and sell their goods and services without the need to buy into the existing expensive e-commerce web site developers.

Based in Gravesend, Kent, Chalk Garden Rail are a family run business selling G Scale model railway and table top wargaming items. They are also the only LGB Service Provider in the United Kingdom.

Our system provides a cheap (£10 per month) system that’s easy for the user to update and maintain.  It allows people to update their own information as and when they need to, thereby keeping costs down.

They system links automatically to PayPal but if required it can be set up to take payments via other secure methods.

See Chalk Garden Rail for an example of how the system works.

http://www.chalkgardenrail.co.uk/