One project development in June is that Dave Nicholson has formed a small consortium and is providing evidence to the APPG (All Parliamentary Group) regarding ending the need for  food bank. The roll of Awards For All in supporting the collection of evidence has been made and Dave is hoping that he will be going to Parliament in the Autumn to present the evidence directly to the MP’s on the APPG.

 

An extract of the summary is below. For a full copy of the evidence submitted please e-mail dave.tynan@nornir.co.uk

 

Extract of evidence:

 

EVIDENCE TO THE APPG ON ENDING THE NEED FOR FOOD BANKS INQUIRY

CASH OR FOOD? EXPLORING EFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO DESTITUTION

 

 

PAYBACK PATHWAYS TO COOPERATIVE FOOD PRODUCTION: ENDING THE NEED FOR FOOD BANKS

 

SUMMARY

 

We are giving the following evidence on behalf of a consortium of church-based food banks and alternative food-based providers in Hull*, together with similar consortia supported by Nornir social enterprise in other parts of the country. www.nornir.co.uk. Nornir’s work is part funded by the National Lottery Awards for All programme and both initiatives are supported by the HeartEdge National Development Team’s Commerce lead https://www.heartedge.org Both the Hull and Nornir initiatives are at varying stages of

 

• transitioning food banks and other alternative food-based providers into food buying groups and cooperatives providing non surplus as well as surplus food for their service users and members.
• collectively growing their own fresh seasonal fruit and veg for their service users and members.
• collectively growing additional commercial  cash crops and other commercial value-added food products to generate an income for a cash grant system for participating food banks and other alternative food based providers to bulk buy their own supplies of non-surplus food and supplement the dwindling supplies of surplus food available to them.
• staffing the food-growing initiatives with offenders subject to Community Payback unpaid work requirements and providing them with structured progression routes into paid employment and self employment in the wider food sector on successful completion of their unpaid work requirements.

It is our contention that this evolving model of food-based provision and low cost community food retail, supported by community cash-based grants, generated and distributed by the participating food buying groups and cooperatives, potentially provides a model for ending the need for food banks and emergency food aid for anyone who is a member, either individually or collectively of the food buying clubs and cooperatives concerned.

 

Dave Nicholson of HeartEdge and Nornir david.nicholson@smitf.org and Andy Dorton, Church of England Social Responsibility Officer for Hull andrew@dorton.karoo.co.uk would both be willing to give evidence at the inquiry’s evidence sessions in September and October.

 End:

PAYBACK PATHWAYS TO EMPLOYMENT AND FOOD SECURITY

PROGRESS REPORT 2^nd MAY 2022

Project plans and developments as outlined in 21^st March, 4^th April and 18^th April reports (above) remain in place and progressing  to plan.

Further scoping of similar initiatives and plans for similar complementary projects in Stockport, across Greater Manchester and beyond is continuing and their implications for the initial piloting of Payback Pathways and its future development are outlined below, together with further Action Points  for the Payback Pathways Project over the next reporting period, in addition to those carried over from the reports of 4^th April and 18^th April.

Trussell Trust and Community Payback

Trussell Trust https://www.trusselltrust.org the largest third sector Food Bank provider in the UK, is working with Fareshare and Greater Manchester Community Payback to set up a Food Bank in Oldham staffed 100% by Community Payback Workers under the supervision of a Probation CP Supervisor.

Trussell are also appointing Regional  Pantry Development Workers across the UK to set up Pantries as progression routes from emergency Food Bank provision. These Pantries will also be at least partially staffed by CP workers. All these new Food Banks and Pantries will be 100% reliant on surplus food and therefore likely to increase the pressure on Fareshare to keep up with rapidly increasing demand.

Funding bulk buy food supplies

As one response to this problem Fareshare in Greater Manchester are exploring the feasibility of establishing a fund to  bulk buy wholesale non-surplus food supplies to supplement dwindling supplies of surplus food in the same way as Foundations Stockport plan to do with the Payback Pathways project . It is not known yet how Fareshare plan to finance their new fund, whereas Foundations plan to finance theirs from the profits of the Payback Pathways social enterprises, as outlined in the project plan for the present project.

Church Action on Poverty have also established a ‘Friends of Your Local Pantry’ fund to do the same – bulk buy wholesale supplies for the Your Local Pantry network. This is financed entirely by charitable donations, but is not proving popular with  member Pantries as Church Action on Poverty take 25% of the fund to cover their admin costs.

There is interest in Wythenshawe in establishing Payback Pathways social enterprise(s) to finance school breakfast clubs in the area, starting with liquid fertilizer production to be retailed as part of a range of ‘Grow Your Own Veg’ Starter Kits, with all profits donated to local school breakfast clubs. This initiative would be on exactly the same lines as proposed in the Awards for All project for providing additional  funding for Stockport Pantries, but would be targeted at School Breakfast Club approaches to Food Security rather than Pantries.

This is seen as potentially an ‘Incredible Edible’ initiative https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk and is actively supported by Mike Kane MP, sponsor of the Incredible Edible ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign and Member of Parliament for Wythenshawe and Sale East. Discussions are ongoing as to the feasibility of running  this initiative through Real Food Wythenshawe and the Wythenshawe Park Horticultural Centre https://www.realfoodwythenshawe.com/wythenshawe-park-horticultural-centre  It has also been suggested that this might form the pilot Payback Pathways social enterprise for the Awards for All Project rather than ‘starting from scratch’ with the Stockport Pantries in Stockport. This will be further explored during the next reporting period.

Action Point 1: Explore further with stakeholders whether Payback Pathways social enterprises’ profits should go to finance  Foundations Stockport’s Bulk Buy Fund (as in the original project plan) or go to Greater Manchester Fareshare’s Bulk Buy Fund for Foundations to ‘buy into’?

Discussions are ongoing with stakeholders about the destination of profits made by Payback Pathways social enterprises. It is understood this will be further discussed by the Foundations Stockport Board at their meeting on 10^th May 2022.

The possibilities raised by the Wythenshawe initiative make this question somewhat superfluous if the project decides to ‘run with’ Wythenshawe rather than Stockport as the Payback Pathways social enterprises’ profits would go to local school Breakfast Clubs as the pathway to food security rather than to Pantries and/or their suppliers.

Action Point 1a: Explore feasibility of basing the Payback Pathways Awards for All Project social enterprise development in Wythenshawe rather than Stockport.

Community Payback and ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’

There are increasing numbers of Food Security initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond which are

• Using Community Payback Workers to staff their operations or thinking of doing so.
• Seeking more sustainable ways of accessing surplus and non surplus food supplies for distribution to people in food poverty.

These initiatives can be loosely grouped together as going ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’.

Some examples from Greater Manchester and elsewhere include the following (this is an indicative rather than comprehensive list) All appear to face the same problems of how to access non-surplus food in order to supplement the dwindling supplies of surplus food available without raising prices/membership fees. Some are also at different stages of growing their own food for their own members/service users as well as for distribution through Food Banks and Pantries.

Many are based on more explicitly co-operative lines with greater degree of member/service user control and ownership than that offered by Food Banks and Pantries. All perhaps would further benefit from considering the Payback Pathways model. This could then potentially form the basis of a national roll-out once proof of concept has been achieved by the present project.

Examples include

• Greater Together Manchester’s ‘Social Supermarkets’  https://www.greatertogethermanchester.org being piloted in Ancoats/Miles Platting  in conjunction with Manchester Urban Diggers https://www.wearemud.org
• St Barnabas Food Co-operative Oldham https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/L11_1-CS-Food-co-operative-in-Oldham.pdf
• St Giles Pantry Leeds https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/what-we-do/tackling-poverty/st-giles-pantry
• Co-operation Town https://cooperation.town
• Growing projects on church land through Incredible Edible’s ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk Church projects have been contacted in Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Nottingham, Manchester Cathedral, Salford Cathedral, Exeter and Cornwall.
• Growing projects at Probation Approved Premises through Incredible Edible’s ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign. Approved Premises projects have been contacted in North Wales, (x2) and Manchester (x2)
• Growing projects at prisons through Incredible Edible’s ‘Community Right to Grow’ campaign and University of Central Lancashire’s ‘Greener on the outside  for prisons’ programme (GOOP) https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/activity/greener-on-the-outside-for-prisons Prison projects have been contacted at HMP Styal, HMP Haverigg and HMP Forest Bank.
• Debdale Eco-Park Manchester. https://www.meen.org.uk/Debdale_Eco_Centre

Action Point 2: undertake a more comprehensive scoping exercise of ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Action Point 2b:- undertake a more comprehensive scoping exercise of funding and supply of surplus and non-surplus food to School Breakfast Clubs across Greater Manchester and beyond.

The more comprehensive scoping exercise is ongoing and will be reported on further in the next reporting period ending 16^th  May 2022.

The scoping exercise is beginning to take a somewhat different turn with the advent of the Wythenshawe initiative potentially changing the focus of pathways to food security to funding for and direct supply of locally grown food for School Breakfast Clubs rather than solely on ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond. This will be further reported on in the next reporting period ending 16^th May 2022.

Action Point 3: undertake further feasibility work concerning the applicability and appetite for the Payback Pathways model of funding purchase of non-surplus food supplies for ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Action Point 3a:- undertake further feasibility work concerning the applicability and appetite for the Payback Pathways model of funding purchase of non-surplus food supplies for School Breakfast Club initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

The appetite for the Payback Pathways model investigation is ongoing as an integral part of the scoping exercise and will be reported on further in the next reporting period ending 16th   May 2022.

Social Enterprises in the Payback Pathways Model

Scoping work concerning possible partners in the development of the three social enterprises identified in the last report has begun as the first stage in business planning.

The following have been identified and discussions are ongoing:-

• Liquid Fertilizer:- Incredible Edible CiC  https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk . NW Prisons Greener on the Outside of Prison (GOOP) project https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/activity/greener-on-the-outside-for-prisons Debdale Eco-Park Manchester (Venford Rouse). https://www.meen.org.uk/Debdale_Eco_Centre SP Square CiC (Anne Sikking) https://www.spsquare.org

Urban Mushrooms:- Manchester Mushroom Co-operative https://www.uk.coop/directory/myco-manchester-mushroom  Manchester Urban Diggers https://www.wearemud.org Manchester Cathedral Volition Community https://volitioncommunity.org

Juicing and Bottling:- Rooted in Hull https://www.rootedinhull.org.uk  Small Scale Bottling www.smallscalebottling.com

Action Point 4: continue scoping  and business planning with priority given to Liquid Fertilizer.

Scoping and business planning with Liquid Fertilizer as the priority is ongoing and will be reported on further in the next reporting period ending 16^th  May 2022.

 

PAYBACK PATHWAYS TO EMPLOYMENT AND FOOD SECURITY

PROGRESS REPORT 4^th APRIL 2022

Project plans and developments as outlined in 21^st March report (above) remain in place and progressing to plan.

Further scoping of similar initiatives and plans for similar complementary projects in Stockport, across Greater Manchester and beyond is continuing and their implications for the initial piloting of Payback Pathways and its future development are outlined below, together with Action Points for the Payback Pathways Project over the next reporting period.

Trussell Trust and Community Payback

Trussell Trust https://www.trusselltrust.org the largest third sector Food Bank provider in the UK, is working with Fareshare and Greater Manchester Community Payback to set up a Food Bank in Oldham staffed 100% by Community Payback Workers under the supervision of a Probation CP Supervisor.

Trussell are also appointing Regional  Pantry Development Workers across the UK to set up Pantries as progression routes from emergency Food Bank provision. These Pantries will also be at least partially staffed by CP workers. All these new Food Banks and Pantries will be 100% reliant on surplus food and therefore likely to increase the pressure on Fareshare to keep up with rapidly increasing demand.

Funding bulk buy food supplies

As one response to this problem Fareshare in Greater Manchester are exploring the feasibility of establishing a fund to  bulk buy wholesale non-surplus food supplies to supplement dwindling supplies of surplus food in the same way as Foundations Stockport plan to do with the Payback Pathways project . It is not known yet how Fareshare plan to finance their new fund, whereas Foundations plan to finance theirs from the profits of the Payback Pathways social enterprises, as outlined in the project plan for the present project.

Church Action on Poverty have also established a ‘Friends of Your Local Pantry’ fund to do the same – bulk buy wholesale supplies for the Your Local Pantry network. This is financed entirely by charitable donations, but is not proving popular with  member Pantries as Church Action on Poverty take 25% of the fund to cover their admin costs.

Action Point 1: Explore further with stakeholders whether Payback Pathways social enterprises’ profits should go to finance  Foundations Stockport’s Bulk Buy Fund (as in the original project plan) or go to Greater Manchester Fareshare’s Bulk Buy Fund for Foundations to ‘buy into’?

Community Payback and ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’

There are increasing numbers of Food Security initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond which are

• Using Community Payback Workers to staff their operations or thinking of doing so.
• Seeking more sustainable ways of accessing surplus and non surplus food supplies for distribution to people in food poverty.

These initiatives can be loosely grouped together as going ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’.

Some examples from Greater Manchester and elsewhere include the following (this is an indicative rather than comprehensive list) All appear to face the same problems of how to access non-surplus food in order to supplement the dwindling supplies of surplus food available without raising prices/membership fees.

Many are based on more explicitly co-operative lines with greater degree of member/service user control and ownership than that offered by Food Banks and Pantries. All perhaps would further benefit from considering the Payback Pathways model. This could then potentially form the basis of a national roll-out once proof of concept has been achieved by the present project.

Examples include

• Greater Together Manchester’s ‘Social Supermarkets’  https://www.greatertogethermanchester.org being piloted in Ancoats/Miles Platting  in conjunction with Manchester Urban Diggers https://www.wearemud.org
• St Barnabas Food Co-operative Oldham https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/L11_1-CS-Food-co-operative-in-Oldham.pdf
• St Giles Pantry Leeds https://www.stgilestrust.org.uk/what-we-do/tackling-poverty/st-giles-pantry
• Co-operation Town https://cooperation.town

Action Point 2: undertake a more comprehensive scoping exercise of ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

Action Point 3: undertake further feasibility work concerning the applicability and appetite for the Payback Pathways model of funding purchase of non-surplus food supplies for ‘Beyond the Food Bank and Building on the Pantry’ initiatives across Greater Manchester and beyond.

 

Social Enterprises in the Payback Pathways Model

Scoping work concerning possible partners in the development of the three social enterprises identified in the last report has begun as the first stage in business planning.

The following have been identified and discussions are ongoing:-

Liquid Fertilizer:- Incredible Edible CiC  https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk . NW Prisons Greener on the Outside of Prison (GOOP) project https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/activity/greener-on-the-outside-for-prisons

Urban Mushrooms:- Manchester Mushroom Co-operative https://www.uk.coop/directory/myco-manchester-mushroom  Manchester Urban Diggers https://www.wearemud.org

Juicing and Bottling:- Rooted in Hull https://www.rootedinhull.org.uk  Small Scale Bottling www.smallscalebottling.com

Action Point 4: continue scoping  and business planning with priority given to Liquid Fertilizer.

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.