Aim

Support our Community Cookery School teams as they prep, cook and distribute meals to vulnerable people this winter.

Nobody Should Go Hungry in the UK

People living in food poverty were hardest hit by the pandemic and they’re now being disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis. This winter, our Community Cookery School teams in Manchester, London, Newcastle, Bradford & Birmingham will be batch cooking and distributing meals to those most in need of support. Choose from our range of crowdfunding rewards that enable you to pledge directly to our Community Meal Drive campaign or support the wider work of our non-profit organisation by selecting one of our fundraising gifts that give twice!

Fighting Food Poverty since 2014

Bounceback Food CIC is a social enterprise fighting food poverty on multiple fronts. Our Community Cookery School teams teach people how to cook, run food bank drives at market events, help people get jobs in the food sector and coordinate community meal drives that provide emergency meals for our beneficiaries.

Our mission to fight food poverty has become even more urgent in light of the Cost of Living crisis, with food insecurity levels and food bank usage soaring. Here are just a few of the reasons why food poverty continues to matter in the UK:

• Since 2018, there has been a 49% increase in the number of children who are dependent on food banks in the UK. (Source: Environmental Audit Committee’s Hunger, Food Insecurity and Malnutrition in the UK Report)
• The demographic groups most likely to live in food insecurity and/or be referred to a food bank include single parents, younger people, social renters, ethnic minorities and people in poor health. (Sources: The Food Standards Agency’s The lived experience of food insecurity under Covid-19 report; The Trussell Trust’s State of Hunger 2021 Report)
• The number of distributed Emergency Food Parcels by the Trussell Trust has risen by 128% since 2015, from 1,110,000 parcels in 2014-5 to 2,540,000 in 2020-21. (Source: The Trussell Trust’s State of Hunger 2021 Report)

Our Social Impact

Since 2014 we have taught 5,000+ people how to cook, including stroke survivors, young carers, food bank beneficiaries and elderly people living in sheltered accommodation. We have also secured 15,000+ donations to food banks and generated over 100,000 meals for people in need via our catering, community meal drives and cookery workshops.

Prior to the pandemic our outreach work was mainly delivered in the North West, Wales and Cheshire but given the increasing scale of food poverty and the Cost of Living crisis, we're now focused on building an organisation capable of helping people across the country.

Expanding Nationwide

By November 2024 Bounceback Food CIC will have 20 teams operating in the UK’s largest towns and cities in the UK and be supporting people living in food poverty by:

• Ensuring their nearest foodbank is stocked with good quality items of food & hygiene products.
• Providing them with the opportunity to learn how to cook for free and supporting them with career progression in the food industry.
• Providing free hot nutritious meals from/via permanent Community Meal Drive stalls.
• Enabling them to learn about cooking, budgeting, nutrition, meal planning, reducing food waste, gain accredited skills and book on to cooking classes with the provision of free access to our Cooking & Nutrition Portal.

Our central team, freelancers and volunteers are all now focussed on achieving these goals. The formation of teams in Manchester, London, Newcastle, Bradford & Birmingham has started this regional to national transition.

Our teams in Sunderland, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Leicester should be operational in 2023. We are always looking for volunteers to support the development of our organisation too and so if you'd like to support us in that way keep an eye on our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & LinkedIn) or sign up to our mailing list to stay updated.

What Will the Money be Used For?

Target 1: Community Meal Drives

Our first all or nothing target of £5,000 will raise the funds required to prep, cook and distribute 2,000 hot nutritious meals to vulnerable people during the winter period. These will be prepared by our Community Cookery School teams in Manchester, London, Newcastle, Bradford & Birmingham.

Target 2: Community Cookery Workshops

Additional funding (having reached our initial stretch target of £50,000 on December 19th, we're now aiming to raise £100,000) will enable Bounceback Teams across the UK to deliver cookery workshops in community centres & faith spaces during the winter period and into 2023 - providing further meals and essential skills to those most in need. We will also continue to cook and distribute meals pledged via the crowdfunding campaign.

Make an Impact this Christmas

Choose from our range of crowdfunding rewards that enable you to pledge directly to our Community Meal Drive campaign or support the wider work of our non-profit organisation by selecting one of our fundraising gifts that give twice!

Our exciting range of fundraising gifts, also sold via our online shop and at market events, are helping us to counter the financial challenges created by the pandemic and build a strong nationwide organisation capable of meeting the increased demand for our services.

With your support we will be able to scale up our response to the Cost of Living Crisis and bring people together through food in communities across the UK this winter.

This project successfully funded on 31st March 2023