Initiatives
The Family Foraging Kitchen C.I.CÂ have always worked to a set of social enterprise ethics and good practice
Since the Family Foraging Kitchen began, back in 2013, we have always worked to a set of social enterprise ethics and good practice, putting profits back into the communities in which we work. In March 2017, we officially became incorporated into a Community Interest Company (CIC).
It was a natural step to change our legal status to help us attract funding and investment. This enables us to bring more of what we do to those who may benefit from it the most. As part of our mission, we create and support various initiatives, all of which can be seen below.
Free Food Forever
Wild Food Boxes
(2020 – Present)
With support from the National Lottery Good Causes, we are able to offer twenty Wild Food boxes, full of freshly foraged ingredients and delicious recipes, to low and no income households within our community.
Each box contains a variety of seasonal and local wild foods, as well as recipes and guidance on both how to use them and forage your own.
It is our hope that, with this initiative, a greater awareness of the nutritious and abundant wild foods will be supported, enabling people to feel confident picking and cooking their own foraged meals.
Our Wild Food boxes fall under the umbrella of our Free Food Forever, which is aimed at reducing food poverty across the Rame Peninsula. We will soon be starting a new season of Wild Food boxes, picking fresh wild foods and delivering them for free. If you’d like to receive more information, please enquire below.
Free Food Forever
Revolutionising how people eat & source their own food
In 2015, we won an Appetite for Change Award through Unltd, the leading provider of support to social entrepreneurs in the UK. The award was to enable The Family Foraging Kitchen to begin our social enterprise programme, Free Food Forever.Â
This programme enables us to provide free, funded spaces on each of our wild food and cookery walks for low income families and individuals struggling to afford fresh food. This teaches foraging skills and wild food cookery classes that revolutionise how people eat and source their own food.
Then, in 2017, we were awarded further investment from The Shackleton Foundation, allowing us not only the tools to provide a greater number of free wild food sessions within schools and colleges, but to allow us more investment towards our Free Food Forever programme.
We are forever grateful to both our funders and to our valued ticket paying customers who not only allow us to bring this free education to the community but to help us continue and grow as a business!
Interested people wishing to apply for a funded space on our courses should call or email The Family Foraging Kitchen to receive a registration form. Applicants must be on a low or no income (defined as a household income of £17k or below) to qualify. We feel there should be no stigma or shame in finding yourself in this situation (most of us have been there a fair few times!) but we do appreciate how private these affairs are. This is why no information is shared outside of your application and those attending the course as part of the Free Food Forever program are indiscernible from paying customers.
Projects
Our Grandparents’ Secrets
(2018 – 2020)
In 2018 we won a Transform Ageing Award from Unltd to deliver our new project Our Grandparents’ Secrets.
This was to create an intergenerational programme of courses to establish connections between older and younger members of our communities across SE Cornwall and Plymouth. Re-ignite a passion for traditional skills and values. Meet and learn the traditional skills and heritage crafts of our elders (those age 50+ years) and to create employment opportunities for some of those individuals to teach their skills at our classroom base on the Rame Peninsula.
Awards
Gain Soup Awards
Families in Plymouth will benefit from free foraging courses thanks to investment delivered by Soup, the crowdfunding business event from GAIN at Plymouth University.
Social enterprise The Family Foraging Kitchen won against three other investment-hungry businesses at yesterday’s (May 10) event, which was sponsored by Francis Clark.
The investment secured through Soup will enable The Family Foraging Kitchen to run a series of free events to teach low income families in Plymouth how to collect and cook with free, wild food.
More information can be found here.
Campaigns
The ‘Mobile Kitchen’ Wild Food Campaign
(2013 – present)
Families in Plymouth will benefit from free foraging courses thanks to investment delivered by Soup, the crowdfunding business event from GAIN at Plymouth University.
Social enterprise The Family Foraging Kitchen won against three other investment-hungry businesses at yesterday’s (May 10) event, which was sponsored by Francis Clark.
The investment secured through Soup will enable The Family Foraging Kitchen to run a series of free events to teach low income families in Plymouth how to collect and cook with free, wild food.
More information can be found here.