Cooking For Young People Experiencing Homelessness

Aim: Help us provide Cooking on a Budget workshops & meals for young people experiencing homelessness in Manchester, Barnsley and Bradford.

This summer, we are raising money to improve the financial wellbeing of young people experiencing homelessness by providing our Cooking on a Budget programmes in Manchester, Barnsley and Bradford. 

Fighting Food Poverty since 2014

Now in our 10th anniversary year, Bounceback Food CIC is a social enterprise fighting food poverty and food waste across the UK. 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 recent winter fuel payment cuts and ongoing cost of living challenges, with food insecurity levels and food bank usage at record levels. 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)
• 3% of families in the UK - at least 2.1 million people - used a food bank in the year to March 2023. (Source: The Trussell Trust)
• Almost 90% of independent food banks reported increased demand in January 2023 compared with a year earlier. (Source: The Independent Food Aid Network - Ifan)

Our Social Impact

Since 2014 we have taught 10,000+ people how to cook, including stroke survivors, young carers, food bank beneficiaries and elderly people living in sheltered accommodation. We have also secured 25,000+ donations to food banks and generated over 250,000 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 challenges, we've since been focused on building an organisation capable of helping people across the country.

Expanding Nationwide

We are now working towards our 15-year anniversary (2029) development plan that will see Bounceback Food CIC having 20 teams operating in the UK’s largest towns and cities in the UK and be supporting people living in food poverty by:

• Providing free hot nutritious meals from Bounceback Food Community Kitchens.
• Providing people with the opportunity to learn how to cook for free and supporting them with career progression in the food industry.
• 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.

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, Instagram & LinkedIn) or sign up to our mailing list to stay updated.

What Will the Money be Used For?

Target 1: Cooking Workshops for Young People Experiencing Homelessness

Our first target of £15,000 will raise the funds required to deliver 3 of our Cooking on a Budget programmes for young people experiencing homelessness, referred to us by our partner charity Centrepoint, in Manchester, Bradford & Barnsley.

These workshops will support beneficiaries by improving their financial wellbeing, cooking confidence, reducing social isolation and providing on-site meals.

Target 2: Service Expansion & Additional Meals

If we hit our first target, we will then aim to raise an additional £15,000 which will enable us to: 

• Deliver an additional Cooking on a Budget programme at each location on behalf of young people experiencing homelessness.
• Prep, cook and distribute all additional pledged meals on top of our first target.

Make an impact this summer - how you can help

There are three simple ways to get involved and support our project:

1. Make a donation

Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. Early support can help build momentum and inspire others to give too.

2. Claim a reward

Choose from our range of crowdfunding rewards that enable you to pledge meals, fund community cookery classes or support the wider work of our non-profit organisation by purchasing one of our 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 social enterprise organisation that's capable of meeting the increased demand for our services.

3. Spread the word

Share our project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to succeed!

With your support, we will be able to improve the financial wellbeing of our beneficiaries, provide meals and tackle food poverty this summer!