We need your help. The situation at The MAZI Project has become critical as we strive to meet the growing demand to feed Bristol’s young care leavers, asylum seekers, and those recovering from homelessness and domestic violence.
The Urgency of the Situation:
The number of 16–25-year-olds in need of our support has skyrocketed, creating a waiting list that continues to grow and put enormous pressure on our services.
Why is this happening?
The worsening cost-of-living crisis has hit young people in our city hardest. Food prices have surged by 25%, making it incredibly difficult for those on lower incomes to access healthy, nutritious meals. This decline in dietary quality leads to an increased risk of diet-related diseases, poor mental health, and isolation.
A aMAZIng young person's meals before The MAZI Project.
To make matters worse, these young individuals are often marginalised, forgotten, and unable to access other services designed to alleviate food insecurity in Bristol.
Whilst we work hard – and we mean REALLY hard – to make sure we can feed as many young people as possible; we simply lack the funds to help everyone in need.
We also believe in so much more than meal kits- our long term vision is to change structural inequalities, systems, mindsets, narratives, and processes, so that less young people need services like ours in the future. Securing this funding for the immediate needs of Bristol youth would enable us to prioritise and focus on our longer term strategic objectives and vision: a city where EVERYONE has access to fresh and sustainable food.
That’s why we are launching this emergency appeal and calling upon the generous people of Bristol – we need your support to feed and educate even more vulnerable young people facing food poverty.
Your help can create a sense of belonging, nourishment, and love within our city.
"When you can't afford to buy food, you can't really put much thought into what you want to do in the future and you just live day-to-day. But now with the MAZI Project, I'm able to put more effort and thought into what I want to do.” - an aMAZIng young person
Our Achievements and Goals:
Since 2021, we have:
Delivered 34,429 individual meals via our aMAZIng Meal Kits, each lovingly assembled by volunteers
Aligned with local and national initiatives towards food equity, and contributed towards the solution via carefully curated community events and educational programmes.
Maintained a youth-led, grassroots approach, via the generation of dozens of community partnerships and a focus on lived experience.
Our Funding Goal:
To continue this vital work, we need to raise £30,000. This will enable us to deliver over 2000 aMAZIng meal kits providing a total of 6000 single tasty and nutritious meals to young people facing food poverty.
Why Our aMAZIng Meal Kits Stand Out:
Our meal kits are unique because they provide high-quality, locally sourced ingredients and educational recipes to those most in need, ensuring that each young person has choice and dignity in what they eat.
Each week the young people we support receive a text with a large array of our TASTY, HEALTHY and SEASONAL meals asking each young person to CHOOSE up to 3 recipes (choice is important, it helps empower people).
We buy and work with local suppliers such as Fairy Hill, ensuring the most nutritious dense fresh ingredients for our young people whilst also supporting local farmers - helping build a more resilient food system.
Every Tuesday, our volunteers pre weigh the ingredients, pack up the meal kits and deliver them straight to our young people’s door.
With every new starter we send out their very own aMAZIng Recipe Book, a refillable oil bottle and a selection of spices to get them started.
Young people involved with the MAZI project have access to our community events and educational food programmes, helping to reduce their reliance on the kits in the future.
Our Commitment to Sustainable Solutions:
The MAZI Project is dedicated to sustainability, growth, and long term solutions. We are passionate about tackling the root causes of food injustice and inequity for Bristol youth, and are working in collaboration with dozens of community partners to to shift the infrastructure of food inequity. Our meal kits are supported by a wonderful volunteer programme, a diverse fundraising strategy, and a brand new community kitchen space to increase opportunity, diversify revenue and empower meaningful programmes and partnerships.
How You Can Help:
Your donation can significantly impact the lives of vulnerable young people. By supporting The MAZI Project, you provide essential nourishment and help us focus on long-term solutions.
Join us in nourishing Bristol’s future.
Together, we can make a lasting difference.