Always on
This project successfully funded on 28th May 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Food in Community
Totnes, Devon, United Kingdom
Aim
Rescue organic surplus, support local farms, and fuel our region with nourishing food that no one should ever have to go without.
Invest in a Stable Food Future
Where nature-friendly food is never wasted
The building is ready. The farmers are busy. We're so nearly there...
But we need support to get up and running.
Our next target: £100,000
Funding Milestones at a Glance
Your donation unlocks each stage. £50,000 is the pivotal moment: the Hub moves from a prepared facility to a working one.
Everything before that milestone is preparation.
Everything after is acceleration.
£10,000: The facility is prepped -
The site gets a thorough clean, all equipment is installed and tested, and the team is trained and ready. Everything in place so production can begin safely and smoothly.
£25,000 our next milestone: Scale-up trials and preparation
We run our first production trials, train the team, build initial stock, and send samples to future partners, making sure every process is safe, tested, and ready to scale.
£50,000: We are fully operational
The Hub takes its first delivery of surplus produce, processes and packages it, and gets it out the door. Our food safety accreditation visits are booked and first orders are fulfilled. This is the moment our community purpose comes to life: nutritious, local food starting to reach the food banks, community kitchens, schools, and organisations who need it most.
£75,000: We reach further, faster
With solid foundations and what we have learned during commissioning, we can increase our food processing capacity. As our skills and knowledge grow, we can process more surplus, support more farmers, and increase food security across the region.
£100,000: Full resilience
The Hub is not just open but stable and able to absorb seasonal gluts, maintain throughput through winter, and create the optimal conditions and capacity to take on larger contracts with care homes, schools, and NHS supply chains.
A note on how your donation is used: We use donations to fund each stage of the project, in order of priority. If a stage costs less than expected, any remaining funds will go towards the next most urgent need. Everything you give helps us do the same thing : get good food to the people who need it most. We’ll keep you updated ion progress through out social media channel.
Why we built this
This isn’t just a project. It’s a chance to do something meaningful about a food system that isn’t working properly. Right now, perfectly good organic food goes to waste while families, food banks, schools, hospitals, and community kitchens struggle to get hold of affordable, nutritious ingredients. We knew there had to be a better way, so we built one.
For thirteen years, Food in Community has been doing one thing, increasing access to nutritious, nature-friendly food at an affordable and without waste. We’re a not-for-profit community interest company rooted in South Devon, and this facility is the next step in that journey.
Why now? Because we’re nearly there.
We need your help to get this facility fully up and running.
Thanks to significant early Government backing, our 10,000 square foot community processing facility at the South Devon Food Hub near Totnes is built, kitted out, and ready. It has the capacity to handle 1,000 tonnes of organic produce every year, washing, preparing, freezing, and preserving it so nothing goes to waste.
We just need the final push to full power. Your donation takes us from pilot to fully operational, and every pound moves us closer to a facility that will serve this region for generations.
What this facility will do
Rescue food that would otherwise be lost
Farmers across our region are facing increasingly extreme weather: prolonged drought followed by relentless rain, creating sudden gluts of organic produce and longer fallow periods. For farmers, it is heartbreaking. For the communities who depend on that food, it is a missed opportunity and a symptom of a wider problem across the country.
We already work with a network of local farmers, and we want to grow that number. The more farmers we support, the more food we rescue, and the closer we get to our processing targets. But right now, too much of this hard-won food is still being lost simply because there has not been the capacity to process and preserve it at the right moment.
"A facility like you’re building is absolutely needed. It will stop perfectly good vegetables going to waste." – Local farmer
With commercial-scale freezing and preparation equipment, we can step in when the harvest peaks, capture what would otherwise be lost, and keep the nutrients and flavour locked in for months. Healthy, familiar, local food available all year round, whatever the weather. And every new farmer who joins us increases the impact.
Create nutritious, ready-to-use food for those who need it most
This is where your donation makes a real, tangible difference to real people.
With the right equipment and expertise, we will turn organic surplus into nutritious staples that organisations can use straight away. We’re starting with frozen produce, with plans to expand into longer-life formats, strengthening food security even further.
Who will we serve?
- Food banks and community fridges
- Hospitals and care homes
- Schools and nurseries
- Community kitchens and grassroots groups
- Wholesalers, caterers, and local restaurants
If you serve food or feed people in this region, this facility is for you.
Behind every delivery is a real story. A school cook who can finally offer local vegetables at lunch. A food bank volunteer who no longer has to turn people away empty-handed. A family sitting down to a meal made with ingredients grown just miles from their door. That’s what your donation makes possible.
Strengthen food security for the whole region
Too many communities are entirely dependent on distant supply chains for the food on their tables. When those chains wobble, whether from bad weather, rising costs, or wider disruption, it is always the people with the least who feel it first and hardest.
This facility puts food back in community hands. Stable local supplies mean more stable prices and better access to good food for everyone. By donating now, you help build a regional safety net that can withstand droughts, floods, supply chain shocks, and rising costs, keeping nutritious, organic food accessible and affordable.
We will also share what we learn with other regions and countries. Your donation does not just help South Devon: the model we are building here can be replicated nationally, and we are committed to helping others do exactly that.
Support our farmers
Farming is hard enough without watching good food go to waste because there is nowhere for it to go. This facility gives local farmers a reliable, fair outlet for their surplus, reducing their costs, cutting their waste, and making sure their hard work actually feeds people.
When a sudden glut hits, we are there to take it, process it, and get it to where it is needed. That is good for farmers, good for communities, and good for the land.
Cut waste and emissions
Every piece of wasted food squanders seeds, water, labour, land, and carbon. When food rots in a field or ends up in landfill, all that effort and all those emissions count for nothing.
This facility intercepts surplus food before it spoils. Built to strict environmental standards, it lets us significantly cut local food waste while helping the region meet its environmental goals. It is common sense and climate sense.
Built to last
This facility is designed to keep going long after the fundraising ends. By selling high-quality organic food to wholesalers, caterers, and retailers, as well as supplying community organisations, the Hub pays its own way. That means our farmers always have a fair outlet, and this community resource keeps going long after any campaign is over.
We do not have shareholders. We do not generate private profit. We are and will remain a not-for-profit organisation, with every spare penny going straight back into our social and environmental mission. Selling good food is how we keep the doors open. And keeping the doors open is how we keep the community served.
When you donate, you are not funding a business. You are funding a food system that can look after itself and look after people for generations.
This is where you come in
When you donate to this campaign, you’re helping to build:
- A resilient local food system that keeps good food flowing year-round
- A fair deal for our farmers: a reliable outlet for surplus that reduces their costs and cuts their waste
- Nutritious, nature-friendly food reaching the people who need it most, from hospital kitchens to community groups
- A real reduction in food waste and emissions
- A stronger, fairer region with stable food prices and better opportunities
- The long-term future of Food in Community so this work continues for generations, not just until the next funding round
Every pound you give brings us closer to a future where good food is never wasted and everyone can afford the nourishment they deserve.
Please donate today and help us power a food facility that will serve our region for generations to come.
Food in Community CIC
South Devon Food Hub, near Totnes, TQ9 6PP, Devon
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made