Veg for Solidarity: "Food for All" fundraiser

As we grow the farm with investments already raised, we now turn our attention back to our solidarity scheme. 

In 2022-2024 we donated an estimated £12,750 in vegetables to Truro Foodbank, Penryn Foodbank, Falmouth Food Coop Kitchen and the Fish Factory. We also currently partially subsidise low income veg boxes through our sliding scale.

In 2020-2021 we ran a solidarity scheme which fully subsidised veg boxes for 20 households, encouraged to self-refer to us by Penryn Foodbank and Falmouth Welcomes Refugees. 

We also had our membership handbook translated into Arabic to make it more accessible to many of our solidarity members.

This is what Soul Farm is all about. Supporting community wellbeing by getting tasty, healthy food to the people who need it, regardless of their income and background. Our Solidarity enterprise is the farm's primary objective. 

What is Solidarity?

As a co-operative social enterprise, one of Soul Farm’s core values is to make good food accessible to as many local people as possible. 

Fresh food, grown without sprays, is for everyone - not just those who can typically afford it. This is why we offer our food boxes on a tiered sliding scale.

Our sliding scale seems to have reached the maximum it’s able to achieve and we want to do more. We want to help people take control of their wellbeing and offer support with their cost of living while also giving them the tastiest organic food.

In the 2023/24 period we have fulfilled 472 low income boxes. 11% of our food box members have subsidised other households through our sliding scale system. 

We would like to shift the needle and subsidise more households that can't afford the full price of our veg or food boxes. 

Can we shift the green part of the pie-chart to be a much bigger percentage of our total food box membership? Currently the sliding scale is closed as we are at capacity for low income boxes. 

Graph: Percentage of veg boxes in 2023/24 which fall into the four income brackets of Soul Farm's sliding scale scheme

What is a low income box?

A low income household  may struggle to meet everyday costs and probably earn less than £20k per year household income. They may have one minimum wage in the household. 

This box is subsidised 45% by other members of the veg box scheme and through fundraisers. The money low income members pay contributes to the growing and picking of the food, but it doesn’t cover other aspects of running the Co-Op, packing and delivering the box.

What is in a fully subsidised food box? 

These are boxes for refugees, for people experiencing food insecurity or for people who have lost their jobs. We work in partnership with Falmouth Welcomes Refugees and foodbanks to find people who could benefit from our boxes. 

We have learned a lot over the years from trying different things. Through an ongoing project partnering with the Real Farming Trust and Truro Foodbank, we have learnt what vegetables are most appropriate for different circumstances. 

We have learned, for instance, that fruit is really effective. What we know is that donating our standard weekly veg boxes is too challenging and not always appropriate for many people. 

However, we want to learn more. So part of this project will involve undertaking that investigation. 

Soul Farm has access to a lot of organic produce, from eggs, bread, tins and more. So this will be more than just a veg box. Each box will have some guidance in it, a note with some tips on looking after the produce, cooking with individual vegetables or making a meal from the box.

Solidarity goals for the next quarter and 2025

We want to maintain our current level of donations directly to local foodbank for them to put in their parcels. 

Soul Farm would also like to expand the following:

• Grow low incomes boxes by 30 - low income households may struggle to meet everyday costs (current guidance is less than £20k per year household income).
   
• Gift 30 food boxes a week - We are designing a programme that will run for a fixed number of weeks.
  
  We need time for consultation and design though we will likely also make some of our previous experience working with refugee families and with foodbanks.
  
  We will create a program that aims to be culturally appropriate, taking into account household size, individual access to cooking facilities and other needs around cooking.
  
  We will also be providing a range of things including tins, fruit, bread. Each box will have guidance about how to use the items.

What is the cost of this program? 

Including a staff member to manage this program, the cost of the food, whether from the farm or sourced through partners, plus delivery, the total cost is £42,400 per year. This campaign aims to raise this figure and, ideally, stretch to funding two years.

Training and developing this new enterprise

A staff member working on this part time will be paid £8000 per year. We are also budgeting for someone to visit other enterprises working with similar projects. 

Our project with the Real Farming Trust already offers us a network. We will also be attending various workshops and courses to further enhance our skills. 

This will allow us to develop this new enterprise initiative and ensure we're running it at a state of the art level. We estimate that the cost of this intensive knowledge gathering will be in the region of £1700 - £2000. 

Infrastructure

We have identified the need to be more organised with our produce in our packshed. Especially the produce that is not veg. We need a rat free environment and racking. We want to invest in a 20ft container and shelving for that container. The cost of this would be £6000. 

The food box program

Although we have to suggest a 10-week program in order to make budgets for funding, we are open to exploring the length of the program. It won't be forever , though, as this is about helping people take control of their own wellbeing. 

These are the steps as we currently see it but we intend to take an agile approach: 

1. Week 1: Introductions and welcome to Soul Farm box - identification of cultural preferences

2. Weeks 2 - 10: Receive food boxes. Each week has an introduction to a core accessible vegetable. The food box will have other grocery items and fruit depending on preference. Each box will have some guidance within. 

3. Households are invited to join our website and able to add more items to their box at a subsidised rate.

5. Week 11 - meet with the household and discuss possibilities for next steps. 

Delivery and community

We believe in delivering this food to the door. Many people such as refugees or people experiencing hardship might not have the means to come to the farm or our pickup points. 

However, we want people to be part of the community and will find ways to invite them to the farm. We want make sure at the beginning and the end of the initial program that we have met with each household face-to-face, if possible, to better understand their needs.

Be in solidarity

Solidarity is where Soul Farm began, early in its journey, and it's time for us to return to our roots. But the work of community can only be done by community. Join us in making this natural next step a reality.

Rewards

• We have a range of t-shirts that you can buy - see the full range here
• Buy a ticket for our September feast
• Start your veg box subscription
• Top up your market card
• Buy your veg for the season upfront and get a discount
• Support people direct