Foodinate launches Business Champions Club in fundraising bid

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Since 2016, Manchester-born social enterprise, Foodinate, has partnered with restaurants and event venues to fight food poverty in the UK and bring hot, nourishing meals to people in need in deprived local communities.

To celebrate reaching the milestone of providing a massive 100,000 meals to those most in need, Foodinate is launching its “Business Champions Club” membership packages in the hopes of fundraising an additional £100,000 to expand resources and supercharge their impact to the next level.

After celebrating reaching the 10,000-meal mark in January 2018, the meal-for-meal initiative has seen exponential growth. Foodinate is now having an impact in 12 deprived communities across the UK. 

Having won 10 awards for its social innovation and female-founded entrepreneurialism, the company is already working with giants in the industry including The Alchemist and GG Hospitality.

Co-owner of GG Hospitality and former Manchester United footballer, Gary Neville,signed up his events and catering venture, GG Events & Catering, to Foodinate in 2018. The partnership ensures every person attending a private event at any of their venues, including Hotel Football and Manchester Cathedral,results in a meal for a person in need in the local community.

Of their decision to sign-up to the programme, Neville said: “When we heard about the Foodinate scheme, we knew it was something we wanted our events and catering company to be involved with. Homelessness is a serious problem, so for our clients booking events through us to know they are making a positive difference in the city at the same time as holding their event, it’s a very special thing.”

Caroline Stevenson founded Foodinate at the age of 23 and was recently named Inspirational Woman of the Year at the 2018 Enterprise Vision Awards for her work with Foodinate. Commenting on the new milestone, she said:“When I first started working on Foodinate, I dreamt about what it would feel like to reach milestones like this.

“Unfortunately, with more than 13 million people in the UK living below the poverty line, our work has only just begun, and we have huge plans to take our impact to new heights.”

One of those plans is to take Foodinate to large-scale venues and events, including stadiums, music festivals and large sporting events. Foodinate recently appointed Dan Schofield, MD of Pioneer Venue Solutions, as a new non-executive director to help make this happen. He commented that he is eager to get Foodinate into large-scale venues and create a larger impact in communities.

 When speaking about the new membership offering, which they have named the “Business Champions” club, Stevenson said: “Businesses in the community have really taken to Foodinate. It’s such a simple idea with such a powerful social impact, they’ve seen what we’ve been able to achieve so far, and they want to be a part of it moving forward. We want them to be part of it, too. I’ve lost count of the number of amazing businesses that have approached us wanting to support our mission but couldn’t adopt our usual ‘eat a meal, give a meal’ model. The Foodinate Business Champions Club is about opening our doors to any business, in any industry, that wants to make a seriously positive difference in their communities and be a part of something amazing.”

Adam Parry
Author: Adam Parry

Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.