Using an approach known as participatory grantmaking, Bristol Local Food Fund has awarded £60,000 to 18 community food projects across the city.
Bristol Local Food Fund first came about during the peak of COVID-19, and was designed to create a new, more accessible source of funding for community food projects that tackle food insecurity in Bristol.
The volunteer team behind the project raised a total of £60,000 through a city-wide crowdfunding campaign which ended in late 2021. This campaign was supported by over 500 donors, with nearly 50 Bristol food businesses – including Wiper and True, Essential Trading, Harts Bakery, Better Food and Bristol Squeezed – offering rewards. Larger donations – including a £10,000 match-fund from Burges Salmon – also boosted the campaign.
Participatory grantmaking (PGM) is at the heart of the fund, giving decision-making power over where and how the grants are distributed to those who have direct lived experience of food insecurity. In order to achieve this, Bristol Local Food Fund recruited a Citizens’ Panel, made up of people with lived food insecurity experience. This panel developed the fund criteria, reviewed applications and made the final funding decisions. In total, there were 41 applications to the fund, totalling £178,000, and the panel selected 18 projects to which to offer support. The PGM process meant that priority was given to projects in communities and wards that experience the highest levels of food insecurity, including Hartcliffe & Withywood (19% of funds awarded), Hengrove & Whitchurch Park (14%), Lawrence Hill (14%), Ashley (10%), Filwood (8%), Southmead (8%) and Lockleaze (5%).
Funded projects include:
- £5,000 awarded to Knowle West Health Association to fund the equipment and ingredients required to run a year’s worth of community cookery classes in their Community Kitchen on Filwood Broadway.
- APE Project CIC, which manages St Pauls Adventure Playground, received £5,000 to support their Food for Thought programme, assisting with the provision of free, freshly cooked hot meals to children that attend the playground, as well as learning to sow, grow and prepare fresh vegetables grown in their community garden.
- Travelling Kitchen CIC received £4,960 to host a series of “community cook-ups” in Southmead to share cooking skills, batch cook takeaway meals and address isolation with a shared lunch.
- Caring in Bristol received £4,100 toward the Bristol Goods project, a pop-up food shop operating in Hartcliffe and Withywood providing affordable healthy food, independent living skills and additional support to people on low incomes or at risk of homelessness. Attendees pay £3.50, or as much as they can afford and receive £20 of groceries. The project also provides additional services such as support with housing issues or mental health difficulties.
- Bristol Somali Youth Voice, working with young people of Somali heritage across Bristol, received £2,000 to deliver educational workshops on food budgeting, reducing food waste, healthy eating and accessing good quality, nutritional food.
Organisers are now exploring opportunities with Bristol’s food and business community to grow the fund and help make a positive long-term impact on food insecurity in Bristol.
Founder of the Bristol Local Food Fund scheme, Michael Lloyd-Jones said: “It’s wonderful to see the first round of funding going out to some fantastic community food projects. The need for this kind of support has only grown over the last 18 months with the cost of living crisis driving food insecurity to unprecedented levels. We hope this is just the beginning.”
Lucy Gilbert, Head of Research & Learning at Quartet Community Foundation said: “It’s been exciting to work with BLFF on a participatory process that works for communities most in need. Our Citizens Panel brought unique knowledge and experience, and we feel it has resulted in a really valuable grant programme, supporting things that lots of funders won’t, like core costs.”