UK_Food Cycle in Bristol | polstudentexchange

Food Cycle in Bristol: A Social Enterprise in the UK

Background Information

UK is a pioneer in social enterprises, being a home to about 68,000 social enterprises that provide over one million job opportunities and contributed £24 billion to the economy in 2011.

Social enterprise has become a new means to solve social problems without financially burdening the government. It adopts the spirit of entrepreneurship to eliminate the conventional drawbacks, inefficiencies and inflexibilities in the public sector. A sole reliance on the public sector and charities alone is no longer sufficient or sustainable to solve social problems nowadays.

Kathy Fung’s Policy Exploration in the UK_Food Cycle

FUNG Sheung Yin, Kathy (BSSPSA)

Exchange Study at UoB

2013/14 Semester B

Social Enterprise: Three major constituents:

Social Mission
Innovativeness and Entrepreneurship
Financial sustainability.

Food Cycle has mastered these three elements very well.

1. Social Mission

The social mission of Food Cycle is to reduce food poverty, food wastage and social exclusion by building communities at the same time.

According to Food Cycle Impact Report 2014, GBP360,265 -- accounting for 88.8% of Food Cycle’s expenditure -- are reinvested into their social mission. The maximization of profit for shareholders is not the major concern. Since 2009, Food Cycle has successfully served more than 100,000 meals, reclaimed 120,000kg of food waste and established Food Hubs across 18 cities in the UK.

2. Innovation & Entrepreneurship

The innovative “Triple Donation Model” to enable cross-section engagement.

Community centres donate space, volunteers donate time and private sector donates food to reduce poverty and food wastage.

Nearby shops donate their leftovers to Food Cycle

The Easton Community Centre donates space –

kitchen space for the cooking

Space for gathering

Volunteers donate the time to help transport the food from shops to the community centre and do the cooking

3. Financial Sustainability

Entrepreneurship and the establishment of cross-sectoral network help achieve financial sustainability and contribute to the success of Food cycle. The good relationship with the private sector, local community centres, and local people enables Food Cycle to run at a low cost.

Public trust also ensures sustainable operation. With trust, the society is willing to contribute resources and time to Food Cycle, ensuring that it maintains the services and continued to expand to other UK cities.

Customers were satisfied with the service provided by Food Cycle