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Eight social entrepreneurs ‘Feeding the City’
Now in it’s fourth year, Hannah Crump meets the latest cohort of Impact Hub Kings Cross' programme who are putting food at the heart of our communities to change London one meal at time.
How I eat has changed a lot over the last year or two. With a more local existence, some great things have happened - I've made friends with the team at the coffee shop round the corner and have fresh (real!) bread delivered to my door by bike twice a week. But there's been a lot missing - going out to restaurants, trying new products, visiting new shops, and meeting other people passionate about food - and I've loved reconnecting over the last few months.
That's why it was an absolute treat to be at the Feeding the City event at Impact Hub Kings Cross earlier this month, celebrating the individuals and businesses creating sustainable food solutions that benefit London's communities.
Through the Feeding the City Accelerate programme, they're all scaling up their social enterprises to address London's biggest food challenges, such as better access to nourishing, culturally appropriate and affordable food. Here’s a round up of the latest batch of social enterprise to get an injection of support from the programme:
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Equinox Kombucha, thef first Kombucha B-corp in Europe and now the number one selling Kombucha in the UK! Their time with Impact Hub has helped them to really reflect on crucial questions - what does it mean to have impact? And what is their point of view?
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One Planet Pizza, the UK’s first plant-based frozen pizza company, determined to make a difference one slice at a time – had the opportunity through the programme to under go a major rebrand with a focus on story telling and to bring on two new senior team members to the father and son duo.
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Pep and Lekker, who sell moreish baked snacks bursting with goodness introduced a sales process with has resulted in over 5 x sales increase. Plus they implemented a CRM and benefited from support from the experts.
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Local Greens, an ethical fruit and veg box scheme in South-East London who provide fresh produce grown by local farmers to people’s homes – mapped their strategy, upgraded their website and introduced new products to their range.
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The Wonky Food Company – who believe in equal rights for all fruit and veg! Make great-tasting relishes from imperfect and surplus fruit and veg. They benefited from going through the classic challenges of a start up scaling up with a community of likeminded businesses.
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Sustenance, a zero waste grocery store in south east London enabled Katie, the founder, to focus on the business rather than what needed to happen on the shop floor.
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Superfoodio make plant based treats for pleasure, people and planet using only a handful of natural ingredients. With support from Impact Hub, they’ve defined their mission, story and objective and perfected their sales pitch.
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Feast with Us has a charitable mission of preventing malnutrition and minimising food waste, bought to life through training volunteers to cook nutritious meals with vulnerable people in various locations across London.
The people creating these new ventures are putting their energy, creative entreprenurial spirit, as well as their hearts and souls into growing successful social enterprises, with support from Impact Hub Kings Cross to flourish. We need to go one step further and not only celebrate their efforts, but support the wonderful food social enterprises by buying their products, visiting their stores and using their services. We know we’ll be doing good with every bite and hopefully the future can taste great.
Feeding the City is run by Impact Hub and has two strands; start-up to support social entreprenues with new ideas and Accelerate targeting social enterprises looking to scale up. Find out more.
Hear from other ethical food and drink businesses taking London by storm.
Published Monday 18 October 2021
London Food Link: London Food Link brings together community food enterprises and projects that are working to make good food accessible to everyone in London to help create a healthy, sustainable and ethical food system for all.
