Sustain • Good Food Enterprise • Growing Community Food Enterprises toolkit • Managing your finances
Sources of income
Many community food projects providing low-cost or subsidised food to community, which in many cases is not financially sustainable if their trading income does not match their operational costs.
Broadly, this toolkit aims to help community food projects to generate more income from trading, helping them to operate more financially sustainably. See the Products, services and operations section for more information on trading models.
Grant funding is a key source of income for many community food projects, however it is often short term, precarious, and can mean a lot of staff and volunteer time is taken up with applying for funding.
Commissioning of services can also provide a reliable income source e.g. many community food projects are commissioned by the local authority to provide Holiday Food and Activities for children during the school holidays.
Donations from corporations and/or individuals can also be a source of income, but again these may be unreliable, insufficient to cover costs, and fundraising can be time consuming.
Loans can be a useful source of income for community food enterprises, particularly when developing and expanding, in particular social investment.
Good Food Enterprise: Working to provide food that is good for people and the planet, and support local production playing a part in community beyond trading.
