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Copperdale provides a regular and reliable Food Route service for all people suffering hardship and poverty in the Manchester area. We make no charge for this service. We have two vehicles on the road providing this service 7 days a week. Local people are involved at every stage of the process from pickup to distribution helping to provide local autonomy, greater self worth and just as importantly making sure the food goes exactly to the places it is most needed. We work with 50 plus families and individuals on a weekly basis which amounts to about 300 people a week. We own a 10 bedroom hostel and a community activity centre based at the heart of Wythenshawe. Our premises are EHO Registered and have a 5 Food Standard Rating. Copperdale was responsible for introducing the very first Fare Share Scheme into Manchester in 1996 which we ran independently for 10 years before passing the project over to Emerge in 2006. We have received many community awards including the overall Pride of Britain Award, the Pride of Manchester Award and more recently the Life Time Achievement Award.

Community in Action supports our neighbourhood by reducing food waste, sharing surplus, and promoting wellbeing. We aim to build connection, care for each other, and make our community stronger through practical help and learning. About Us Who we are Community in Action is a grassroots, volunteer-led initiative based in Brooklands. We work together to rescue good surplus food from supermarkets and share it with local people and community centres. Our vision is simple: a neighbourhood where food is not wasted, and everyone feels supported and connected, not just with food, but with emotional and practical care. We’re not a charity or a business, just neighbours taking action for each other, with love and purpose. What We Do Supermarket Surplus Collections We collect surplus food from local supermarkets, fresh fruit and veg, bakery goods, tins, dairy and more, that would otherwise go to waste. Redistribution We share this food directly with local community centres, families, and individuals. We also host local food sharing tables where anyone is welcome. Free Well-Being Training and Support In addition to food, we offer free well-being support to anyone in our network. This includes: • Drop-in listening spaces • Group support sessions • Training in emotional resilience, self-care, and compassionate communication We believe food feeds the body, and connection feeds the heart. Community Support Whether it’s helping a youth group, supporting a women’s circle, or offering care during difficult times, we show up with warmth and respect. No forms, no judgment , just neighbour-to-neighbour kindness. What People Say “We’re really grateful for what you do to support the centre in providing much needed food for the community, and it all goes really quickly.” — Community Centre Manager “The well-being session really helped me feel less alone. It gave me something to hold onto.” — Workshop participant

Our aims and values in this project are; Reducing the amount of food that goes to waste Around 15 million tonnes of food is wasted every year in the UK alone, and the vast majority of that food is perfectly edible. The lowest carbon, most sustainable thing we can do with food that is going to go to waste is put it in a belly, any belly, rather than a bin, any bin (landfill, anaerobic digestion, animal feed, or compost). For every tonne of food that we save from going to waste, we save around 4.2 tonnes of CO2e from being emitted, and around 10% of the UK’s carbon footprint comes from food that is produced but never eaten. Providing access to enough food and great food for all Open Kitchen MCR is, among many other things, a live experiment in alternative economic models. The project operated for 3 years on a pay-as-you-feel basis, inviting members of the public to decide how much they would pay for their meal in a huge range of settings. While this model had huge social and environmental positives, it proved financially unsustainable. Open Kitchen MCR’s catering social enterprise operates on a pay-it-forward basis. The project offers catering at set prices, with one rate for private and corporate customers, a lower rate for established not-for-profit groups, and free or heavily subsidised catering for grassroots groups who are supporting vulnerable adults. Dignity, choice and social inclusion - a positive community future Our pay-as-you-feel model (employed at our city centre restaurant, open from Sep 2017 - Aug 2018) offered an innovative, inclusive model that deliberately bucked the trend towards dedicated “food poverty project” models. There are a number of projects that target people in food poverty, and in our current economic climate they are essential. However, the fact remains that by targeting people in food poverty, we also further separate and isolate them. Open Kitchen MCR aims to develop an alternative model that can evolve along side these projects, and offer a more inclusive option to bring a wider range of people together. Unfortunately, we found it wasn’t possible to support pay-as-you-feel financially, for a range of reasons. Our current outside catering venture operates on a pay-it-forward model, and supports grassroots groups that offer dignity, choice and support to vulnerable adults. We hope to continue our experiment into alternative economic models, and trial a new socially inclusive cafe / restaurant space in 2020.