Simply Business

Grow Wild Outreach is a community-based organisation providing inclusive outdoor education, nature-based activities and wellbeing programmes for children, young people and families across Northamptonshire. We are passionate about creating opportunities for everyone to access the benefits of nature, regardless of their background, additional needs or financial circumstances. We work with children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), those with social, emotional and mental health needs, children who are home educated, and families experiencing financial hardship or social isolation. We also deliver Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programmes, family sessions, school partnerships, alternative provision and community projects that promote confidence, resilience, life skills and positive mental wellbeing. As a not-for-profit organisation, we rely on grants, fundraising and community partnerships to keep our programmes accessible and affordable. Support through Neighbourly would enable us to provide nutritious food for children and families attending our sessions, reducing food waste while helping to ensure everyone has access to healthy meals and snacks. We also welcome corporate volunteers who can support practical conservation work, site improvements, maintenance projects and community events, helping us create safe, engaging outdoor spaces for the people we support. Our aim is to build stronger, healthier communities by connecting people with nature, supporting wellbeing, developing skills and ensuring that no child or family misses out because of financial barriers.

“We are fighting food waste and preventing residual food from going to landfill. The residual food is repurposed to ensure no one goes hungry”. We have a retail shop in the centre of High Wycombe. The shop is open 6 days a week. We have a warehouse on the first floor where we can sort and distribute food. This allows us to both run a shop feeding those in need and supply our partner organisations. We are collecting from leading major supermarkets within a 15-mile radius of High Wycombe. We also receive direct deliveries from manufacturers and warehouses. We are also a member of the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) which represents independent food banks and distributors across the UK. Our Food Hub model allows us to manage not only residual food but also ambient, chilled, and frozen food. The fact we have both a retail and wholesale distribution ability has been identified by Fare share as one of a few operations in SE England with this capability. Who do we supply? WFH supply products to people unable to access or buy food, those that cannot get Government aid or are unable to survive on the Government’s benefit payments, those who are now suffering from loss of jobs and the self-employed who cannot get benefits, those who cannot access the traditional referral foodbanks. The range of people coming to us for help is growing weekly. Considering what is happening nationally the need for our food and services will continue to grow. We have partnered with other charities and groups and we are supplying residual product to food distribution organisations across Bucks. We are also piloting supplying food to partner organisations who are using the ingredients in hot meals and school food packs. Current scale of operation We have volunteers out each day and evenings collecting residual food. We currently collect more than 250 crates a week from leading supermarkets, warehouses, and retail shops. Food that would otherwise go to landfill. We have a retail food hub open 6 days a week for 3 hours each day We are directly feeding Circa 500 people each week through our retail food hub and partners. In addition, we offer free food outside of the hub . Our wholesale operation is supplying both food parcels and crates of food to our partners. We are also now being asked to supply food to be used in the preparation of cooked meals. Our wholesale operation is growing each week as more organisations draw on our services Funding streams We receive no statutory finding from govt of Council. We rely on donations from public and by asking for a donation from users of our retail hub. We also supply food free to the charities and organisations who are taking food from us each week.

Beyond (formerly Make Lunch) provides weekly 'hot and healthy' meals and fun activities in school holidays for families receiving benefits-related free school meals, and others just above the threshold. In summer 2026 we completed our eleventh summer of activities. There is a growing sense of community and belonging in our group. Additionally, we continue to provide vulnerable families with surplus food to make at least one hot meal a week, and encourage them to collect from us at Chase Meadow Community Centre for Beyond Basics. Thanks to generous grants from Lidl, we have been able to provide periodic supemarket vouchers to a growing number of families. Lidl customers' toy donations were also given to families, much to their delight. Our accredited volunteer team from Warwick Network Church, St Michael's strives to support currently over twenty vulnerable families in our area. With the return of Universal Credit to pre-pandemic level, some of our parents have been able to find low-paid jobs, so still need support in a variety of ways beyond just food. We have helped them to source beds, mattresses, white goods and school uniform, and have been able to signpost some to other agencies for funding for school trips etc.