We support change for a better and more sustainable world, so we’re proud to have launched our new Feeding the City Accelerate programme to support innovative food enterprises making the food system more equal and sustainable for people and planet.
Our new Accelerate programme follows the success of our Feeding the City: Start Up programme – for entrepreneurs at the start of their journey. The new 6-month Feeding the City: Accelerate programme is designed to support the next stage of growth.
Meet the 8 teams we’ll be working with this year:
Squeezed from fresh fruits without squeezing our growers, Lemonaid are soft drinks how they should be. Made from Organic and Fairtrade certified ingredients. As a Social Enterprise we deliberately pay higher prices for the raw ingredients to promote fair and sustainable trading conditions. By supporting Fairtrade, farmers and workers are empowered to combat poverty and take more control over their lives. For every bottle sold, 5p go to the Lemonaid & ChariTea Foundation which supports people and communities to help themselves, with over £4 million raised to date.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Instagram: Lemonaid UK
Twitter
Facebook
SNACKZILLA is a new kids healthy snack brand aimed at 5-13 year old’s, with a shared purpose of creating products that are not just better for kids but also better for the planet. SNACKZILLA was born out of the founders frustration at not being able to find snack products for her older children that appealed to them both brand and taste wise, but were better nutritionally than the junk food they craved. SNACKZILLA is proud to be a finalist in the Best Children’s Product category at the World Food Innovation Awards 2020.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Instagram: @snackzilla_uk
Facebook
Spare Snacks
Fruit picking in Suffolk in his teens, Ben was shocked to discover just how much fruit and veg goes to waste. After pursuing a career in the media industry, Ben Whitehead decided to do something about it. He visited his local market and started saving unwanted produce. With an old dehydrator, Ben made snacks and sold them through local cafés, Spare was born. Spare has come a long way since then, from crowdfunding to national listings, and now, a highly evolved new look and feel; Ben is proud to now make the most delicious, thoughtfully produced fruit and veg crisps around.
The Well Bean Co crafts indulgent chocolates made from plants and donates profits to support mental health projects. Chocolates designed so you can feel good on the inside, and help Well Bean do good on the outside. Well Bean began in 2016 after its founder Charlie switched to a plant based diet and started to miss milk chocolate. After spending two years trying to perfect a recipe, he finally created a chocolate that he couldn’t resist and couldn’t wait to share with the world. Since then, Charlie has joined forces with his business partner Laura. Charlie is very open about his own journey with mental health and shares what he’s learnt to try and help others. Well Bean runs workshops for mental health service users and inside each bar you can discover some empowering facts and helpful tools to feel happier and healthier.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Sutton Community Farm is a 7 acre farm in South London growing vegetables using agro-ecological and organic methods. The team’s focus this year has been on growing their VegBox scheme, to provide a regular and resilient income to the farm to support their sustainable food growing, volunteering and educational opportunities. They have achieved a 20% growth this year through improved customer acquisition and now deliver around 400 VegBox orders each week. They also supply restaurants in central London with salad and other veg. Sutton Community Farm is owned by its 400 members and all profits must be reinvested into their local community.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Fruits of the Forage produce sustainable preserves & spirits made with fruit that would otherwise go to waste from abandoned orchards around England and Wales. Combining heritage fruits & wild plants, the two brothers, preserve a taste of the British landscape. The company saved over 5 tonnes of fruit from going to waste in 2018, earning 10 Great Taste Awards. Since exploring their local area of Cheshire, once famous for Damsons, they’ve expanded their fruit picking range to include the fruit growing heartlands of central England. Discovering that 90% of traditional orchards have disappeared since 1950, the brothers set out on a mission to save Britain’s fruit trees. Traditional plum and damson trees can be easily propagated from “suckers”- young trees sprouting from the roots of old trees – established orchards & hedgerows often contain hundreds of little trees which have no space to grow, we transplant these to plant new orchards and hedgerows where there is space. Also planting sloe and hazel suckers in hedgerows and grafting local varieties of pear and apple for farmyard orchards. The brothers have distributed over 800 fruit trees to schools, charities and farmers; enriching biodiversity, preserving our botanical heritage and providing food for communities.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram @fruitsoftheforage
At Better Nature, we are the world’s first food-tech company focused on tempeh. We have developed nutritious and delicious ready-to-cook tempeh-based meat alternatives such as our Organic Tempeh Rashers and Better™ Bites to be sold in retail, which are organic, high in protein and fibre, low in saturated fats, and free from artificial or ultra-processed ingredients. By using tempeh, we believe we can make great-tasting and healthy meat alternatives that can be consumed as a staple, all to fulfil our simple mission: to create foods that are better for people, the planet, and animals. In addition to our sustainability practices, we partner with the Indonesian Tempe Movement, working with them to improve the perception and accessibility of tempeh in Indonesia, to help overcome protein energy malnutrition.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Twitter
Facebook
NEMI Teas is a London-based tea company that offers a variety of whole leaf tea blends as loose tea and in plastic-free biodegradable tea pyramids. The company is also a strong believer in creating positive change through business and provides employment to refugees to help them better integrate in the UK. It provides work experience to refugees which allows the refugees to boost their English skills, regain confidence and work on skills required to enter the UK job market.
Connect with them on Social Media:
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram: @nemiteas
This new programme is run in partnership with Co-op, Shelf Now, the Sustainable Restaurant Association and Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming and is supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
