The Great Grub Share (360G-SCVO-a0g3z00000HpOCWAA3)

We will deliver two Monthly food sharing cafes. One in the community centre in Dumbiedykes and one in the newly opened resident led community hub in the Canongate. The food sharing café will be managed by a sessional worker along with volunteer helpers from the communities they are based in. The volunteers will be trained in hygiene training and healthy cooking to create simple but nutritious meals for the café. The twice monthly event will run a pop up café, serving simple but nutritious food such as soups and salads, created by local volunteers and using food where possible from surplus. A communal sharing area will be created in the café area where people can help themselves to what food they need for their families. This will be stocked by donations from local people and from local surplus food sharing organisations. We work closely in partnership with Womanzone who support woman recovering from trauma in the community and who have many contacts with residents in the Dumbiedykes area. Womanzone have worked with women and families from Dumbiedykes for many years and have built trusting relationships, and understand well the acute need in the area for access to food due to poverty and welfare changes in the area. Womanzone will work with us on this project to support women and families from the area to access and help run the pop up cafes. We work with an organisation called SHRUB that provides surplus bread for our drop in sessions and they are happy to expand our partnership working by providing surplus food for more activities. We are also in discussion with Fareshare and the Cyrenians about using surplus food for activities and for supporting them to distribute food to local residents. Fareshare Edinburgh are also able to provide hygiene training for volunteers. At each pop up café Information will be shared about the various food sharing projects in Edinburgh as well as food sharing apps and local community sharing pages on Facebook etc. Residents using the café will be encouraged and supported to use the food sharing avenues available to them and to develop further sharing and swapping activities in the community for example clothes swaps, and toy swaps. Alongside this project EOTDT will also be running a monthly cooking club where people who visit the café will be welcomed to come along and share or learn skills in cooking on a budget and using surplus or food or left overs where possible. At the end of the cooking club people will be welcome to stay and eat together in the community hub. WHY you want to do it and how you came up with this idea/approach. What makes this innovative/creative? We know from the many conversations we have had with local people and with Womanzone, that Dumbiedykes has no local shops that are both accessible and affordable. Dumbiedykes has no bus service that takes residents to larger supermarkets. The only shop within walking distance is a Tesco metro where everyday products are highly priced. This means access to local nutritious food is very difficult for most families, and in particular for the high elderly population in the area or for anyone with mobility issues. A community shop that was in the area for 3 years, and run with the support of many local volunteers, closed down in October 2018 and will not be replaced, as the land is to be sold for housing. Residents have told us how much this is missed, both as a lifeline as a source of affordable food and also as a place where they could meet their neighbours, have a chat and get involved in community life. We plan to pilot this programme to find out what would really help the residents of Dumbiedykes and the Canongate to mitigate the impact of food poverty the most. By trialling the food sharing and café this gives us an opportunity to work alongside local people and find out from residents themselves what their own ideas are, as well as what the local strengths and assets are that could contribute to future resident led food activities that mitigate poverty in the area. WHO will benefit from the activities/services Local residents and families across the Old Town but mostly from Dumbiedykes and The Canongate will benefit from the great grub share. The events will be open to residents of all ages who want to attend and will be advertised as such. Therefore we anticipate attendance from outside of these areas by other users of the community hub and associated contacts through the various other projects which are run by both the Crannie and by Womanzone. All attendees will benefit from a free meal but those who participate in the creation of the food will take home knowledge of how to recreate this for themselves, learning how to prepare tasty and healthy food both cheaply and easily. The Geographical area is; Edinburgh Old Town, South East Locality, Dumbiedykes and Cannongate