Who are the Community Caterers’ Network?
The Community Caterers’ Network (CCN) is an organisation whose purpose is to provide support and the sharing of knowledge amongst its members to achieve best practice and improvements in food access and healthy eating. Members include community food projects that provide free or affordable food to people at risk of food poverty, and also representatives from statutory organisations such as the Primary Care Trust and Local Authorities.


Why is a foodbank needed?
The CCN  have just completed a 6 month long study and have produced a feasibility study to look into the possibility of setting up a foodbank in Oxford City (enclosed). Despite Oxford’s affluent appearance, food poverty is very real and affects hundreds of people living in and around the city. There are many projects in existence that provide nutritious food to those in need, such as the homeless, older people, asylum seekers and so on (of which many of these organisations are members of the Community Caterers’ Network). A food bank is one way in which the issue of food poverty can be redressed. A food bank would provide community food projects and charities with discounted or free food, enabling them to improve and/or extend their service through the money saved.

What is a foodbank?
A foodbank is essentially a logistical service that redistributes surplus or waste foods. The original inception of food banks was to relieve food poverty, though today they also offer a welcome resource for food companies wishing to reduce their landfill costs. The report considers the options available to Oxford, to either set up an independent project or to work with a national foodbank franchise.

Get involved……

We hope you find the report interesting and informative. We are looking for individuals and organisations to get involved with the next stage of this exciting project and would be very grateful if you could take the time to complete the attached questionnaire and return it to OHLP

Foodbank report questionnaire