Food Justice Community Grants Fund
The Food Justice Community Grants Fund is aimed at voluntary, community and faith organisations based in Lewisham that are delivering projects that tackle food insecurity and are experiencing increased demand and/or reduced capacity due to the cost-of-living crisis.
There is a total of £113,000 available.
21 grants of up to £3,000 are available to support existing community food giving projects already in operation (including foodbanks, social supermarkets, community pantries and delivery services) to provide additional resources to address the multiple challenges facing food giving projects in Lewisham at this time e.g. increasing demand from residents experiencing food insecurity, decreasing donations and increasing food prices, to continue to meet demand over the coming months. The grants need to be spent by September 2023.
A further five grants of up to £10,000 are available to enable food giving organisations to develop additional capacity to take action to support the vision and priorities of the forthcoming Lewisham’s Food Justice Action Plan, whilst also continuing to meet the needs of their clients during this period of increased demand.
Lewisham’s Food Justice Action Plan has been developed over the last 9 months with input from food giving groups. It is due to be published and launched very soon. Here is a summary document of the vision and priority areas.
You can apply either for the £3000 grant or the £10000 grant, but not both.
Why are we delivering this fund?
The Food Justice Community Grants Fund has been launched to support community food giving groups in Lewisham thanks to funding from Lewisham Council’s Public Health Team and funds raised through Lewisham Local’s Lewisham’s Cost of Living Crisis Appeal.
This funding is intended to provide resources to address the multiple challenges facing food giving projects in Lewisham such as increasing demand from residents experiencing food insecurity, decreasing donations, and increasing food prices.
The cost-of-living crisis continues to negatively impact residents’ ability to afford food. In Lewisham in 2020, 35% of people were living in poverty, including 37% of children with 20.7% of Lewisham residents’ jobs paying below the London Living wage. The cost-of-living crisis is expected to have pushed increasing numbers into poverty and food insecurity meaning there is rising strain on local emergency food provision services as the demand has been rising rapidly over the past year.
This fund has been launched to help groups meet the unprecedented and sustained demands for emergency food aid in Lewisham due to the cost-of-living crisis.
We recognise that local community groups with long standing connections to their local communities are best placed to reach and support people who may be most impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Local community groups are also negatively impacted by increased costs.
Eligibility
All Organisations applying for grants of up to £3,000 or £10,000 grants will need to demonstrate how their project contributes to the achievement of the vision for food justice in Lewisham, set out in the soon to be launched Lewisham’s Food Justice Action Plan:
- ALL Lewisham residents can enjoy reliable and fair access to food that is sufficiently nutritious, sustainable, culturally appropriate and affordable.
- ALL Lewisham residents have the knowledge, skills, resources and opportunity to grow, prepare, cook, eat and share food with their families and communities.
- ALL Lewisham stakeholders support collective action to end chronic hunger, promote food resilience and reduce the need for emergency food aid.
- ALL Members of the Lewisham Food Justice Alliance and other key stakeholders have access to data to monitor the scale of the issue of food injustice and to determine whether the actions taken are having a positive impact on lived experience, health and wellbeing.
£10,000 grants
A further five grants of up to £10,000 are available to enable food giving organisations to develop the capacity to take action to support the vision and priorities of Lewisham’s Food Justice Action Plan whilst also continuing to meet the needs of their clients during this period of increased demand.
Organisations applying for the £10,000 grants will additionally need to demonstrate how their project will include action within one or more of the priority areas identified within Lewisham’s Food Justice Action Plan:
a. Take preventative action to reduce the risk of Lewisham residents experiencing food injustice
b. Ensure babies, children and young people have access to nutritious, sustainable and culturally appropriate sources of food throughout the year
c. Co-ordinate resources, capacity and expertise to maximise the support available to those in crisis
d. Promote and develop “Money First” approaches to crisis prevention and support
Application Timeline
- Applications Live – Monday 13th February 2023
- Applications Close – 13th of March 12pm 2023
- Applicants Informed by 27th of March 2023
Things the grant could be spent on:
- Purchasing fresh or ambient food supplies, including cultural foods reflecting the diverse ethnic make-up of the borough to support community food banks, social pantries or other projects providing food or meals
- Provision of supermarket vouchers for families in crisis
- Purchasing fridges & freezers increasing storage capacity or other equipment required to increase the volume and type of food that can be provided
- Transportation costs to collect and transport food
- Administrative costs e.g. publicity
- Training and capacity building directly related to delivering the grant
- Venue hire/premises costs
- Volunteer expenses
- Projects and activities that build resilience, improve access to support, or address the root causes of food insecurity for the end user
- Organisational staff costs
Things the grant can’t be spent on:
- Activities that have already happened
- Projects that are not already in operation
- General overheads not related to the delivery of your project
- Activities that don’t serve Lewisham residents
- Profit-making activities or projects
- Fundraising activities or challenges (like costs for a skydive, an expedition etc.)
- Activities that promote religious or political views and beliefs
- Statutory activities
- One-off events or activities
Who can apply?
Local organisations within the voluntary, community and faith sector that currently deliver projects to tackle food insecurity in Lewisham:
- A constituted group (e.g. community or faith group) with a volunteer management committee with a minimum of three unrelated members that meets on a regular basis (at least three times per year)
- Registered charity, with a board of trustees
- Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO)
- Not-for-profit company such as a Company Limited by Guarantee (see bullet point 3 of process for evidence you will be requested to provide)
- Community interest company (CIC) (see bullet point 3 of process for evidence you will be requested to provide)
- Community benefit society
Who can’t apply?
- Individuals
- Unincorporated organisations
- Organisations that are aimed at generating profits
- Schools (apart from PTAs who meet one of the criteria above) who are already administering food giving projects
- Activities taking place outside of the London Borough of Lewisham
Your organisation must:
- Provide existing community activities or services within Lewisham, which are of benefit to the residents of Lewisham
- Have a formal constitution or set of rules
- Have a bank account requiring at least two unrelated signatories
- Projects previously funded by Lewisham Local must be up-to-date on their project monitoring.
Organisations must have the following policies and procedures in place in order to be eligible and submit them on application:
- Children’s & Adults Safeguarding
- Health & Safety
- Public Liability Insurance
If you require any help in this area please contact us at funding@lewishamlocal.com prior to sending in your application.
Safeguarding
- If you or members of your group will be working with unsupervised children or vulnerable adults as part of your project, you should have completed a risk assessment to ensure you have considered all child protection and safety implications.
- You are required to possess a completed enhanced Disclosure and Baring Service (DBS) checks for any staff or volunteers working unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults.
If you require any help in this area please contact us at funding@lewishamlocal.com prior to sending in your application.
Projects must be committed to demonstrating:
- Willingness to engage in the Good Food Lewisham network and Food Justice Action Plan development to work collaboratively and strategically to tackle food justice in Lewisham
- Adopting recommendations from ‘the Appreciative Inquiry into Food Provision at its best’ report which was co-produced in 2021 with local community projects to identify what food support at its best looks like in Lewisham
- A commitment to Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and including incorporating the opportunities for action as identified in the Birmingham and Lewisham African Caribbean Health Inequalities Review (BLACHIR) into your work
- Provide provision at regular times and a minimum of once a week
- Capacity and willingness to host additional wrap-around services. Examples may include staff coordinators providing advice, social prescribing signposting and digital skills
- Support Lewisham’s most vulnerable residents and those most negatively impacted by the cost-of-living crisis
How your application will be assessed
Funding decisions are made by a panel of Lewisham Local Staff and Trustees who are administering the grants. External partner organisations will be invited to join the panel including Public Health Lewisham as the funders from Lewisham Council and additional strategic partner representatives which could include housing associations or other members of the Lewisham Food Network (who are not applying for funding). Your data will be shared with grant assessors for the sole purpose of assessing your grant.
A panel will meet to discuss all applications meeting the basic criteria. The evaluation of each application will consider:
- Who and how many will it benefit E.g., Number of beneficiaries or target group
- Evidencing a need for the project
- Level of provision including opening times and accessibility?
- A detailed breakdown of costs related to delivering the project i.e. cost per session, staff etc.
- Evidence of how food and support will be immediately provided to those in need over the next three months and costings for this
- Evidence of preventative work in line with the Food Justice Action Plan and costings for this (for grants up to £10,000)
- How does the project support the vision from the Food Justice Action Plan?
- How have risks been identified and controlled?
- Does the project build capacity within the organisation beyond the life of the grant?
The panel will also take the following priorities into consideration when making decisions:
- Existing local provision in the area and geographical spread
- Budget versus impact and the number of people supported
- How projects consider the dignity and needs of their clients or members in line with the recommendations from the Appreciative Inquiry report
- Balance of food giving and capacity building aspects of the grant-funded project (this will be evidenced in the application itself and financial breakdown).
For grants of £10,000 applications must additionally demonstrate:
Applications will be scored using the marking scheme below.
Marking
The following marking scheme will be used to assess each section of the application form. Note that all applications must score a minimum of 3 for each section in order to be considered.
| 1 | Failed to provide confidence that the proposal will meet the requirements. |
| 2 | A poor response with reservations. The application lacks convincing detail with risks that the proposal will not be successful in meeting all the requirements. |
| 3 | Meets the requirements. The application generally meets the requirements but lacks sufficient detail to warrant a higher mark. |
| 4 | A good response that meets the requirements with good supporting evidence. Demonstrates good understanding. |
| 5 | An excellent, comprehensive response that exceeds the requirements. |
Given that we anticipate a high number of applications, we encourage all applicants to include as much detail as possible within the word limit to support the project application.
If you need to discuss any aspect of your project proposal before submitting email funding@lewishamlocal.com.
Process
1. Complete the online application form by Monday 13th March 2023, 12pm
2. Lewisham Local will aim to assess applications and inform applicants by 27th March 2023.
3. Successful applicants will be asked to read, sign and return a Terms and Conditions (T&C’s) form along with bank details and provide a copy of the organisation’s safeguarding and health and safety policy and a copy of the organisation’s public liability insurance. CICs or companies limited by guarantee will be asked to provide copies of their Community Interest Statement, details of the Asset Lock included in the Memorandum and Articles of Association and a copy of the latest annual community interest report and provide evidence that there are a minimum of three unrelated directors with no one director with more than 50% control. Constituted groups will be asked to provide a list of the volunteer management committee members and evidence that the committee meets on a regular basis.
4. Upon receipt of the signed T&Cs and the requested documentation, for grants of up to £3,000 Lewisham Local will transfer 100% of the award total within 14 working days. For grants of up to £10,000 Lewisham Local will transfer 50% at the start and 50% following a satisfactory midway review.
5. Grant recipients will be asked to complete a monthly brief survey during the life of the project reporting on numbers of beneficiaries and any key issues arising to help Lewisham Local track levels of need and food insecurity in the borough.
6. Projects funds should be spent by September 2023.
7. Grant recipients will be asked to complete an evaluation form and return to Lewisham Local by 1st October 2023.
Monitoring
Successful projects will be required to undertake monitoring as part of the grant agreement. Grant recipients will be asked to complete a short monthly form to help track levels of food insecurity and emerging issues. Organisations in receipt of the £10,000 grant will be asked to complete a midway monitoring report. A final impact report including budget expenditure, photos, number of people supported and learning from the project must be submitted by 1st October 2023 for all projects.
Funded projects will be strongly encouraged to attend Good Food Lewisham’s monthly meetings for food giving groups, the forthcoming Food Justice Alliance meetings and quarterly Good Food Lewisham network meetings to share emerging needs, issues and learning from projects to provide a coordinated approach to tackling food justice in the borough. Please email helen@lewishamlocal.com to connect to the Good Food Lewisham mailing list and network.
Ongoing Support for Community Food Giving Projects
Lewisham Local offers a variety of support to food giving groups via:
- Local Food Partnership Coordinator– helen@lewishamlocal.com
- Support with additional fundraising – karen@lewishamlocal.com
- Support to find volunteers – bettina@lewishamlocal.com
- Incorporate digital access support – don@lewishamlocal.com
Fundraising resources can be found here: Funding – Lewisham Local, Friday Fundraising Club and through the Fundraising Development Manager- Equalities
Lewisham Local will promote all funded projects via: Good Food Lewisham and the Lewisham Community Directory as well as in newsletters to local community groups, volunteers and businesses and social media where appropriate.
Successful projects will be encouraged to engage with Lewisham Local’s programmes and provide peer support to other grant recipients as capacity allows. You can find current training, events and resources at domainb30425.stackstaging.com.
Data Protection
In completing this form, you understand that Lewisham Local has a requirement to process your personal data.
Lewisham Local will only ever process your personal data where it has a clear lawful basis for doing so in full compliance with data protection legislation – UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act (2018).
We will always ensure security and confidentiality of your personal data.
Application Form
If you need to discuss any aspect of your project proposal before submitting email funding@lewishamlocal.com.
Food Justice Community Grants
To apply, please submit your responses to the questions below via this form. Please note that the form does not count words so it’s recommended to work on questions in a separate document to measure word count and paste them into the form. We encourage you to write and save your answers in a word document so you have a record of your responses, and in case there are any issues with the form below and because we cannot automatically send you a copy of your application.