From our Community Organisations - Borough Food Cooperative
Borough Food Cooperative in South London was set up in April 2020 as an emergency response to the Covid pandemic. Brian Cummings, Project Manager explains: “When we started we had some funding from the council to provide food parcels. When that came to an end we transitioned into a food pantry model, that was in September of 2020, and we have been going ever since.”
The pantry is open every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and is based at St George the Martyr Church in Southwark. Each week they receive three deliveries from The Felix Project’s Deptford Depot, averaging a total of 1,150KG of food.
BFC is open to everyone irrespective of their financial circumstances and where they live, all customers pay £4.50 and get 16 items in return. It has formed partnerships with traders from nearby Borough Market, where they purchase milk, bread, cheese and eggs and in return also get surplus produce donated. They also work with other local businesses such as a bakery, that gives them fresh bread.
Brian says: “Felix primarily provides lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, which we pride ourselves in presenting and serving loose. It is a rare thing for the UK market but is really important for us as by providing them loose we can let people choose how much of whichever item they want. So that we are not wasting as much food and people at home aren't wasting food that they don't need. For example, if you gave someone a bag of carrots, but they only need two carrots, they're just going to throw them away at home.”
Brian adds: “We also get things like frozen food, yoghurts and much more from Felix and we take the Felix meals which go down really well.”
BFC get around 70 to 80 people each day. In 2024 they had 10,000 shops over the year. Brian adds: “That doesn't mean 10,000 separate people, it's how many shops were completed during that year. We have over 1400 members, so each member did quite a few shops.”
The have also seen an increase in the need Brian adds: “We were set up for Covid and thought once the pandemic is over, we'll just close up shop. Then the cost of living crisis hit and we saw our numbers go through the roof, basically double in a year, from 2020, to 2021. Since then, we have seen a steady rise since of people who are coming to us for food, it certainly doesn't seem to be decreasing.”
As well as providing the food, BFC also offer other services to try and help customers, Brian explains: “We have Citizens Advice once every two weeks, which is very popular, we also have a digital support service operated by the council, once a month. We also operate several partnerships with charities who work with people who either have learning disabilities or are autistic or both and they try to get their clients work experience or help to get into work. It’s very important to be able to offer the services to try and help further and we have also offered things like theatre classes and music classes. But we've always come back to our focus which is food and to bring people together to provide the community element that comes because of the food.”
Another area of BFC’s work is focused on reducing food waste, and the environment, which is why they offer the food loose and also have a zero plastic section full of cereals and pulses. Brian says there is a very diverse range of customers and people really like the way they work: “Most of our customers, their main need is financial and just getting food in their bellies, we do get people who are sleeping on the streets, who can't afford anything, but there are not too many of those. We also get those who care profoundly about food waste, and they might come in at the end of the day and take what’s left to reduce food waste. I know people love the choice. We found by surveying and just speaking to people they mainly like the choice and paying something, it makes it feel like it's not a handout, that you’re actually just doing a shop. They also like that the money that you're paying goes into supporting the project as a whole."
In terms of the project Brian says it simply would not work without the support from Felix: “We spend around £45,000 on food, extra that's fruit and vegetables, milk, butter, cheese, all of our bulk food. If we didn't have The Felix Project, that would be probably triple, say £150,000 a year, easily. We wouldn't be able to do it, to be honest, it wouldn't serve our mission.”