How we get our food
We get a lot of donations from individuals and businesses accross Luton. See our blog for some posts about traders who have helped us to put food on the table for families.
The bulk of our meat, fish and chicken is mostly donated and sometimes sold to us at cost price by halal butchers and fishmongers in Bury Park Luton
A large proportion of our dry food products are provided to us through our anti waste food aid network partners spread accross the UK. We also get a lot of donations from individuals and smaller shops and supermarkets. The same goes for hygeine and or sanitary products. If we cannot source items locally, we buy them using donated funds.
Our community food aid partners run large warehouses and have established relationships with supermarket chains, farmers and manufacturers. Whenever an organisation has excess or surpluss products, they save these products and divert them to us. Other times, manufacturers have excesses in production lines and they divert these to us too.
All the foods we distribute are within sell by or expiry date and we assess foods on reciept to make sure they are fit for consumption.
To remain within our no waste policy, we do something extra. We convert all foods we receive but cannot feasibly distribute within the use by date into delicious, healthy cooked meals. We make pies, we make puddings, we bake rolls and roll oats and we make hearty meals that are suitable for freezing for up to 3 weeks and or refridgeration for 2-3 days.
We also extend our services to public service authorities and staff and the services we provide for this purpose are listed on the government CCS catalogue of supplier offers.
The cooking is done by only one human. This is to limit risk of transmission of any illness and limit contamination. It also ensures we remain able to sustain and monitor levels of hygiene and can give some assurance of quality and standard of cooking. Our cook is a level 3 food hygiene supervision/management certificate holder.