FoodSavers video transcript

Jars of pasta sauce

The video was filmed at Inn Churches’ twenty two Shaw House Social Supermarket, and Shine West Bowling, two of the pilot FoodSavers projects.

Inn Churches CEO: “The Social Supermarket is the next level up on the food ladder from a foodbank. So we’ve been working with a lot of organisations that have been giving away free food, and we know that food isn’t free, so what we’ve done is taken the pop-up pantry model and we’ve combined that with the Credit Union to offer choice to people, to give them dignity, to enable them to be financially included if they want to join that.”

Inn Churches Food Welfare Manager: “So the membership scheme, they pay £6 for their shopping, they would then sign up and join Credit Union. We would then invest a pound of the £6 into the Credit Union. So it starts them off on the ladder of saving.”

Shine project leader: “So one person in particular, who when he got to £8 in his savings account, said that’s more than I’ve ever saved in my life.”

Inn Churches CEO: “We feel that everybody’s got the right to fresh, affordable food, and for some people that are struggling at the moment, the idea of being able to choose their own food is really empowering for them.”

Shine Project Leader: “They get a certain number of the fruit and vegetables, so we’ll give them at least eight different fruits and vegetables. They then get whatever fresh stuff that we have, so sometimes we have milk, sometimes we have cheese or eggs or butter, just depending what we have. And then they go along and they get about six items of things like pasta, bread, tins, anything like that. And then finally we have what we call our treat table.”

Inn Churches CEO: “Additional to the Social Supermarket, there’s a lot of wraparound care, so that could be debt advice, that could be budgeting, that could be volunteering opportunities, advice and support, and there’s member benefits such as haircuts, cookery classes and things like that.”

Inn Churches Food Welfare Manager: “We look at how we can train them up or give them enough knowledge to be able to make a lovely meal out of the ingredients that we’ve got.”

Shine Project Leader: “People have a choice, and that gives them dignity actually, so rather than just being given some food, which is important and foodbanks are still really important, this is like the next level: that when people really struggle to find enough money to be able to go to a supermarket, this is giving them good quality, healthy food that they can then go home and cook for their family, and they can have a choice about what they’re cooking.”

Inn Churches CEO: “Our vision is to grow a network of FoodSavers, where members have dignity and choice and self-respect, and feel empowered to make their own choices about the good food, and they’ve also got opportunities to learn new skills, and save as a member in a recognised Credit Union scheme. So at the moment we have four or five organisations in Bradford that we currently work with that have come on board with that, and then we’ve got a further five or six that want to join as well.”