The BFC is based at St George the Martyr, Borough High St in the heart of London's busy Southwark area. We operate a 3 times a week shop for our members to support them with the cost of living as well as impacting positively on the reduction of food waste. We have no criteria for membership and this sets us apart from other food hubs and makes us increasingly popular!

We have developed a service which allows our customers to shop with autonomy, dignity and choice during these financially uncertain times.

It is our mission to deliver a sustainable service that adapts to the needs of our members and our next step is to develop a space where our community can come together to shop, meet, eat and learn. Alongside the shop, we envision a community cafe where chefs can come and create community meals using the food donations we have. This would operate as a Pay as you Wish service. We also plan on offering free cooking classes to our members.

In 2024, we redistributed over 60,000 kilos of surplus food by filling over 10,000 members' baskets. We supported over 1400 members to provide nutritious, affordable food to their families.

We are a volunteer-operated project which relies on the hard work, dedication and kindness of our team of 70. These amazing people stock the shop, greet and serve our customers and donate their free time to supporting our work. In 2024, our volunteers put in over 5000 hours of time and hard work.

We work with The Felix Project and City Harvest to redistribute surplus food that would otherwise go to waste. Traders in Borough Market, local bakeries and other businesses also donate surplus food.

We work with other charities and local government such as Citizens' Advice and Southwark Council to provide advice and help our members in other ways.

Through partnerships with local charities we've worked with dozens of young autistic people and those with learning disabilities to develop work skills to improve their chances of securing employment.

We also regularly host local business teams to give our neighbours in the business community an opportunity to "give back"

A recent corporate volunteer said

"What I learnt from my volunteering day at BFC was that people are really impacted by the cost of living crisis and that BFC is providing an incredible initiative to many people every week that would find it otherwise unaffordable to obtain the basics. That food is precious and to not take food for granted. We also learned a lot about the work of the BFC and how they try to help, who uses it and the difficulties that they face, who supplies the BFC, and the people that work there. Also, that there was so much work involved for the people running the food shop considering we were a team of 6 and they have 2 people most of the time."

Another volunteer commented

"We found the permanent employees to be so inspirational. They were really welcoming and treated us very well. Yes, it gave us a new perspective on food and community. It was also a humbling experience and made us realise how privileged we are."

https://www.boroughfoodcooperative.co.uk/