We’re delighted to welcome several new exciting food businesses in Greenwich! Funded by the RBG Skills Team GCDA trained 20 new food businesses on a 10-week course that covered everything a budding new food entrepreneur would need to know in order to start trading. We met some great new people and the businesses are a fantastic mix ranging from homemade products such as dips and sauces, pop-up, and market stalls, and also those wanting to set up cafes as social enterprises.
Alia’s Wholesome Foods is making an Egyptian ‘ful’ dip from UK grown fava beans – look out for her in supermarkets next year! Jay Scott from Hey Sugar is producing an exciting range of refined sugar-free treats for the more health conscious. And for those with a love of all things hot and spicy, Anne Torrens of Food Tech Kitchen is making delicious hot and spicy sauces and marinades. Steph from Viva Cakes does incredible, free-from cakes, Kuki is going to be cooking up a South Africa storm with original flavours from her village in South Africa. And My Tang is selling the most incredible Vietnamese food.
We have Clive who is setting up a community bakery offering real bread at affordable prices and Everyll whose vegan inspired foods are some of the most delicious we’d tasted! And more good news for plant-based food lovers; Kris from the Honest Feeder sells his delicious salads from market stalls, as a result of coming on the training, is also holding a pop-up at Greenwich West next month. Gesmay has the most incredible idea working with bananas and has a recipe book coming out with over 50 banana recipes!
There are also some incredible social enterprises wanting to get off the ground including Listening ears who are hoping to set up a café for the community to meet in and eat health, African foods, and Renee who is setting up a café as a social enterprise to offer employment for vulnerable women who have experienced any kind of abuse, violence and sexual exploitation – including women fleeing domestic violence with the idea that the food is cooked by women from all over the world and from the UK.
And if you’re looking for someone to book for an event, then Foxy’s Woodfired Pizzas could be perfect. A wood-fired pizza van and delicious, authentic pizzas fresh to your plate.
Claire Pritchard, CEO of GCDA and trainer said “It has been an incredible 10 weeks and we have been blown away by the people we’ve met. They brought us delicious food every week, and have developed an incredible support group to help each other build their businesses. I am going to miss our Wednesday mornings!”
The course embeds health and sustainability and all the businesses had to show how their menus complied. As a result, we now have plenty of new sign-ups to the Good Food in Greenwich charter and couldn’t be happier!
Gesmay of Sharing Bananas, said “It was an amazing experience doing the training. Claire & Mel, of GCDA are excellent trainers, full of passion in inspiring people to run a successful food business. They didn’t leave any stone un-turned as every aspect was covered. I can’t thank them enough for taking me on this powerful journey.”
If you or someone you know wants to start a food business, then you can come on a one day course to get a taste of what it’s all about. These are running on the 18th January (book here) and the 22nd February (book here). And if you’re really serious, the 10 week course will be running again in April. Please contact Edina on 0208 2694880 or email edina@gcda.org.uk for more information.
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