GCDA

Pre and Post Business Support

garygcda — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 10:44:52 +0000

Bussines Support in Greenwich

Do you want to start your own business?

Do you have a business and need further guidance or business support?

You have come to the right place. We are delighted to announce that GCDA has won a new contract from the Royal Borough of Greenwich to offer pre and post business support.

Thinking of starting a business – Pre-business support

We will be out and about in Greenwich over the next 2 years providing one to one advice on the business support programmes available to Greenwich residents.

This currently includes information about;-

New Enterprise Allowance (NEA) – for Job Centre Plus clients
Start and Grow / Enterprise for London
Enterprises courses from GCDA

Or for more information please call 02082694880 or email Sergio@gcda.org.uk

Are you up & running and want or need further support? Post Business Support

Come along to our FREE* post start-up support sessions. We run our post business support drop-in session on Thursday from 3 pm – 6 pm at GCDA. Bookings are taken through Eventbrite. Please click here to book ( you must be up & running as a business to attend).

Or you could join one of our enterprise networks Apply by clicking here

Bussines Support in Greenwich

February 22^{nd –}3pm – 6pm – Finding New customers Training Session with GCDA

Click here to book

March 1^st 3pm – 6pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

March 8^th – 3pm – 6pm – Food Finance Training Session with GCDA food specialist

Click here to book

March 15^{th –}3pm – 6pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

March 22^{nd –}3pm – 6pm – Excel for Business Training session with GCDA

Click here to book

March 29^{th –}3pm – 6pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

April 5^{th –}3pm – 6.30pm – Social Media Introduction Training session with GCDA

Click here to book

April 12^{th –}3pm – 6.00pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

April 19^{th –}3pm – 6.00pm – Employing and Managing Staff Training session with GCDA

Click here to book

April 26^{th –}3pm – 6.00pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

May 3^{rd –}3pm – 6.00pm – Legal Issues for Businesses Training session with GCDA

Click here to book

May 10^{th –}3pm – 6.00pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

May 17^{th –}3pm – 6.30pm – Crowd Funding Training

Click here to book

May 24^{th –}3pm – 6pm – Open Session One to one bespoke support with a GCDA business advisor for an hour

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New Food Businesses in Greenwich

garygcda — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 13:21:21 +0000

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 18^th January (book here) and the 22^nd 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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Croydon Food Businesses Training Begins!

garygcda — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 12:34:58 +0000

GCDA is delighted to have been awarded the contract to deliver training to budding food businesses in Croydon. As part of the Food Flagship Programme, Croydon Council has commissioned us to run an 8 week training course for 11 passionate food entrepreneurs. The course will cover all the fundamental elements of starting and running a food business including how to do feasibility studies, ensuring robust financial planning, how to source, manage production and deal with the many logistics of running a food business, and how to brand and market the business.

However, what makes this course unique form other food business start-up training courses is the emphasis on healthy and sustainable food. As people become more aware of the content of their food and where it comes from, they are looking for new and exciting food businesses to buy from. We embed the principles of healthy and sustainable food within the training ensuring all businesses know how to maximise these themes in order to maximise profit. This could be basing meals more on plant sources and using less meat, or making sure all fish is from a sustainable source, and all veg is seasonal.

Once trained they will be able to access a start-up grant to help them on their way to trading successfully and we will be supporting them all the way.

Here’s what one of the participants said:

“I am really excited about this training and am already thinking of meals and menus in my head. I look forward to pooling our collective resources and skills and am keen to learn from your experience in the catering industry.”

If you’re not based in Croydon and would like to access food business support, don’t despair! GCDA runs a 1 day Food Business Start-up course in Greenwich every 2 months. Please see the training pages for more information.

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Healthier Catering Commitment

garygcda — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 12:37:42 +0000

What is it?

The Healthier Catering Commitment (HCC) for London was launched in March 2012. It is a voluntary scheme for food businesses developed by the Association of London Environmental Health Managers and the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.

The Good Food in Greenwich network supports development of a local healthy and sustainable food environment and the HCC scheme comes under this initiative.

In the Royal Borough of Greenwich, the Council’s Environmental Health Department works in partnership with Public Health and the Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency(GCDA) to deliver the scheme.

The scheme is designed to support fast food or café businesses to help them make simple and affordable changes to the food they sell to make it healthier for you.

There is link between what we eat and our health

Too much salt in our diet can cause high blood pressure, which increases risk of

heart disease and stroke.

Too much fat and sugar in the diet increases risk of being overweight, which

increases risk of diabetes and heart disease.

Fruit and vegetables help protect against heart disease and cancer.
Too many sugary foods also increases the risk of tooth decay

People are increasingly eating outside of the home. In surveys, people say:

They want healthier choices on the menu when they are eating outside the home
It is the responsibility of the caterer to provide healthier choice
They want to see more grilled and vegetarian options on the menu

When a food business signs up to the HCC scheme, it commits to improving the food they sell by making small changes, such as:

changing the oil they cook with to healthier alternatives
heating oil to correct temperature and regularly replacing used cooking oil with fresh cooking oil. This can help chips and other fried foods soak up less fat during the cooking process
offering some healthy options (for example, lower sugar drinks and snacks); and
making smaller portions available on request.

GCDA delivers the HCC scheme across Greenwich and andassesses businesses interested in taking part in this scheme and to help them achieve the free HCC award

How can I tell which fast food business is participating on this scheme?

Food businesses who adopt the scheme display the Healthier Catering Commitment logo on their business windows, doors or walls. So look out for this sign when you are next visiting a fast food outlet or café in your area

Signing-up to HCC

Businesses with a 3, 4 or 5 Food Hygiene Rating Score ,wishing to join the HCC scheme, are assessed and given advice on how to meet at least 8 qualifying criteria.

Where should I go to find out more about the Healthier Catering Commitment scheme?

If you are an eligible fast food or café business or a local resident in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and are interested in finding out more about the HCC scheme then contact GCDA on 0208 269 4880 and speak to Livia.

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Good Food in Greenwich is 1 year old!

garygcda — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 14:10:04 +0000

It’s been a busy year at Good Food in Greenwich since our inaugural Steering Group meeting in October 2014. Building on our recognition as a Sustainable Food City, we initially formed a secretariat group to build some of the structures and ideas, and then invited organisations and businesses to sit on the steering group where the name Good Food in Greenwich was agreed. We also developed a Good Food Charter for individuals and businesses to sign up to to make a pledge to do something towards Goof Food. We have developed this website where we regularly update stories and news to keep people abreast of what’s going on in the network. We have held 3 big events including a winter Launch in December last year, a Food Growing Conference in June, and a large public event in July in Woolwich, and we have attended many more. We’ve been busy on social media with very active Twitter and Facebook accounts and have sent out 4 newsletters. This is all fantastic public facing work and we’ve engaged with hundreds if not thousands over the year this way.

However, the Steering Group and sub groups have also been beavering away working on the Action Plans that show the progression of work and plans for the future. We have achieved a huge amount through these groups and you can see some of the highlights below:

Greenwich to feature in the new Good Food for London Poverty Report and have been commended for the work we are doing
Mulgrave fruit & veg stall supplying easy, affordable access to families in the area
Thanks to our partnership with Fareshare, Rhodes Bakery now deliver all their surplus bread (over 40kg) to them
A project between Trust Thamesmead and Waste Services, RBG has piloted separating food waste in a block of flats – a notoriously difficult thing to achieve
Woolwich Common Community Centre is soon to be Fareshare Hub operating to distribute food to community groups and projects
Greenwich University pledged zero waste to landfill and have succeeded in this – see their sustainable food policy here
We have launched a Gleaning Project to help use ripe fruit falling from trees and Waste Services are supporting this project too
Healthier Catering Commitments has gone from strength to strength working with takeaways to make their offer healthier, and will now include tips on waste and other Good FiG priorities
GSPlus, the school meal provider has re-branded as Incito & employed a community chef
They have also been awarded Silver Food for Life, with Gold in 2 schools, and have also received Compassion in World Farming Awards for RBG for Good Egg, Good Chicken & Good Dairy. They are the only London borough with 3 awards!
GCDA has delivered 6 Food Business Training days to over 60 businesses & individuals
Greenwich University host Sustainable Fortnight offering free sustainable cooking sessions
GCDA’s Made in Greenwich Project works with people in recovery to produce healthy home-made meals and will now be a Fareshare Community Food Member, using food surplus
Growing Conference held at Woodlands Farm showcasing local & national projects and work began on a food growing strategy
GCDA launched ‘How to set up a Food Growing Project’ training – the first day was held in September and attended by 13 people including schools & community groups
Foraging walks with Charlton Athletic Community Trust have been trialled and will run this November during Foraging Fortnight

And these are just some of the amazing things that have been going on. We have partnered with over 60 businesses and organisations, recruited a volunteer, co-ordinated 4 steering group meetings and 16 sub group meetings to move the action forward, and so much more! We are so delighted with the work we’ve achieved, which couldn’t have happened without the support from and action of some amazing partners, particularly Royal Borough Greenwich who had the vision to fund this work in the borough, and the people of Greenwich. However, there’s still much more to be done, so join us to help make Greenwich a fairer, healthier and more sustainable borough.

If you’d like to get involved, please email goodfig@gcda.org.uk and come along to our steering group this Tuesday 13th from 10am – 12pm at Fareshare. Drop us a line if you’d like to come along.

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Taste of Health Cookery Clubs- Get Involved!

garygcda — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 14:25:28 +0000

We are delighted to announce that Good Food in Greenwich will be offering FREE cookery classes starting again this November. The programme continues the excellent work done by Public Health over the past 10 years helping people to make healthier choices. The ‘Taste of Health Cookery Clubs’ run for 5 weeks and provide an excellent opportunity to discover how to cook delicious, healthy recipes from around the world, but on a tiny budget. Experienced and qualified tutors facilitate the groups to show how we can eat a well balanced meal, making small changes that can make a big difference to your health and well-being, all as affordable and as possible. And we’re very excited to introduce an opportunity to find out about food growing, and how to grow delicious herbs and salads without a garden!

Programme Manager Mel Taylor said “The cookery clubs offer a fantastic opportunity for people to come together, share ideas & gain some new skills & knowledge about how making small changes to our eating habits can make a real difference to our health. We are also introducing a growing element to the clubs so people can find out how to grow herbs and salads, even with no space. We are thrilled to have this opportunity to build on the excellent work already delivered by Public Health, RBG in the borough.”What you need to know:

The cookery clubs are free!
They run for 5 weeks (1 day a week) – see below for details
They include a week learning how to grow food
They are open to everyone, from complete beginners to experienced cooks
All equipment, ingredients and aprons are provided
They are a great way to meet new people
You can learn about healthy eating and practical cooking skills
Participants will receive a free cookery book on completion of the course
You must book a place on the course 0800 470 4831

They are running across the borough, so find your nearest one here. More venues and dates to come in January too.Venue and Address

Birchmere Community Hub; Monday, 9th November- 7th December 2015; 10.30- 13.00
Charlton Valley, Tuesday, 10th November- 8th December 2015; 10.00-12.30
Woolwich Community Centre, Wednesday, 11th November- 9th December 2015; 10.30-13.00
AGE UK – all ages welcome though!; Thursday, 12th November- 10th December 2015; 10.00-12.30
Slade Children’s Centre, Friday, 13th November-11th December 2015; 10.00-12.30

You must book a place! To do so, please call 0800 470 4831 and ask for cookery clubs

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Free food business training for Greenwich residents

admin@gcda.coop — Wed, 18 Mar 2015 03:36:12 +0000

Co-operatives London and London Co-operative Development members GCDA are running more great free food business training sessions:

Date: Thursday 6th OR 20th March
Time: 10am – 4pm
Venue: GCDA, in the heart of Greenwich
Cost: Free to Greenwich residents, business & food projects.

Absolutely Brilliant! Everyone in or setting up a food business should do this course

— June 2013 course attendee

Running your own food business is an incredibly challenging role. You’re expected to be a chef, business person, promotions specialist and account all at the same time with never enough time to do it all! This course will show you easy and clear ways to make changes that can have a real impact on the health and sustainability of not only your business and profit, but also the food you sell.

You will learn:

Key principles of menu planning which maximise the financial opportunity of sustainable and healthy food
Menu planning and production systems which reduce chef time and save money
How to source and manage relevant suppliers that save time and money
The principles of financial management
How to promote your business effectively
Practical tools to implement the above

If you are interested in attending this course, please contact: Mel Taylor on 020 8269 4880 or mel@gcda.org.uk

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Good Food Business Training

garygcda — Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:12:31 +0000

Free Food Business Training with GCDA at Woolwich Common Community Centre!

Thursday 12th February from 10am – 4pm

Whether you’re already running a food business, or have an idea for one, this training is for you! A day covering all the most important elements of setting up, planning and running a good food business.

The day includes:

Key principles of menu planning which maximise the financial opportunity of sustainable and healthy food
Menu planning and production systems which reduce chef time and save money
How to source and manage relevant suppliers that save time and money
The principles of financial management
How to promote your business effectively
Practical tools to implement the above

Places are limited, so if you’re interested in attending, please contact goodfig@gcda.org.uk to book your place!

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