Case Study - Edinburgh Community Food
Edinburgh Community Food is a social enterprise and registered charity that tackles health inequalities in low-income communities in and around Edinburgh. Their mission is to help people enjoy delicious, fresh, healthy food and making sure that everyone in the capital has access to an affordable, healthy diet. ECF work with partner organisations such Edinburgh City Council to provide food deliveries to those in need, have an e-commerce website offering food boxes, and supply local businesses and community organisations with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic they also provided training classes; activities in the morning for children and then slightly more advanced recipes in the afternoon involving families. Their aim was to take away any stigma surround food poverty and to help feed vulnerable families. However due to lockdown, those classes had to be delivered online but the instructors needed assistance in creating fun, engaging videos that the audience could easily follow. ECF also required an app so their delivery drivers, who play a key role in ECF’s humanitarian response during the health crisis, could easily coordinate food deliveries to families across the city.
Like many charities, the ECF operates on a shoestring budget and did not have the in house technical expertise to create the videos and the app so they turned to the Scottish Tech Army for help. Chris Mantle, a Senior Food and Health Development Worker at Edinburgh Community Food told us:
‘The Scottish Tech Army have been attentive, understanding of our issues and needs, and so very helpful in offering friendly personalised support. They have helped us increase accessibility to healthy foods during the current crisis and the social and health support we offer our communities, along with boosting our business know how. It’s invaluable support for a small charity such as ourselves!’
In the above video he explains more about their experience, and how our project team quickly got to work and helped create effective solutions for use now, and into the future.