RESPONDING TO NEED: A strategy for expanding the work of The Food Chain

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1 RESPONDING TO NEED: A strategy for expanding the work of The Food Chain FEEDING THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV By providing meals, groceries and nutrition information, The Food Chain ensures that people living with HIV in London are able to get well, stay well and lead independent lives

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3 Who we are Our vision Good nutrition plays a vital and fundamental role in the fight against HIV. By providing meals, groceries and nutrition information, The Food Chain intends to continue feeding the fight, ensuring that people living with HIV in London are able to get well, stay well and lead independent lives. Our values inspire our work. We are: Inclusive HIV does not discriminate and nor do we. We serve men, women, children and families of those living with HIV, in some cases on the basis of financial and/or medical need, but always without discriminating on the basis of ethnicity, sexuality, immigration status, gender or age. We work with our staff and volunteers on the same basis. Adaptable If a service user does not eat the food we provide, then we believe we have failed. So we offer integrated personalised services that aim to make the maximum impact on our service users. We adapt our services to address those in the most need, taking into account larger geographic and demographic changes. Empowering We want to help people when they are at their most vulnerable. But we also want to teach people the nutrition knowledge and cookery skills to empower them to make good nutrition choices for themselves and their families at any stage of their life with HIV. Knowledgeable Our staff and volunteers use their wide range of knowledge to support our work, and we want to continue to tap these skills for the benefit of our service users. Our knowledge and experience place us among the leading voluntary sector experts on HIV and nutrition in the UK. The Food Chain is a community Working together we have developed a supportive and nurturing community of individuals and organisations that share knowledge about food and nutrition, giving their time to support people living with HIV in London.

4 Our history The Food Chain has been delivering lovingly tailor-made food to those living with HIV in London since Christmas The inspiration for the original Food Chain service Sunday meals came from the U.S., where organizations such as Gods Love We Deliver in New York were preparing and delivering meals to people living and dying of AIDSrelated illness. In the years before antiretroviral drugs and a better medical understanding of the progress of HIV, people were more likely to die from AIDS-related illness than live. It was in this environment that a group of friends decided to deliver Christmas dinners to those they knew who were ill and alone. After that first Sunday, this group realised that Christmas wasn t the only meal their friends were missing and the idea for the charity that is The Food Chain was born. Every Sunday since then, The Food Chain has delivered meals to those living with HIV in London, with funding raised entirely from private sources. We receive no public monies. Much has changed in 21 years. The development of antiretroviral medication means that more people are living well with HIV, often for many years. But London is a culturally diverse city. Today, many of those in need of Food Chain services come to us as new arrivals to the city, often unaware of their HIV status until they become unwell. HIV does not discriminate so our service users can be men, women, children old and young. What links them all is the need for good nutrition. The drug regimes work best when paired with appropriate food. Good nutrition helps the body fight infections, prevents weight loss and muscle wasting, and combats the side effects of medication. For those who are ill or living in poverty, accessing the right food and nutrition can be extremely difficult and this is where The Food Chain steps in. Of course, The Food Chain has changed incredibly over the last 21 years, expanding its services to meet the changing needs of its service users. The Food Chain has added services, such as grocery boxes and emergency hampers that allow it to provide more food

5 Where we come from to those in the greatest need. The charity has started cooking and nutrition classes under the Eating Positively banner for those many people who are living well with HIV. And The Food Chain is using the power of the internet to reach those outside London through its online resources such as the Ian Craddock cookbook and the new Food Chain nutrition factsheets. Over 21 years, The Food Chain has reached many milestones. But the need still remains. Over 100,000 people will be living with HIV in the UK in 2012, half of those in London. Demand for our services is rising. The UK economy remains under pressure and with it, growing difficulties for those on the margins of society. The Food Chain is about food, but it is also about love. Our 900 volunteers give generously of their time and expertise because they know that our service users are their neighbours and need their help. All of those involved with The Food Chain wish that its services were not necessary. But as long as the need to feed the fight against HIV remains, The Food Chain will too. ADVICE Eating Positively, Nutrition Information ASSISTANCE Grocery Boxes, Community Meals CRITICAL CARE Hot and Cold Meal Service, Grocery Boxes EMERGENCY SUPPORT Emergency Hampers, Hot and Cold Meal Service

6 Contact Nourishment Education Food Delivery

7 Strategy The Food Chain Strategy Our strategy is simple. We want to: Feed more people living with HIV more often and increase the impact of our food delivery services, ensuring our services are focused where they are needed most Provide access to the nutritional information that allows service users to make better choices about the food they eat Address the growing social isolation of people living with HIV in our community Empower our service users further to lead independent lives Strengthen The Food Chain by building an organisation that provides services effectively and efficiently We will accomplish these aims by reworking some existing services, launching new services and linking the provision of all of our services together in order to provide a more comprehensive programme of support for those most in medical and financial need. We recognise that this strategy represents change for the organisation. It grew out of an extensive consultation process over the past year that involved working with stakeholders and the commissioning of a report on the food needs and services for those living with HIV in London (Understanding Need).

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9 Strategy Feed more people more often Increase the impact of our food delivery services In order to accomplish these aims we will be integrating our current Sunday meal, grocery box and emergency hamper services to provide a seven-day-a-week food delivery service consisting of a mixture of meals and groceries. Our commitments: We will alter our referral procedures to take more specific account of need medical on the one hand and financial on the other with referrers having the ability to refer under either set of criteria. We will implement changes to streamline the production of the meal service such as centralising meal planning and purchasing for efficiency. We will develop clear exit strategies and signposting to other services for those who access the integrated food delivery service. We will explore the possibility of acquiring a Food Chain kitchen, if this proves the most cost-effective way to scale up all aspects of our operation. We will develop more robust success criteria, by agreeing goals and outcomes at service outset with our service users and our referrers in order to better measure the impact of our services. We will continue to provide meals on Sundays where possible, while piloting the possibility of providing meals on other days, with groceries filling out the integrated service. We will continue to work closely with service users to make sure the combination of meals and groceries meet their nutritional and cultural needs.

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11 Strategy Provide access to the nutritional information that allows service users to make better choices about the food they eat Because of the success of our Eating Positively nutrition and cookery classes, we will be expanding this service and adding to it, rather than altering it significantly. Our commitments: We will expand the range of the nutrition and cookery classes we provide, subject to funding availability. We will continue to offer the basic three-class Eating Positively suite to all those living with HIV in London. We will find new groups and partners to help us spread the message about appropriate nutrition and food being essential to those living with HIV. We will expand our range of web-based leaflets on nutritional information, cookery recipes, and budgeting and shopping tips for those living with HIV. We will work with other organisations to develop training for trainers, in order to expand the reach of the classes across the UK.

12 Address the growing social isolation of people living with HIV in our community The breadth and depth of social isolation among those living with HIV in London was one of the most poignant findings from our research with stakeholders and from the Understanding Need report. The reasons for this situation vary from person to person it may be a consequence of illness, poverty, ageing, lack of mobility, mental health issues, stigma, the effects of a chaotic lifestyle or simply because someone is newly arrived to London. We want to bring those living with HIV together around a table and a meal. Our commitments: We will pilot community lunches and dinners for those living with HIV at a variety of locations around London, working in partnership with other organisations. We will recruit our service users who have successfully completed our Eating Positively classes to join with volunteers in preparing and serving the meals. We will provide culturally and nutritionally appropriate meals. We will use community meals as a forum to provide nutrition and cookery information that could be of use to those living with HIV.

13 Strategy Empower our service users further to lead independent lives With so many people living well with HIV, we want to ensure that they can develop the nutrition and foodrelated skills that will allow them to continue to make healthy choices. This idea is a thread that runs through all our services, whether it be learning how to make the most nutritional food choices, or teaching someone who has regained mobility after a period of ill-health to shop and cook for themselves. Our commitments: We will offer more varied ways for service users to develop skills in supporting the community meal programme, for instance. We will be considering ways to support those that are longterm survivors with HIV, older people living with HIV and those encountering mental health issues. We will expand the range of class offerings under Eating Positively, subject to funding. We will make more resources, such as fact sheets and recipes, available online. We will feed more people living with HIV, enabling them to look beyond subsistence needs. We will continue to listen to, survey and work with our service users to ensure that we understand how best to support them in achieving greater independence and empowerment. We will will continue to put the needs of our service users at the forefront of all the work that The Food Chain does. We will develop clear links between all our services from integrated food delivery, Eating Positively and community meals, in order to provide nutrition services that are appropriate to people in all stages of their experience of living with HIV.

14 Strengthen The Food Chain by building an organisation that provides services effectively and efficiently An ambitious organisation as The Food Chain is must be fit for purpose. This means strong governance, effective staff, proper internal systems and sustainable funding. Many of these elements are in development or have been developed, but we intend to ensure that we continue to underpin all our service efforts with an efficient, effective and streamlined support structure. Our commitments: We will follow our fundraising strategy that focuses on developing funding streams from partners that will provide long-term support to The Food Chain as we expand our services. other stakeholders. We will continue to support our all-important staff by being a good employer, providing appropriate continued professional development. We will continue to evaluate our governance structure to ensure that the organisation remains fit for purpose. We will continue to invest in technology and infrastructure in order to support the complex referral and reporting processes of a 21st century charity. We will empower volunteers to enable them to serve those in need in their local community. We will be upgrading and updating our communications efforts to ensure that we are able to keep in better touch with our service users, our volunteers, our funders and

15 Strategy Monitoring, Review and Reporting Back Letting you know how we re doing All charities have a legal and moral responsibility to monitor, review and report on how effective their efforts are. The Food Chain exists to provide meals, groceries and nutrition information to those living with HIV in London. We do this through a range, and now increasing range, of services. Each of these services is carefully monitored through success criteria, which are established and reviewed on a regular basis. We use this information, along with consultations with stakeholders, in particular service users and volunteers, to change our services to meet changing needs. This is an ongoing process and letting you know what we re doing is part of that process. The Food Chain uses many routes to communicate with its stakeholders. Our service users receive messages with their meals and groceries. Those who attend Eating Positively speak to us directly. Our volunteers receive weekly s. All our stakeholders receive a quarterly e-newsletter and a yearly annual report. These communications will continue and will update you all on our progress towards our goals.

16 FEEDING THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV Without access to good food and knowledge about nutrition, those living with HIV cannot get well and stay well. The Food Chain has always made a vital contribution, feeding those most in need in London. Now we will be expanding our response to feed more people living with HIV and offering appropriate nutritional support for people at any stage of their life with HIV. It s a tall order. But one that we know we can achieve, together with our service users, our funders, volunteers, staff and other links in The Food Chain. Contact Details: The Food Chain, New North Road, London N1 7BJ Telephone: (020) info@foodchain.org.uk Reg. Charity No