Setting up a charity?

[MrsRail17]

Hello everyone,
I am looking to start a charity scheme and I’m looking for some help on where to start.
Basically, I want to provide a pack lunch food parcel for families in my local area. This would be for school holidays & would be primarily focussed on those who generally receive free school meals…however happy to provide to anyone who requires.
Does anyone have any experience and know where to start with such thing?
Thanks

Where is the money coming from?
How will you find the personal financial details of people?
how do you know they will want it?
who’s making the food for these packed lunches?

This is a lovely idea. Would you be best to start by working with an existing charity like a food bank to learn about how things work and see how you could contribute more?

All I know is that there’s a lot of admin etc and form filling ref charity commission. Every area has a Community Foundation which sets and manages Funds for individuals/ businesses etc and they do all that side so can focus on fundraising and giving out the lunches. https://www.ukcommunityfoundations.org/

Things you would need to think about
-.what will the criteria be to be eligible?

• how are you going to fund it? Grants/fundraising ?
• you will need to think about food hygiene and allergies and I imagine register with the council environmental health team
• you will need insurance (because of food hygiene/allergies etc)
• will you have and train volunteers to make up the lunches or will you need paid staff?
• the charity commission has lot's of advice but you won't necessarily need to register straight away (it depends on your income /assets from recollection)

Whilst it's a noble idea I think you'd be better supporting existing local infrastructure by volunteering with a local church or food bank. All the points above from another pp apply and you may be surprised how little interest there is in your service, as most people prefer to have the dignity, choice and autonomy to buy their own ingredients and prepare their own food than be given a 'handout' (even with best intentions) that may not suit their needs from a cultural, allergy or SEND perspective. Remember the G4S school meal replacement food parcels during lockdown? Google if you don't.

There was a Church and a pub who offered similar near me last summer, albeit was a collection rather than delivery service, and they found they couldn't give them away as not enough demand (2 out of 20 prepared lunches was reported by the pub one day) so the food ended up going to a local Church party instead, to waste, or was offered to anyone who wanted it, even'if they didn't really 'need' it. So I would do your research and think about your target clients, what they might prefer as well as the practical issues outlined above

If you spoke to schools in your area they might tell you number of free school meals in there school. If the school was open for kids clubs in the holidays they might allow you to leave packed lunches there children could collect if you were set up, registered and had food hygiene certificate and insurance.

I have to agree with PPs. Unless you have millions or a really high public profile, it’s usually better to work with existing organisations.

Even people with the above tend to do that. One example is Wayne and Colleen Rooney (just the first I thought of). They both do shed loads of charity work but despite being both well known and rich, they only set up their own charitable foundation in 2016 and they use the foundation to raise funds for existing charities rather than duplicating work already being done.