2025-03-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

	Period start date	Period start date			Period end date
**From **	1	April	2024	To	31st March	2025

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Food and Friendship

Other names charity is known by Formerly Hove Luncheon Club

Registered charity number (if any) 1178067

Charity's principal address Hove Methodist Church

Portland Road Hove Postcode BN3 5DR

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole **year **	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany)
	Rachel Richards	Chair	as Chair to 21 January 2025
	Karen Head	Treasurer
	Michael Hill
	Gabriella Casemore	Chair	as Chair from 21 January2025
	Julia Riches
	Anna Stavrianakis		Resigned 11thJuly 2025
	David Royce		Appointed 1stApril 2024 Resigned 18thJune 2024
	Marianne Holgate		Appointed 16 July 2024
	Shelley Brown		Appointed 15 November 2024
	Vince Young		Appointed 3rdJuly 2025

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for 20 example, any custodian trustees)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

Constitution

• (eg. trust deed, constitution)

How the charity is constituted

Association

• (eg. trust, association, company)

Trustee selection methods

Elected by the members

• (eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

• policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;

• the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;

• relationship with any related parties;

• trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system

All existing trustees have read and signed the relevant charity commission documents pertaining to the duties of a trustee. Food and Friendship holds annually updated policies in the following areas: Health and Safety – including Risk Assessment, Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults, Equality and Diversity, Data Protection and Privacy, Serious Incident Reporting, Bullying and Harrassment, Internal Risk Management, Gifts and Hospitality, and complaints procedure.

All Trustees hold up to date DBS vetting clearance.

In addition, trustees, volunteers and staff attend emergency

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and procedures to manage them.

first aid training on a yearly basis.

We also work with care provider Kingsway Care who sponsor us by lending us staff to volunteer. Kingsway have their own policies and procedures.

Section C Objectives and activities

To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of Summary of the objects of the those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to charity set out in its governing document integrate into society through the provision of, but not restricted to, low-cost lunch clubs.

	Objectives and activities
	To promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people who are socially excluded and assisting them to integrate into society through the provision of, but not restricted to, low-cost lunch clubs.
Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)	All Food and Friendship trustee decisions are made with due consideration of the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance. Our main activities are running a low-cost lunch club twice a week from Hove Methodist Church for older people and adults with learning disabilities. As well as access to a nutritional meal, we aim to tackle social isolation and loneliness and support people to develop new friendships and feel more connected to their communities. For wider social benefit through the reduction of food waste, in creating the low cost meal we prioritise using food donated by the charity FareShare Sussex and other food donations, supplemented only by purchased food as necessary. Alongside lunch provision, we aim to offer advice sessions for lunch club members after lunch has been served to signpost beneficiaries who might benefit from other health, social and financial support organisations. We are also supported by music entertainers who donate their time to entertain at lunch club and feedback demonstrates they are highly valued by lunch club members. We provide regular volunteering opportunities for more than 50 people, including older people and adults with learning disabilities. Volunteer roles are carefully tailored to ensure our volunteers find their time both rewardingand enriching,with appropriate support as required.

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Volunteers are subject to DBS checks, and we ensure that they understand Food & Friendship policies which they must uphold. In the year, we are grateful to our volunteers who in total gave more than 6,600 hours of their time and without whom Food & Friendship would not be possible.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

• policy on grantmaking;

• policy programme related investment;

• contribution made by volunteers.

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Food, friendship and a celebration!

In the year beginning 1st April 2024, we continued to welcome isolated and socially excluded older people and adults with learning disabilities into our lunch club family. Our bi-weekly shared meals provided a welcoming environment, a nutritious lunch, and opportunities for meaningful connections to be made. We supported over 150 guests and volunteers enhancing their health and well-being, helping them to feel more socially connected and valued within their community. Alongside lunch club we ran cooking clubs aimed at teaching independent living skills for younger people and adults with learning disabilities.

Our ethos is one of inclusivity. We believe that people should be able to feel a sense of belonging regardless of their age or ability. Lunch club is very much a family and our shared meals feel like a gathering of friends and extended family every week with lots of talking and laughter. This year, 45 volunteers helped to prepare, serve and clear away over 6000 meals to lunch club guests made from over 8 tonnes of mostly surplus food.

As a small charity with only one part-time worker we have nevertheless managed to build a strong reputation over the last 12 years across the city with both service users and wider stakeholders. We’ve achieved this without dedicated fundraisers, social media co-ordinators or outreach workers largely because we have an amazing community of supporters and volunteers. Our trustee team brings a wealth of experience from careers including banking, human resources and advocacy and support. Our hosts Hove Methodist Church are enthusiastic and supportive and we benefit hugely from partnerships with Brighton and Hove Community Transport, The Stroke Club, Speak Out, and Kingsway Care. Our Facebook post at Christmas was viewed by nearly 2000 people and we now have around 615 followers, 95% of whom are UK based. We also have a few followers in Australia, Canada, India and America. This is a big increase from just a few years ago.

Tuesday Club

As ever, the volunteer team are at the core of everything we do at lunch club and this year was no exception. With 25 volunteers ranging in age from 26 to 84 our team was mainly made up of older retired volunteers,

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Section D Achievements and performance

people who work part time, people with learning disabilities and younger people just starting out on a career and wanting to gain some experience. Having this mix really seems to work as everyone brings a different set of skills and life experience. Tuesday volunteers donated around 3,200 hours of their time to lunch club completing tasks such as cooking, clearing up, setting up and taking down the hall, serving and helping guests on and off the buses. One thing is very common to all our Tuesday volunteers – they are kind and committed and will do anything to make the guests experience that little bit better – whether it is finding them a special chair, getting them an extra blanket if they feel cold or just sitting and chatting with them when they arrive. All our guests feedback how amazing and friendly the volunteers are and we are incredibly lucky as an organisation to have such a dedicated team. We thanked our volunteers with a home-made summer party with karaoke at the scout hut, and a Christmas celebration at Brighton Dome at the ‘Organoke’ evening. This year we celebrated a fantastic milestone, 10 years of a wonderful partnership with Hove Methodist Church. We decorated the hall and

screened a specially commissioned film with quotes and comments from guests and volunteers about their special lunch club memories. During lunch we projected 500 images of guests and volunteers past and present during the special afternoon tea. There were poems and a special birthday cake and table quizzes with prizes. Perhaps the best part was the surprise flash mob at the end with volunteers singing a rendition of Lou Reeds ‘Perfect Day’, with the words changed. Lots of volunteers joined in and

even the bus drivers had a few lines. I think it’s fair to say that this was one of the most memorable and enjoyable events of the lunch club year.

" The Food and Friendship group became such an important lifeline for my grandad during his last few years. He always looked forward to the Tuesday lunches hugely, made some great friends and talked about the group so fondly to many of us. Sadly, due to worsening health Walter couldn't attend most of the lunches this year but continued to talk about the group to us even last week. He celebrated his 99th birthday with us in July.” Tuesday club guest relative

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Section D Achievements and performance

We also tried out a new seating arrangement with tables grouped in blocks of 10 seats and guests allocated seats. This was based on feedback that sometimes people on different buses arrived at different times and were unable to sit with friends because the seat was already taken. It seems to work well and there are always a few spaces to fit newcomers.

During the year we had entertainment post lunch in the form of singers TJ and Melissa, and Janet played the accordion for us during service. Harvest festival gifts for all guests were provided by the parents and friends of Windlesham school. It was lovely to have some young people visit and guests appreciated the gifts and enjoyed talking to the pupils. At Christmas, Good Times pubs, specifically the George Payne Pub collected Christmas gifts donated by patrons for us to wrap and pass on. This year also brought sad news as we lost our lovely volunteer of many years Brenda Marshall. She brought her amazing calmness and kindness to lunch club and will be missed by all of us.

“We have loved working alongside Food and Friendship and watching it grow to the wonderful club it is today. A fantastic celebration of community in action.” Hove Methodist Church

Thursday Club

It was another great year for Thursday club with 20 volunteers in total, 7 with a learning disability and 5 support workers facilitating the

volunteering. Around 40 adults with learning disabilities and support staff attended weekly. As with the Tuesday club, volunteers are at the heart of everything and bring such positivity and joy with them making lunch club so enjoyable. In total, Thursday volunteers donated around 2,500 hours of their time to lunch club. The two-course meal is prepared in manageable chunks by volunteers with learning disabilities and support staff. It can be quite crowded in the kitchen and crush hall so ‘zones’ must be planned before

hand and appropriate tasks arranged. Some volunteers are very independent and are able to follow instructions and peel and slice vegetables for example, having good knife safety skills. Others require

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Section D Achievements and performance

more support which is where the volunteer team and support staff come in and support each other to prepare different elements of the meals.

Lunch club is a good place to come and learn new cooking and independent living skills for many of our volunteers. It’s a good place to experiment with new recipes and ingredients in a safe and supportive environment. Recipes that are popular are often repeated so

volunteers get a chance to practice things like making crumble topping and preparing fruit and vegetables and making sauces etc. We also have a volunteer team preparing the hall, setting up tables and arranging the Speakout drop in tea and coffee. Around 10:30 am, Speak Out drop in guests arrive and help themselves to a hot drink before making use of the advocacy and support session. This partnership with Speak Out is much valued by guests and Food and Friendship and has brought more beneficiaries to lunch club who stay and enjoy a communal lunch after the session. We are also pleased to welcome guests from a variety of residential homes including those managed by South Down, Grace Eyre and Francis Taylor. We encourage support staff to sit with the person they are supporting and join in with the meal and this helps to create a family meal atmosphere which we believe is one of the most beneficial aspects

of our provision. This year we had a few visitors to Thursday club including singer TJ and Team Domenica participants of the Nam Yang class. Pam from Rise Life kindly brought her fantastic, seated exercise session to lunch club to help us celebrate Christmas together.

“I go to Thursday club cos you make friends and have a laugh. It’s good company and I have fun. And it gets you out.” Thursday club guest

Transport

Our transport provision is essential for many of our Tuesday guests as 50% of them currently rely on our three buses to collect them from their homes and take them back after lunch. We are the only charity in the city to offer this service. Our drivers are a part of the family and Daail, Paul,

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Section D Achievements and performance

Mike and Phil are patient, friendly and reliable, fairly essential qualities in a bus driver. One of our guests who is 99 lives in a care home. He says he spends most of his time in his room alone and coming to lunch club is the highlight of his week. All our bus users would be otherwise unable to leave their homes and many have been referred by doctors surgeries and social prescribers. Funding for this vital part

of our provision is hugely important and is the main focus of our fundraising efforts.

“I hurt my ankle and it took a year to heal. The nurse said what are your hobbies, so I said knitting. I’d go out and sit alone in cafes. She said how about a lunch club. By the time I got home Caroline had left me a

message. I had visions of everybody sitting alone. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done” Tuesday club guest Context

Why is lunch club still so relevant?

Because the UK has a huge problem with loneliness, and sometimes the perceived social stigma of it prevents people from seeking help. Age UK’s study published in December 2024 entitled: “ You are not alone in feeling lonely ” found that loneliness is linked with:

acceleration of frailty and increased risk of physical and mental illness a 29% increase in risk of incident coronary heart disease, a 32% increase in risk of stroke,

and a 25% increased risk of dementia. It found that 9 in 10 older people who are often lonely are also unhappy or depressed, compared to 4 in 10 of those who are hardly ever lonely.

Some of our guests reported that they were feeling lonely because of bereavement and relationship breakdown, losing contact with friends or family, living with disabilities or illnesses causing reduced mobility, caring responsibilities and living on a low income. Some guests reported that retirement had made them feel isolated.

Our impact assessment sessions earlier in the year were funded by The HughBonGo fund and enabled us to gather important information from our

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Section D Achievements and performance

beneficiaries about their lives and the ways in which we make them a bit better. The funding enabled us to bring guests into the venue on a nonlunch club day and provided transport costs, room hire and refreshments as well as covering the cost of facilitators to lead small groups discussions in the style of a focus group. This is not something we had been able to do before and it provided us with a wealth of feedback which has helped us to apply for funding. It revealed how crucial our transport provision was to our guests because it gave them access to lunch club, which in turn made them feel less lonely. They reported that having transport had unlocked a door to a social life again and what a difference this had made to their lives and sense of wellbeing. One guest, who is a wheelchair user was referred by social prescribers because she was very depressed, having no family or friends and no-one to take her out.

“I got to the stage where I didn't go out at all. I have no family; I am completely alone. The doctor referred me to Lunch Club and I found such lovely friends, it is the highlight of my week. I come on the minibus, the drivers are lovely and we all have a lovely time on the bus .” Tuesday Club guest

Another guest who lives alone and has COPD uses a walking frame. She was recently trapped in her flat for several months while the lift was being repaired. Her weekly visit to lunch club is the only social time she has apart from occasional carer visits.

“I’m not from this area; I was a carer for my husband before he died. My daughter lives in Hove but I had no friends here. After he died I moved here. It’s very hard when you’ve got to make friends all over again at our age. I joined a walking club and a book club but I missed the sitting around and

talking. This is wonderful because I don’t have to feed myself – when I come here it’s like a little treat, being picked up.” Tuesday Club Guest

Food

Food is very important to us at Food and Friendship, (the clue is in the name!) Food touches our lives in so many ways and is very bound up with memories for us all. We love to provide meals that provoke memories for our guests, in particular old-fashioned puddings such as spotted dick and custard and liver and bacon, (although that is not a pleasurable memory for some!). We take great care to plan menus so there is variety, a balance

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Section D Achievements and performance

of hot and cold, soft and crisp, different colours and textures and good presentation where care has been taken. We also prepare special meals for guests with allergies or dysphagia. We hope that this shows our guests that they are important and that their enjoyment means a lot.

Our meals are an important source of nutrition and usually go some way to providing the 30 different types of plants we are recommended to consume every week for good gut health. Many of our guests are bereaved and not used to cooking for themselves, relying on ultra-processed ready meals and snacks.

Other guests live alone and find cooking for themselves a bit of a chore. Some face obstacles to healthy eating including having a sensory impairment or physical disability that prevents them from peeling veg or standing at a cooker. They may not be able to get out shopping as easily as they once did and are often digitally excluded and unable to access online shopping. Some find the cost of gas and electricity very prohibiting so rarely put on the oven. For whatever reason, our meals are at the core of lunch club and bring guests in who may not feel comfortable with the label of attending a social club for isolated and lonely people.

“I’m not all alone anymore, I have made friends at the Lunch Club. It makes me realise that other people are going through something similar to me .” Tuesday Club Guest

As well as providing nutrition we are also playing a small part in reducing food waste. In Brighton and Hove alone, it has been estimated that a third of domestic waste is food. We received around 8 tonnes from Fareshare Sussex and Surrey of mostly vegetables, meat, dairy and frozen items plus ambient food such as tinned veg and packets and jars. This was all edible food that was destined for landfill often because of supermarket over-ordering or mislabelling. In addition to this we collected surplus via the neighbourly platform from Lidl and Sainsburys of mainly bakery and fruit and veg items that would have been binned. Unfortunately, we lost our amazing deliveries from UK Harvest. This service started during the COVID pandemic as a way to redistribute large quantities of restaurant catering produce. UK Harvest were delivering all the way from Chichester to various food projects across the city, but this was not sustainable for them and unfortunately as a small charity we were unable to travel to

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Section D Achievements and performance

Chichester to collect. We are also very pleased that the huge amount of vegetable peelings, coffee grounds, tea bags, cardboard and non-cooked food waste that we generate all gets taken away and composted every week by volunteers.

“ Before I came to the lunch club my husband had a stroke which led to dementia so I had to live my life and his as well. I found the dementia hard to cope with. It felt like I was talking to myself or to the four walls. My husband wouldn’t eat properly and was losing weight. I found that he would eat when he was in company. At Lunch Club my husband loved seeing everybody and he would eat. It was a relief for me too as it was something that we could do together.” Tuesday Club Guest

Cooking club

This year we built on the success of our previous cooking courses and ran two courses aimed at younger people and adults with learning disabilities. Funded by Hove rotary club the clubs provided the opportunity to learn new skills in small groups with the added bonus of sharing the meals together at the end. One young person not in education employment or training attended who had volunteered at the lunch clubs. He benefitted from the structure the course provided as well as learning cooking skills. He found that the added benefits of having purpose and working with other people greatly impacted his mental well-being and helped him to make choices about his future and his next steps. The course finished on Wednesday 5[th] June and

covered a range of recipes and techniques that had been chosen by the group with healthy adaptations such as adding different vegetables to a cauliflower cheese to increase the range of vegetables.

“I love my Thursdays; Food and Friendship is an incredible charity which supports so many people in the local community. Volunteering is always extremely rewarding and lots of fun” Thursday club volunteer

The course was also an opportunity for the group to try new foods that they hadn’t experienced before such as tinned mackerel, olives and melon. It was also an opportunity for support workers who attended to

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Section D Achievements and performance

learn new cooking skills such as making pizza from scratch. Support workers do many hours of one to one with the person they support which can often involve cooking a meal with them. Support workers also learnt new skills such as making macaroni cheese and curry, recipes they are going to take away and prepare with clients. Repetition is key to learning new skills and hopefully the recipes they learnt will be something they will reinforce in the weeks and months ahead and hopefully reduce their client’s reliance on ready meals and takeaways.

The groups in particular enjoyed the social aspect of the courses. A common theme was that participants enjoyed having somewhere to go outside of normal 9-5 support worker hours. Adults with learning disabilities who require support are often confined to their homes after 5pm when support staff clock off. So having a place to enjoy cooking together and sharing a meal outside of these hours was important and every Wednesday felt like a meal out with friends rather than another evening spent in their house.

Sponsorship

It’s been fantastic to have the support of Kingsway Care again this year. They provide amazing volunteer staff who attend for a couple of hours each lunch club depending upon their rotas. We’ve worked with many of

the Kingsway care givers who are also known as ‘yellow angels’ and they supplement our own amazing volunteer team and fill in gaps such as helping to wash up and clear away and also serve. They are very professional and supportive and of course are excellent at chatting with our guests.

“When I first came here I was suffering from anxiety after the pandemic. I started coming on the bus and it makes you come. Nice to get a cooked meal, it gives you an incentive to come” Tuesday Club guest

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Section D Achievements and performance

Referral partners :

This year we developed relationships with new guests, funders, referrers, other charities, community groups, the local community and the wider public. As well as receiving referrals from organisations such as TogetherCo social prescribing link workers and social prescribers at

doctors surgeries, we continued to welcome new guests and volunteers referred by organisations such as The Grace Eyre centre, Speak Out, Brighton and Hove Food partnership, South Down Housing, Age UK West Sussex Brighton and Hove, Kingsway Care, The Discharge Assessment and Response Team and the Health and Adult Social Care team both at BHCC. We also have relationships with the Carers Centre, and the Stroke club. We continued to receive referrals from family members and relatives and via social media and our website.

External partners

We continued our partnership with Brighton and Hove City Council to help deliver Household Support Funding (HSF) from the Government to families receiving free school meals and older people in receipt of pension credit. In the year, we distributed £16100 worth of supermarket vouchers which enabled recipients to buy food and other essentials such as clothing and toiletries and which could be tailored to individual need. Signposting

Attending lunch club continues to be a gateway to other social events that take place in the Hove Methodist Church building such as the Friday Chatty café, street parties, musical concerts, church services and discos throughout the year. Many of our guests now attend the building regularly and in fact their social life is centred there where social connections are developed.

“Volunteering at lunch club is rewarding knowing that you have once a week made a difference to the guests lives. Even if they are struggling or in pain, they walk through the door and forget that for a couple of hours and eat with good friends they have made” Tuesday volunteer

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Section D Achievements and performance

“I volunteer to feel part of the community. I like meeting different people and being part of a team” Thursday Club volunteer

Lunch club offers a chance to be referred to other support agencies. Over

the year we signposted vulnerable guests who had problems with their housing or social care issues and helped some of our guests apply for attendance allowance. Guests were also able to find out about events such as free electric blanket testing via the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service who also visited guests in their homes to do safety checks and provide and install free smoke alarms. We were also pleased to welcome the Brighton and Hove Energy services Co-op (BHESCO) who help households by providing personalised energy saving advice, installing free energy saving measures, and accessing grants and vouchers to help with energy costs. Many of our guests have benefitted from their advice over the years.

“After losing my parents I have missed talking with the older generation and volunteering at Food and Friendship not only gives me a fun opportunity to chat and find out about their lives but also be part of a great team bringing smiles and warmth to people every week. My parents were ill during Covid and had no access to this kind of support service, and I really see how beneficial social connection and sharing a meal with friends is” Tuesday club volunteer

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Section D Achievements and performance

Future Plans

Oral History Stories Project This year with the help of volunteer George we have been capturing the life stories of many of our guests with the intention of publishing them in some form in the future. We love to hear about our guests lives, where they worked, what they did to socialise when they were young, where they met their partners, what food they liked to eat and what memories they have of growing up. We think that other people will enjoy reading about them too.

Impact Assessment

We are planning more impact assessment sessions to help us with fundraising so we can accurately describe our impact. It is not too difficult to obtain basic monitoring information from beneficiaries but it is the personal impact of lunch club that can be hard to extract which is what potential funders are interested in. We are focusing next year on a ‘Theory of Change’ model which we hope will help us plan and assess our impact in more detail. We will ask ourselves key questions including: how much are we doing, how well are we doing it and how are our beneficiaries better off. We will develop a theory of the longer-term changes we’d like to see, (our impact). We will also ask what smaller measurable changes or outcomes will get us there, how our activities will make change happen, what outputs are produced and countable as a result and what resources/inputs we need to achieve it. We’d like to offer our Thursday club guests the opportunity to attend a focus group. This will help us to better understand some of the issues facing adults with learning disabilities and how we as a charity can learn and make a more meaningful difference. Fundraising This is an area in which most small grassroots charities expend a considerable amount of time and resource, and we are no exception. We are now at capacity in terms of guests at our Tuesday lunch club and attendance at Thursday club continues to grow. This shows there is a real need for our service but available funding is very competitive and there are lots of excellent projects out there all competing for a slice of the funding pie.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on	The net funds of the Charity at 31.03.2025 were £28,448 of which £2,158 was restricted and £5,000 was set aside in a designated fund. We hold 3 months of unrestricted operating costs (c£8,000) in reserves so the
reserves	remainder of £13,290 is carried over to the next financial year to fund the
	organisation’s ongoing work and areas for development.
Details of any
funds materially	None.
in deficit
Further financial review details (Optional information)

Youmay choose to include additional information, where relevant about: •the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising); •how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity; •investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

We carried forward grant funding from the previous financial year from The Kings Coronation fund, Sussex Community Foundation and the HughBonGo Fund managed by the Talent fund. Other grants received in the year included those from Hove Rotary Club, The Dodgeson Foundation, the Osbourne Charitable Trust, and The Lloyds Bank Foundation. Food and Friendship trustees would also like to acknowledge and thank the following individuals and organisations for their generous donations and fundraising campaigns on our behalf: • Zoe and family from the Sophie Kennard memorial fund who raised £2500 for us. • The friends and family of the late Jean Hunter who donated £1000, • The friends and family of Penelope Bartlet (aka GG) who raised £975 in her memory • The family of Brenda Marshall who raised £745 in her memory. • Stu Mitchell from Curious Histories who raised £333 with his series of interesting and unusual historical stories. • Zoe from Good Times pubs who donated all our Christmas meat and veg and collected Christmas gifts for our guests. • Michelle Nutbeem and partner who cycled from London to Brighton • Huge thanks also to everyone who made a donation via our donation platform ‘Givey’ and in person including Richard Baker, Joyce Ford, Joyce Jenner, and G Nutbeem.

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Section F Other optional information

Food and Friendship trustees would like to thank all our friends, partners, supporters and funders for their enthusiastic support again this year. In this year of special milestones, we are looking forward to the next 10 years with optimism and confidence, so thank you for holding us!

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date	Gabriella Casemore	Karen Head
	Gabriella Casemore	Karen Head
	Chair	Treasurer
	20 January 2026
	20 January 2026

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Food and Friendship CIO No (if any) Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period Apr-24 Mar-25 To from

Section A Receipts and payments	Section A Receipts and payments	Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £		Restricted funds to the nearest £		Designated fund to the nearest £		Total funds to the nearest £		Last year to the nearest £
Grants	1,000		1,000				2,000		23,205
WeeklyIntakes	19,118		-				19,118		17,984
Donations	9,215		-				9,215		9,792
Sponsorship	1,800		-				1,800		1,120
Bank Interest	-		-				-		-
Other	11		-				11		-
Household Support Fund	-		16,100				16,100		8,000
							-
Sub total(Gross income for AR)	31,144		17,100		-		48,244		60,101
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-								-
Sub total	-								-
Total receipts A3 Payments
									60,101
Transport	2,620		6,056				8,676		7,562
Ingredients and deliverycosts	1,135		4,492				5,627		4,394
Sessional Worker	23,740		4,880				28,620		29,220
Impact Assessment/Focus Groups	-		320				320		-
Volunteer Expenses	762		109				871		987
Publicity,administration,insurance and fundr	834		679				1,513		2,263
Training	427		24				451		494
Room hire	-		738				738		3,555
Equipment	741		509				1,250		1,158
Household Support Fund	-		16,095				16,095		8,000
**Sub total **	30,260		33,901		-		64,160		57,633
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-								-
Total payments Net of receipts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end
									57,633
	884		- 16,801		-		- 15,916		2,468
	- 5,000				5,000		-		-
	25,406		18,959		-		44,364		41,898
	21,290		2,158		5,000		28,448		44,366

1

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the	period	period
Categories Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees B1 Cash funds B2 Other monetary assets B3 Investment assets B4 Assets retained for the charity’s own use B5 Liabilities	Details Cash in bank c/fwd 2024 Cash in bank after receipts & payments Apr 2024/ Mar 2025 Total cash funds (agree balances w ith receipts and payments account(s)) Details		Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £		Designated fund to nearest £
			25,406 - 4,116 -	18,959		-
				- 16,801		5,000
				-		-
			21,290 OK Unrestricted funds to nearest £	2,158		5,000
						OK
						Endowment funds to nearest £
			- - - - - -	-		-
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	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)		Current value (optional)
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	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)		Current value (optional)
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
				-		-
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				-		-
				-		-
	Details		Fund to which liability relates	Amount due (optional)		When due (optional)
	Food costs		Unrestricted Unrestricted	86		April 2025
	Transport			890		April 2025
	Signature G Casemore K Head		Print Name Gabriella Casemore Karen Head
						Date of approval
	G Casemore		Gabriella Casemore			20.01.2026
	K Head		Karen Head			2 20.01.2026

Food and Friendship

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report Report to the trustees/ Food and Friendship CIO members of On accounts for the year 31 March 2025 Charity no 1178067 ended (if any) Set out on pages (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/03/2025.

• Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

• accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or

• the accounts do not accord with the accounting records

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

• Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Date: 20.01.2026 Signed: Name: Chris Hill Relevant professional FCA – Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 177 Nevill Road Hove BN3 7QN

1

October 2018

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Not applicable.

2

October 2018

IER