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2021-03-31-accounts

Food Matters Foundation

ANNUAL REPORT

Review and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2021

Encyro E-Sign ID: a4b509329e944933a1c9eb3538b4ff7f (2021-Nov-24 17:47:57 UTC)0cc679de44ee49c38e2fc8e5ba055228 (2021-Nov-25 16:43:03 UTC)

2[Contents]

Letter from the chair ................................................................... 3 Food Matters .................................................................................. 4 Working nationally Food and Criminal Justice...................................................... 6 Sustainable Food Places......................................................... 9 Working locally Kitcken Kick Start..................................................................... 12 Brighton and Hove Food Partnership.............................. 13 Strategy Work Waltham Forest........................................................................ 14 London Food Roots Incubator Programme.................. 15 Facilitation and Participation Work ................................... 16 Financial Review ......................................................................... 17 Structure, Governance and Management ...................... 18 Unaudited Financial Statements Legal and administrative information............................. 20 examiner's 21 Independent report......................................... Statement of financial activities......................................... 22 Balance sheet........................................................................... 24 Notes to the financial statements..................................... 25

Food Matters started life as a not-for-private-profit organisation in 2003. The founding Directors recognised a need to support local areas understand how to translate national and European food policy into meaningful strategies and actions. The aim was to make their local food systems fairer, more sustainable, more joined-up and relevant to their circumstances.

In those early years, Food Matters’ pioneering work to develop the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, the ground-breaking Sustainable Food Places programme, and our innovative food and wellbeing work in communities helped develop the principles by which Food Matters continues to work today.

However, much has changed since 2003, such as the rise in diet-related disease, most notably obesity and diabetes, the stark recognition of the negative impact of food and agricultural industries on the environment, and the ongoing effects on our food economy from leaving the European Union.

And especially this financial year, 2020, the Covid 19 pandemic interrupted all our lives, causing uncertainty and distress, poverty and increased levels of food-related inequalities. However, the pandemic has also shone a light on how resilient communities are, and the empathy they show towards each other. We saw communities coming together to provide food parcels, companionship and generosity both in spirit and actions.

During 2020 Food Matters worked with and alongside a host of amazing organisations, communities, food partnerships and individuals to make food central to recovery and rehabilitation and to build a healthier, more sustainable food future.

This year more than ever, Food Matters has been even more determined to find new and innovative ways to work towards fairer, healthier and more sustainable food systems for everyone.

Tim Marsh Chair of Food Matters Board of Trustees

Trustees during the financial year covered by this report:

Tim Marsh (Chair)

Colin Havard (Treasurer)

Kath Dalmeny Lindy Sharpe Charlie Powell

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Food Matters

The trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (as set out in note 1) and comply with the charity's governing document, and the Charities Act 2011.

Objectives

Food Matters was set up to combat the inequalities in the food system by creating opportunities to bring about changes to see healthy, sustainable, fair food become a reality for everybody, every day.

Public Benefit

The Trustees are aware of Charity Commission guidance on public benefit reporting as set out in Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011. They believe Food Matters fulfils a fundamental public benefit by promoting food systems that improve the health, education and wellbeing of individuals and communities, and protect and enhance the environment.

What we do

We create opportunities to bring about changes to see healthy, sustainable, fair food become a reality for everybody, every day.

We take a ‘whole system’ approach to our work by delivering change in policy and practice.

We use a participatory approach so that people who will be affected by a change participate in deciding what the change should be.

We support people to develop skills, knowledge and confidence so they feel empowered to take control over decisions that affect their lives and food system.

We believe that change happens when policy interventions align with people’s ability to make change happen.

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Our current areas of focus include:

1. Campaigning for food as a central part of rehabilitation

Food and Criminal Justice - Helping people inside the criminal justice system make better food choices to support their physical and mental wellbeing.

2. Developing and supporting Food Partnerships

Sustainable Food Places - The nationally significant programme supporting the successful development of food partnerships to strengthen local food systems.

3. Designing and piloting long-term solutions to food poverty

Kitchen Kick Start - Community Cookery programme - supporting care leavers and young mums move towards independent living by sharing food and cooking skills.

How we do it

All our projects are characterised by two clear motives:

We have a unique approach to strategic food work, underpinned by core principles:

Listening -

The best decision I ever took for Alexandra Rose Charities was to ask Food Matters to do a feasibility study for our Rose Vouchers project. The best part was their insistence on asking the potential beneficiaries what would work best for them. Result - a project which really works.

Chair

Engaging -

The understanding of the facilitator and the structure of the course enabled this young person to have a really valuable and truly life changing experience.

Youth Worker

Resourcing -

I’ve lived on my own since the age of 14. Before I came here, I was spending ridiculous amounts of money on takeaway. The sessions are about more than the food, they’re a lot about independence

Course Participant

Influencing -

I found the [programme] very helpful to understand foods that are doing us both good and bad inside the prison. I believe the [programme] could help the whole prison system to understand their diets, to be healthier for the future.

Prisoner

Food Matters Inside and Out is one of the most robust small studies in a prison that I’ve seen.

We work nationally and locally on our own projects and in partnership with other organisations, and at both strategic policy and community levels.

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Working nationally

Our national-level work takes two main forms. We work in the criminal justice system, helping to rehabilitate offenders as they pass through the prison system. And we work with Sustainable Food Places, a nation-wide organisation of food partnerships. The following sections describe this work in more detail.

Food and Criminal Justice

Our work in the criminal justice system currently involves two innovative projects: Food Matters Inside and Out, which works across the prison system (and which this year, in response to Covid, has given birth to two ground-breaking new projects), and Food Matters through the Gate, which supports ex-prisoners during resettlement.

Food Matters Inside and Out

The Food Matters Inside and Out (FMIO) programme works across the prison system to make food within prisons a feature of wellbeing and rehabilitation. The aim is to enable prisoners to better access healthier food, supporting better mental health and well-being and contributing to rehabilitation goals.

This programme was developed to:

In late 2019 we secured funding from Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) to run a two-year programme. We aimed to do this through a series of activities including:

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Covid interruptions

As our practical work was due to begin in early 2020, the Covid pandemic meant the project had to be halted before it even began. However, whilst we waited to see how the pandemic would unfold Food Matters was quick to adapt in order provide as much support as possible to some of the most vulnerable women in society.

Women are less than 5% of those in prison but they account for over 19% of self- harm incidents

Prison Reform Trust

Her Wellbeing

If we couldn’t physically go into prisons, we would take our work to prisons by other means! We began producing and distributing a monthly health and wellbeing magazine: Her Wellbeing. We are proud to report that what started this year in one female prison is now being distributed to 2500+ women across 10 prisons. The aim of the magazine is to support the physical and mental health of women in custody by providing evidence-based content that is supportive, relevant and entertaining.

Feedback on the newsletter from staff and prisoners has been extremely positive, with many focusing on their health & wellbeing during the pandemic, and many have a focus on their future long-term wellbeing - the newsletter offers ideas and inspiration at a time when we need it most.

Head of Reducing Reoffending Foston Hall

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The Feel Good Food Club

After the overwhelming success of Her Wellbeing (seven issues have been produced this year and feedback received from both prisoners and prison staff has been extremely positive) we decided to make further alterations to our plans for working with women in custody.We developed a six-module programme of distance learning activities focussed on food and mental wellbeing, made available to all women in the female prison estate.

Each module focusses on a health and wellbeing theme, starting with the basics of a healthy, balanced diet, and extending to the long-term effects of a nutrient-deficient diet on mental health. It is paper-based and comprises a workbook and a four-page, magazine-style booklet, accessible to people with dyslexia and other learning difficulties. The first module will be launched next year and will be distributed monthly, with the opportunity to feedback, to contribute to Her Wellbeing and to get involved in making positive changes to the prison food environment in participants’ own prisons.

We are currently recruiting women prisoners to take part in this innovative distance-learning programme.

Food Matters Through the Gate

The Food Matters Through the Gate project supports offenders during resettlement. It aims to enable people leaving prison to make healthier, more informed food choices to support their physical and mental wellbeing and that of their families.

Food is important in several ways, providing not only nutrition for health, but also opportunities: for social interaction

to strengthen family ties

as a means to express and reinforce cultural or religious identity

Poor diet is known to impact on physical and mental health, both of which are important for successful rehabilitation.

We work with those probation services and third-sector organisations that also regard our project aims as a vital element of successful resettlement. They support us to work with offenders from local prisons, both prior to release and through the gate beyond release. Our project complements and enhances other rehabilitation programmes, including drug rehabilitation, employability and accommodation.

Online Food and Wellbeing Courses

This year we have focussed our Through the Gate programme on working with identified women offenders, or those at risk of offending who would normally be attending Women’s Support Centres and other services. As with so many activities, lockdown has prevented face-toface service delivery. We therefore adapted our practical face-to-face courses, which involve interactive learning including cooking and other food preparation activities, and we designed and ran a series of four-week online food and wellbeing courses. We used a variety of tools and platforms to ensure the sessions were participatory and engaging.

The workshop courses focused on:

food and mental health

We will continue to deliver this important gateway service into the next year, when we are hoping project delivery will return to face-to-face. However, the success of our on-line courses has allowed us to consider the possibility of continuing them in some form, if they help us reach women who would not otherwise have access to services.

Food Matters and Sustainable Food Places

Food Matters works in partnership with Sustain and the Soil Association to deliver the nationally significant Sustainable Food Places programme (SFP). This aims to initiate and support local food partnerships, good food activism and healthy and sustainable food, so that these become a standard part of the institutional and social landscape of towns, cities, boroughs, districts and counties across the UK.

Food partnerships aim to bring stakeholders together to help demonstrate the connections between food, health, community, social equity, the environment and economic prosperity to build more sustainable food systems.

Food Matters has overall responsibility for the training and development element of SFP programme and also provides strategic input into the wider aspects of the programme.

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An extraordinary year

This eighth year of the SFP programme has been an extraordinary one in every sense – the devastating consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic but also the amazing resilience and resourcefulness of communities rallying to support those in need. The speed and commitment shown in setting up and delivering emergency food provision systems, including food parcels, hot meals and food shopping, was truly remarkable.

Food partnerships in the SFP network were at the heart of this response. In those places where local food partnerships already existed, the webs of food system connections were already strong. SFP food partnerships worked collaboratively with food banks, voluntary sector organisations, restaurants and retailers, volunteers, statutory agencies, and more, to quickly respond to immediate need. They supported local farmers to find new ways of getting their food to customers, helped restaurants switch from high end dining to hot meal provision and local shops stepping up to provide home delivery services. There was resilience and strength, and people knew who to call upon for logistics, food provision and transporting food parcels. There was clarity as to how their local food system worked. The movement to respond to the food aid crisis during this year has been facilitated up and down the country by local food partnerships.

The Sustainable Food Places programme team, including Food Matters, responded to the changing needs of the SFP members by moving all activities onto online platforms, including workshops, events and weekly coordinator catch ups. The team provided emergency resilience grants, networking and learning opportunities, and support. It was a gargantuan effort and achieved at remarkable speed. It demonstrated the resourcefulness and adaptability of the local food movement and its communities.

Building out from Covid 19

During this process, Food Matters has been designing and running activities and workshops to support crisis response, as well as developing tools to enable the transition from a focus on food insecurity towards a wider sustainable food systems agenda. This necessary journey is not necessarily an easy one: it is an area where many partnerships are now building connections to address the root causes of poverty, for example using cash first approaches.

However, to take a holistic food systems view requires another shift, namely to include equity and diversity. The Sustainable Food Places programme has over this year worked to support food poverty alliances and food partnerships to do that by providing training, events and case studies, and peer learning experiences.

REDI for Change

Throughout 2020 Food Matter has led the SFP programme’s focused on developing the REDI for Change programme in response to the death of George Floyd (the African American man murdered during his arrest by a US police officer in 2020) and the momentum for change subsequently built by the Black Lives Matter movement globally.

REDI (Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) for Change is the SFP’s response to the need for these issues to be fully recognised and actively addressed in the structure and function of local food partnerships, the SFP programme and the UK food sector.

Following a launch webinar and discussion in September 2020 and analysis of outputs, the REDI for Change programme has focused on the co-production of the REDI Review Tool. This audit tool helps food partnerships understand and reflect on where they are in terms of addressing race, equity, diversity and inclusion in their organisation, its policies, practices and people, and to identify where there are gaps and work is needed.

The REDI for Change strand of SFP work aims to embed the REDI Review Tool across the SFP network, using co-produced workshops and pilot programmes. This vitally important work will continue over the coming years.

The New Geographies programme

During this year Food Matters has also provided leadership on the SFP New Geographies programme. The driver was the recognition that many existing members of the Sustainable Food Places programme were urban – cities, county towns and boroughs. The work has focussed on adapting the Sustainable Food Places model to be more inclusive of different scales and types of ‘place’ (non-cities) including towns, market towns, regions, city-regions, districts and counties.

The work involves identifying and working with new places and exploring ways to develop and support local partnership models that reflect different circumstances, challenges and opportunities.

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This year, the New Geographies work has focussed on County Food Partnerships. We recruited county partners and worked collaboratively to co-design and test new partnership models. This process included facilitating a grants scheme to support the development of county food partnerships and producing resources to support replication of the new models.

Working locally

Food Matters has always excelled at grassroots delivery and facilitation of food-themed activity. In parallel with our work at national level, we continue to work in our community here in Brighton and Hove, partly through our successful Community Cookery programme - Kitchen Kick Start, which helps young adults who have lived in care to learn to live independently, and partly through our close collaboration with Brighton and Hove Food Partnership.

Kitchen Kick Start

With funding from Sussex Community Foundation this year, we were able to adapt our practical, face-to-face Kitchen Kick Start cookery programme to reflect the reality of Covid 19 lockdown restrictions. We decided we could do this most effectively by offering activities to those least able to access other support services and most in need of support during this time.

Kitchen Kick Start came to be as a result of a series of focus groups run with care-experienced young adults where they identified what they wanted and needed to support independent living. The groups expressed the need for basic living skills training, including cooking and budgeting low-cost, easy meals. Aiming to meet this need, Kitchen Kick Start sessions always took place in settings that mirrored participants’ own living situations and were designed to move them in stages, from ‘where they are now’ to achievable healthier habits. Covid changed all that – we went online.

During this period of adaptation from face-to-face cooking and budgeting sessions to ‘cook-along-to’ videos, young people continued to be at the centre of programme development and delivery, and the participatory skills FM has honed over the years proved extremely valuable in this new mode of project delivery.

To retain focus, the Kitchen Kick Start team joined a group of care-experienced young adults on an 'expert panel' to consider how we could support them during this exceptional period. We also asked how their involvement in designing this project could be beneficial to them and used this feedback to shape the project.

To promote continuing engagement with food and food skills, we facilitated online panel sessions which assessed and evaluated existing online cookery videos and considered what was most effective at motivating and supporting young people to cook healthy, affordable meals at home.

The sessions considered:

motivation level

level of skill and detail needed

understanding how to budget for food kitchen equipment available media platforms used to look for cooking videos preferred style of videos

types of recipes the viewers were tempted to try.

We followed these panel sessions with recipe and meal idea video story boards, pilot videos and expert panel feedback sessions. The next stage involved providing recipe kits to the participants and a link to the videos.

We then held further feedback sessions to determine how the young people found following the videos, asking questions including, how was the timing of the video, was there the right level of information, how easy was it to follow the recipe, was the food tasty, would they use the video again, etc. More cooking videos have now been produced. The videos are online and

pave been shared with the organisations we have worked with on Kitchen Kick Start since the project began. We are encouraging feedback about the videos and suggestions for recipe/meal videos people would like to see.

We have found this project to be a successful way of engaging with young people that are often feel disenfranchised from mainstream education and learning activities. Key to the success of the project was involving participants in the design and development process.

We are seeking funding to continue and develop this project further.

Brighton and Hove Food Partnership

Nationally significant, the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership (BHFP) is one of the UK’s leading food partnerships. Its approach to food policy and practice across Brighton and Hove City is exemplary, and provides leadership, support and guidance to food partnerships around the UK and across Europe – taking part in various UK and EU funded partnership projects.

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Food Matters was integral to the partnership’s development. From its inception Food Matters has had a seat on the Board, and since November 2015 Food Matters’ Director has been chair of the BHFP Board. Food Matters also supports the work of the Food Partnership through providing expert facilitation, and by promoting it as an exemplar of best practice nationally through the Sustainable Food Places programme. In November 2020 BHFP became the first in the UK to win a Gold Sustainable Food Place Award.

Food buying habits Survey

Brighton and Hove Food Partnership responded quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic, working to coordinate a citywide emergency food response with other local organisations centred on a food distribution hub. During the early part of this work BHFP heard anecdotal evidence that people were changing their food buying habits over the first few months of the Covid 19 pandemic.

BHFP and Food Matters wanted to capture and better understand these changing habits. We worked with BHFP to design and run a food buying habits survey to get a clearer picture of the types of changes that were being made and whether people planned to continue with the changes. We hoped to identify any areas where BHFP and local businesses and organisations could support and encourage people to continue with any positive steps – such as supporting the local economy, shopping more sustainably (fewer food miles, less plastic and more seasonally) and wasting less. We also wanted to identify less positive changes to people’s food buying habits to understand what could be done to address any issues that arose.

The findings from this survey have informed work to engage retailers, food suppliers and food producers to help maintain the increase in market share through consumer interest in local food and changes in local food buying habits.

Strategy Work

To complement, and in some ways underpin, our work at both national and local levels, Food Matters conducts strategic work to advise organisations on how to shape and deliver policy for fair, healthy and environmentally sustainable food systems. This year we have worked with the London borough of Waltham Forest, and the Greater London Authority.

Waltham Forest Food Growing Strategy

Our work this year to deliver a food growing strategy, commissioned by the London Borough of Waltham Forest Council, has also been affected by Covid-19.

Nevertheless, we were able to complete the research element, which included interviews, a land-mapping exercise, policy research and a borough-wide ‘food growing habits and Covid 19’ survey, which went out to over 10,000 residents via a wide range of e-newsletters, social media platforms, networks and word of mouth. Then, in December 2020, we were able to run three food growing strategy workshop events. The survey findings informed the workshop content and process. They also enabled us to identify which communities were missing from the

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process so that we could ensure a representative group of people were invited to attend the workshops.

The workshops aimed to help determine community priorities for the food growing strategy by considering a series of questions covering barriers, motivations and interests in food growing. All three workshops followed the same programme but were targeted at specific groups, including, School Food Growing, Community Food Growing, and allotments and aspirational food growers.

This work continues into the next financial year, when we will work with locally based food growing organisations to finalise a food growing strategy and action plan and develop a food growers’ network. This element of the work will include a virtual consultation and verification process, and face-to-face networking events.

London Food Roots Incubator Programme

Food partnerships have come into their own during the pandemic, providing essential conduits for:

information and resources

catalysing action at community and council level, in a strategic way

The (Greater London Authority (GLA) and London Mayor recognised the central role food partnerships and food alliances have played.

The introduction of the London Food Roots Incubator Programme aims to support Londonbased food partnerships to be central to the recovery from Covid 19, and to help ‘build back better’ in the transformation to more sustainable food systems. It is a six-month support programme and curriculum for food partnerships in London, to aid the delivery of activities through Food Roots grants. Towards the end of the financial year, Food Matters and Sustain (the national food campaigning alliance) collaborated to deliver this GLA-funded Programme.

The grants offer food partnerships and food alliances in London funding to support partnership development and to deliver initiatives to tackle food insecurity. These initiatives address local need and focus on marginalised and excluded Londoners, who have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.

Food Matters has worked with Sustain to determine the situation, needs, barriers and motivations of food partnerships, through one-toone interviews and one-to-many online events with the Food Root Incubator cohort, to best design the style and content of the programme.

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Food Matters leads on the areas of ‘good food governance’ and ‘long-term food systems and strategy development’. Over the first half of next year Food Matters will continue working with food partnerships and alliances to deliver the programme and share learning via networks and other collaborations. Participation will be maximised through co-design, needs based and reflective learning.

Facilitation and Participation Work Food Matters has built a unique reputation for This year Food Matters has worked with a range of local and national organisations to support innovative facilitation and participation approaches, greater participation, and has facilitated conferences, workshops and online sessions including: both nationally and locally. Facilitation and participation are methods of working with groups – or rather, methods of enabling groups to work – in ways that respect and include all voices, negotiate complex or divisive issues, and achieve consensual resolutions. We put these skills to use in developing and facilitating workshops and major events for our own and our partners’ projects. We also train others in facilitation and participation skills, by running training sessions, speaking at events, and supporting organisations to develop facilitation skills within their existing workforce.

This year Food Matters has worked with a range of local and national organisations to support greater participation, and has facilitated conferences, workshops and online sessions including:

We facilitated the London Food Roots Incubator

Food Matters also invests in future students, campaigners and professionals working in the food and health arena by contributing participation and facilitation lessons to teaching and training course modules.

Financial Review

For the year ended 31 March 2021 total incoming resources amounted to £243,453, an increase of £112,195 on the previous year*. The expenditure for 2020-2021 was £149,862, a 5% increase from last year.

*Covid 19

As described in the report above the Covid pandemic has impacted on all our lives. This year Food Matters secured multi-year funding for our work in criminal justice which was transformational however the start of this programme was delayed due to the pandemic. Consequently, some of this project income has been deferred into next year when the project will continue to develop.

Restricted and unrestricted income

Any funds described as 'restricted income' are available only for the specific projects or purposes determined by the funders. In addition, the charity holds 'designated funds' which have been raised for a specific project or purpose.

The full Statement of Financial Activities is set out in the accounts.

Reserves

As part of the 2020 - 2021 year-end process, guided by the Treasurer, the Food Matters' Trustees reviewed the charity's Reserves Policy. It was confirmed that the policy was still valid, and that Food Matters would maintain free reserves:

To this end, Food Matters aims to accumulate reserves equal to three to six months unrestricted expenditure. It is deemed that in the financial year covered by this report that the charity’s reserves were marginally below the nominated amount but on balance adequate to ensure the charity was able to meet all current, known and some estimated possible future liabilities. Our unrestricted funds currently stand at £28,896.

Risk assessment policy

The trustees are responsible for overseeing the risks faced by the charity. Risks are identified and assessed throughout the year. The trustees are satisfied that any risks have been adequately mitigated where necessary and they have undertaken an overall risk assessment.

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Structure, Governance and Management

Food Matters registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation on 24th April 2018. The charity is governed under its Constitution. The Trustees have a responsibility to ensure that all aspects of the charity’s activities are properly conducted and carried out in full compliance with its Constitution. The Trustees normally meet at least three times a year and attend an additional strategy day together with Food Matters staff. All Trustees give their time voluntarily and receive no benefits from the charity. No expenses were claimed by any Trustee during the year.

The trustees who served during the year and up to the date of approving the financial statements for the year ended 31st March 2021 were:

Charlie Powell

Kath Dalmeny Tim Marsh Colin Havard

Lindy Sharpe

Recruitment and appointment of new trustees

The Trustees are appointed under the terms of the Constitution. Each new Trustee is given a copy of the Constitution, details of their responsibilities as a charity trustee, contact details of fellow Trustees and employees, background on the charity's strategy and current projects and other information useful in pursuing their role. New Trustees are recruited in consultation with the Director to ensure that the requisite skills are available to support the charity’s activities.

Staff, training and fair pay

Food Matters has four core members of staff and is governed by a board of five trustees. Our work is also enhanced by a group of experienced and expert freelancers, and we recruit highquality volunteers to support our project work.

As a small charity we are entitled to free membership of The Foundation for Social Improvement (FSI) and the Small Charities Coalition, both of which offer affordable training and advice services, and we are committed to offering all staff opportunities for continuing professional development.

Food Matters is an accredited Living Wage Employer, committed to paying at least the Living Wage, as calculated by the Living Wage Foundation, which reflects the cost of living. This year, we have developed and introduced a pay ratio policy to ensure that we maintain a fair pay ratio between the highest and lowest earners. This pay ratio calculation shows that Food Matters’ pay ratio is between 2:1 and 3:1, well below the third-sector average.

Role of Trustees

The Trustees provide governance and develop policy for the charity and accept ultimate legal authority for it. The Trustees formulate and regularly review the long- and short-term strategic aims of the charity as well as setting specific goals and priorities. The Trustees approve budgets and are responsible for the good stewardship of the charity's resources. They work in partnership with the Director with a view to furthering the charity's objectives.

The trustees are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

This report was approved by the Board of Trustees on the 4th November 2021 and signed on its behalf, by:

Colin Havard, Treasurer of the Board of Trustees

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Food Matters Foundation

UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the year ended 31 March 2021

Legal and administrative information

Trustees Mr C Powell Ms K Dalmeny Mr T Marsh Mr C Havard Ms L Sharpe Charity number 1178078 Principal address Community Base 113 Queens Road Brighton BN1 3XG Independent examiner Woodgate Accounting Services Unit 43 Newhaven Entreprise Centre Newhaven BN9 9BA Accountants West & Berry Limited Mocatta House Trafalgar Place Brighton BN1 4DU

Independent Examiner's Report

to the trustees of Food Matters Foundation

I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Food Matters Foundation charity for the year ended 31 March 2021.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's statement

Your attention is drawn to the fact that the charity has prepared financial statements in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) in preference to the Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice issued on 1 April 2005 which is referred to in the extant regulations but has now been withdrawn.

I understand that this has been done in order for financial statements to provide a true and fair view in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Practice effective for reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2015.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in

connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

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

Woodgate Accounting Services

Unit 43 Newhaven Enterprise Centre Newhaven BN9 9BA

9 November 2021 Dated:

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Statement of Financial Activities

including income and expenditure account

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Current financial year

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

Statement of Financial Activities (continued)

including income and expenditure account

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Prior financial year

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

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Balance Sheet

As at 31 March 2021

The financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 4th November 2021.

Mr C Havard

Trustee

Notes to the financial statements

For the ended 31 March 2021 year

1. Accounting policies

Charity information

Food Matters Foundatio is a charitable incorporated organisation.

1.1 Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the charity's governing document,the Charities Act 2011 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)". The charity is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The charity has taken advantage of the provisions in the SORP for charities applying FRS 102 Update Bulletin 1 not to prepare a Statement of Cash Flows.

The financial statements have departed from the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 only to the extent required to provide a true and fair view. This departure has involved following the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities applying FRS 102 rather than the version of the Statement of Recommended Practice which is referred to in the Regulations but which has since been withdrawn.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Going concern

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.3 Charitable funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

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1.4 Income

Income is recognised when the is legally entitled to it after any performance conditions have been met, the amounts can be measured reliably, and it is probable that income will be received.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

Legacies are recognised on receipt or otherwise if the has been notified of an impending

distribution, the amount is known, and receipt is expected. If the amount is not known, the legacy is treated as a contingent asset.

Income from government and other grants is recognised when the charity has entitlement to the funds, and performance conditions attached to the grants have been met, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Income from contracts is recognised on an earned basis in the year in which the conditions for receipt are met.

1.5 Expenditure

Expenditure is recognised once there is a legal or constructive obligation to transfer economic benefit to a third party. Expenditure is classified by activity and is allocated to the particular activity where the cost relates directly to that activity.

The costs of each activity are made up of total direct costs plus shared costs including support costs and governance expenditure. Where the charity undertakes more than one activity shared costs will be apportioned on a basis consistent with the use of resources. All expenditure is inclusive of irrecoverable VAT.

Fundraising costs are those incurred in seeking voluntary contributions.

Support costs are those costs incurred directly in support of expenditure on the objects of the charity.

Governance costs are those incurred in connection with the administration of the charity and compliance with statutory requirements.

1.6 Tangible fixed assets

Tangible fixed assets are initially measured at cost and subsequently measured at cost or valuation, net of depreciation and any impairment losses.

Depreciation is recognised so as to write off the cost or valuation of assets less their residual values over their useful lives on the following bases:

Plant and equipment 4 years straight line Computer equipment 3 years straight ine

The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is recognised in net income/(expenditure) for the year.

1.7 Impairment of fixed assets

At each reporting end date, the charity reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated in order to determine the extent of the impairment loss (if any).

1.8 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

1.9 Financial instruments

The charity has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

Financial instruments are recognised in the charity's balance sheet when the charity becomes party to the contractual provisions of the instrument.

Financial assets and liabilities are offset, with the net amounts presented in the financial statements, when there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts and there is an intention to settle on a net basis or to realise the asset and settle the liability simultaneously.

Basic financial assets

Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.

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Basic financial liabilities

Basic financial liabilities, including creditors and bank loans are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.

Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.

Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of operations from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.

Derecognition of financial liabilities

Financial liabilities are derecognised when the charity's contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.

1.10 Employee benefits

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

1.11 Retirement benefits

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements

In the application of the charity’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

3 Donations and legacies

4 Charitable activites

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5 Investments

6 Raising funds 7 Charitable activities

8 Support costs

Governance costs includes £1,800 (2020: £1796) for accountancy and independent examination fees

9 Trustees

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the charity during the year.

10 Employees

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

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11 Tangible fixed assets

12 Debtors

13 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

14 Deferred income

Deferred income is included in the charity as follows at the 31st March 2021:

Soil Association £20,101

Deferred income included at the 31st March 2020, and included under income receivable in the year, was as follows:

Henry Smith Charity £10,000 London Borough of Waltham Forest £3,700 Surrey Police and Crime Commission £5,000 Sussex Community Foundation £5,000 Sustainable Food Places £9,705 Swire Charitable Trust £5,000

15 Restricted funds

The income funds of the charity include restricted funds comprising the following unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust for specific purposes

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16 Designated funds

The income funds of the charity include the following designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes:

17 Analysis of net assets between funds

18 Related party translations

There was no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2020 - none).