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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

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Food charities to merge

This news post is over 3 years old
 

Scran Academy and Prep Table Scotland have announced a formal partnership having been at the forefront of the Covid-19 community response

Two organisations who have been at the forefront of the Covid-19 community response have announced that they will merge.

Scran Academy, the Edinburgh based youth charity which is marking its third anniversary today (Monday 17 August), has joined forces with catering enterprise, Prep Table Scotland.

This move had emerged as an increasingly positive and obvious choice as 2020 unfolded, and whilst conversations were under way pre-lockdown, the coronavirus become a real testing ground and accelerating force for integrating both organisations. All core delivery, assets and staff will continue within the Scran Academy operations.

Primarily, this will see the café that operates from the NHS Comely Bank Centre becoming the Scran Café (which will be a trading element that creates job placements for young people), securing employment for the Prep Table staff team and the Prep Table Scotland assets transferring to enable increased value for Scran Academy young people.

The partnership has been formalised following a period of joint operations for both organisations to rapidly respond to the Covid-19 food crisis. This core partnership helped pioneer a citywide food operation that so far has produced over 112,500 meals for around 3,500 residents across Edinburgh.

Founder of Scran Academy John Loughton said: “The staff and board at Scran Academy are delighted to welcome this merger. We see this as a mature and exciting move that helps us all collectively deliver better social outcomes than any of us could have in isolation. The epic response we were able to initiate in these last four months immediately proves how important it is for social enterprises to work together and embrace change. When things got really tough, we recognised we needed to collaborate, not simply compete.

“We are honoured to take forward the impressive legacy Fiona and Prep Table Scotland have built around using food for social change. We are fused by two core beliefs – the importance of empowering young people and communities, and secondly the transformational role of food to change lives and challenge norms. Our new increased capacity will see us continue to build a social catering business model that is better known, creates more jobs, enhances our impact and critically creates more life changing opportunities for young people.”

Founder of PrepTable Scotland Fiona Donaldson said: “Looking at what has been achieved by Scran Academy and partners since March this year gives me great pride in an organisation I had admired for quite some time. In a culture which can be difficult to navigate, to find the core meaning and outcomes of, Scran has always had young people and their families as the engine that powered every decision they had to make.

“Both organisations had concerns about losses incurred from the cancellation of income generating events, the closure of schools and the café. This decision has delivered a long-term plan for young people in Edinburgh to flourish and to engage with their community. It has given hope to people who feared for their jobs in the catering industry and that’s a proud legacy of my organisation.

“I look forward to joining the Scran Academy board, with the great pride and excitement for what we will collectively achieve for years to come. I feel incredibly proud to have played a part in its most incredible rise.”