Black Country food bank's innovative 'recipe bags' project gets creative boost
A Black Country charity that provided over half-a-million meals last year is hoping to help even more vulnerable people with a project designed to make the most of an emergency food parcel.
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Black Country Food Bank (BCFB), which has been supporting individuals and families in Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton since 2006, is hoping to get even more value from standard food parcels given to individuals in crisis, after joining forces with a Stourbridge creative agency to raise the profile of its ‘recipe bags’ project.
The scheme uses non-perishable food items to create healthy and nutritious meals, providing an easy-to-follow guide for creating up to 20 meals.
To aid the project, Stourbridge-based firm eleven10creative pitched in with free design work for the cards, with the agency also creating videos that give users a visual demonstration of how you cook the food in order to make a meal for four people.
“We’ve just handed out our 1000th recipe bag through schools and our network of 26 food banks,” said Jen Coleman, CEO of the Black Country Food Bank.
“They’re proving popular, as not only are we giving out food, but we’re actually giving people the right information on how to put a variety of meals together, from chilli con carne and chicken casserole to fish cakes. Importantly, each recipe bag provides all the ingredients to cook a nutritious meal for a family of four.”
“We are trying really hard to take away the stigma that has sometimes been associated with using food banks and being able to present our messaging in a creative way - whilst giving people the skills they can use time and time again - is a really important step.”
BCFB says it's supported in excess of 43,000 people and provided nearly 550,000 meals in the past year, working out at nearly 63 meals every hour over the course of twelve months.
Through a network of 26 food banks and more than 300 volunteers, the charity provides vouchers to local organisations and agencies who encounter people in hardship.
“The recipe bags have been a really important project, and we’ve tried to bring them to life by creating colourful ‘recipe’ cards and a series of video ‘cook throughs’. This means anyone can access them through YouTube or by scanning the QR code to see a step-by-step demo," said Steve Watson, Founder of eleven10creative.
“By elevating the Black Country Food Bank brand and, by using our experience of marketing and execution of the latest digital techniques, we have been able to improve the organisation’s storytelling whilst also boosting stakeholder engagement to increase donations and financial support.”
