The Food Exchange community is three years old this month!

This newsletter is dedicated to the amazing community behind the Food Exchange's success. We take a stroll down memory lane to celebrate how Food Exchange businesses have been supporting the food and beverage, Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), creative, and innovation industries since its launch.

In just three years we’ve gone from a small, niche brand to being a cluster of challenger brands and innovators. Read on to discover our news, our leasing opportunities and more!

What's new? Food Exchange's 3rd anniversary

We're excited to celebrate the Food Exchange's 3rd anniversary this month. Take a look at our milestones.

We got our BREEAM certification in 2017 with the rating of 'Excellent', the highest recognition in terms of building and construction sustainability.
Our doors opened for the first time to the public in 2018. Created as a startup workspace and food-culture venue, the building spans three floors and three outdoor roof terraces.
Our first member moved in to our office space in 2018 and are still going strong! Along our journey, we have met inspiring superstars who have joined our mission. We reached full occupancy in 2019 and we threw an epic summer social party on the roof terrace in July.

Our community actively seek food for thoughts, so we promote opportunities to learn, grow and network, plus we love to mingle. Under our roof (and sometimes on the roof), we hosted a number of other events spanning from Christmas socials to food lectures, from wine and coffee tastings to workshops, from yoga to anniversaries. As England finally has a roadmap out of lockdown, we are looking forward to the return of live events.

As our community went through the pandemic ups and downs, we strived to support each other. When Covid-19 swept the world and remote work became ubiquitous in 2020, ‍we saw people flocking to online communities for connection and exploring new ways of working. We remained committed to ensuring that being part of the Food Exchange makes a difference to our community, so we built a home-delivery shopping webpage for our members to join, and we launched several social media campaigns to promote our members' brands. We never stopped craving genuine human connection and we embraced new ways to network online, while impatiently waiting to return to our beloved business centre in person.

Mission Kitchen

In the middle of a global pandemic we started the fit out of Mission Kitchen. Let’s admit, it wasn’t easy! But we know that all the hard work will pay off when Mission Kitchen is up and running in spring 2021. It'll bring a welcome commercial kitchen space in addition to the current amenities of the business centre. By making kitchen space, commercial catering equipment and professional business support available at affordable rates, it will significantly reduce the barriers to entry and help anyone to start and grow a food business. We expect a new generation of entrepreneurs, chefs and like-minded food and drink industry people to join our community.

In just three years since the Food Exchange launched, we've brought together hundreds of people, including food entrepreneurs, marketers and creatives under one roof, giving them a unique place to create, innovate and collaborate. We are happy and proud that we've come so far. We couldn't have achieved so many exciting milestones without our amazing community. Thank you for your support!

Looking forward

We want to make 2021 the year we continue giving back to our community. Here are four ideas how the Food Exchange can give back to your communities in 2021.

Support independent food and beverage businesses. Supporting a small business is one of the most important things you can do to care for your community and the people in it: this is our reminder to do so. If you have the resources, put love into your community by shopping small.
Mission Kitchen and the importance of making new friends. With Mission Kitchen launching soon, there will be plenty of opportunities to use the brand-new kitchens, meet food businesses, explore collaborations and make new friends.
Walk and cycle. If you are able to, try walking cycling or running to your destination. We all know exercise is good for both physical and mental health.
Share your ideas with us. We want to hear your input! What are your ideas for giving back to your community in 2021?

Community spotlight

Young Foodies is now a Kickstart Representative. This means Young Foodies can help you hire young talent, fully subsidised through the government's Kickstart Scheme. As well as organising the hires, Young Foodies provide them with formal training to meet government requirements. Their package allows you to choose from a customised mix of courses based on the required roles. New hires can attend an Introduction to FMCG training plus any two of the following courses: Finance, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Supply Chain, Wholesaler Management, and Project Management. Visit their webpage to apply.

The Kickstart Scheme was announced in July 2020 as part of the Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs. The scheme aims to create thousands of high-quality, six-month work placements for young people aged 16 to 24 who are claiming Universal Credit and are at risk of long-term unemployment.

Under the scheme, the Government will cover 100 per cent of employment costs for 25 hours a week. This includes the employee's salary at the appropriate minimum wage for their age, as well as National Insurance and pension contributions.

From 3 February 2021, there are two main ways for small employers to take part with the Kickstart scheme no matter how many placements you can offer, either directly through Department for Work and Pensions or through an official Government gateway.

We are committed to sharing more news through future issues of this newsletter, so let us know of anything you may be part of that we can share with other members and we can all get involved and keep the conversation going. If you would like to be featured, please email us at hello@cgma.co.uk

Join our Food Community. Book to view our available spaces.

Under our roof, we have private offices; expansive break out areas; complimentary meeting rooms with AV and booking systems; kitchenettes, complimentary coffee bars and communal outdoor terraces.

Our studios have super fast wifi, movable data-boxes and are ready to be fitted out and branded as you like. Floor to ceiling windows provide a bright, natural backdrop. With spaces from 330 to 1500 sq. ft. Our tenants also have access to changing facilities, showers, lockable bike sheds and the opportunity to lease storage facilities. Watch our promo video here.

About the Food Exchange

We're located in the heart of New Covent Garden Market, Nine Elms, Battersea. Our building consists of private studios, business facilities and soon a commercial kitchen space. The Food Exchange provides the amenities to host clients and network within a community of like-minded people from across the food and drink industry.

To talk to us about leasing options, or to find out more, email hello@cgma.co.uk or call 02077202211.

Visit our website: www.foodexchange.london

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March's Food Exchange Newsletter