What we do

The OX4 Crew offers a number of free or ‘pay as you can’ meals on a regular basis. These meals offer a place to gather and enjoy a cooked meal amongst friends and familiar faces. The meals we offer span a wide variety of cuisines and provide delicious, nutritionally balanced meal for our community. We are proud of our provision of safe spaces to gather and eat. Our partner organisation, Syrian Sisters, offers a space specifically for Syrian and other Arabic speaking refugees in our community to meet and eat together on a weekly basis thereby providing much needed social and community support. Throughout the year we have also hosted a number of celebratory meals for the community including during Eid and Refugee Week.

For those in our community who may find it impossible or very challenging to travel or who find making meals at home difficult, we offer to deliver cooked meals made using high quality surplus food. These meals are delivered to a large number of homes in our community each week by a team of dedicated volunteers.

Across the alliance we are able to offer a number of food relief parcels which can be delivered or picked up in person at one of our hubs. These boxes contain culturally appropriate food supplies including fresh fruit and vegetables, pulses and proteins.

Because we work closely with our recipients we are often able to tailor the contents of our parcels not just to meet dietary requirements but also to cater as much as possible to personal preferences. This approach supports dignity and autonomy for our recipients - a key factor tackling the stigma that can be attached to accessing food support.

Our alliance takes a holistic approach to tackling the impact and contributing factors for food poverty and food inequality.

Dignity is one of our core principles. We are proud to report that in our first year of the National Lottery Reaching Communities Grant one of our partners, No Vice Ice, has been supported to continue in their innovative approach to tackling challenges faced by people living with hidden health conditions. No Vice Ice exists to support and offer training and work experience to people living with hidden health conditions by employing them on a paid work programme for making delicious ice lollies made from surplus fruit ingredients. This project is the coming together of identified unmet need for this particular community with the principles and values for reducing food waste and dignity in the solutions we can offer.

No Vice Ice has supported four young people in the past year with practical work experience whilst promoting a sense of dignity alongside a qualification which can offer a springboard into other work opportunities.

Health and Wellbeing workshops from our member, Waste2Taste aim to build confidence, skills and knowledge in cooking and nutrition. Over an 8 week period these sessions support people who may be experiencing food poverty, have limited access to cooking equipment or have specific nutritional needs. In addition to building skills, these workshops foster a sense of community and solidarity between our participants.

Our member Oxford City Farm offer the opportunity to attend food growing workshops. These workshops cover everything from starting with seeds, propagating, planting and tending to common vegetables and harvesting. Lunch from the farm is included and participants take away small pots and compost so they can continue to grow at home!

Read the impact report from our pilot peer cooking programme Starting Stronger Together: An enquiry into the food and nutriton experiences of mothers from marginalized communities in OX4. Report can be found here.