The Business of Food: Social Enterprises Serve up Impressive Results in Scotland

The Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition will celebrate the impressive contribution that social enterprises are making to Scotland’s food and hospitality industry at a Parliamentary reception on Tuesday 25 May.‘The Business of Food’ will showcase the work of a number of the Scottish social enterprises that are operating in the country’s burgeoning sector. Scotland’s £7.5bn food and drink sector already employs 360,000 people and the Scottish Government’s target is to further invest in the skills and innovation required to increase its value to the economy to £12.5 billion by 2017, starting by highlighting 2010 as a year focusing on Scotland’s food and drink.

Antonia Swinson, chief executive of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, said: “Scotland has a global reputation as a ‘land of food and drink’ and the Coalition believes that social enterprises are well placed to capitalise on this and increase their value to the wider economy. Social enterprises are working in food cultivation, processing, catering, retail and recycling. Research has yet to scope the contribution hundreds of social enterprises are making to Scotland’s food and drink industry, but the businesses exhibiting at the reception alone are generating over £2million a year and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Christine Grahame MSP will host the event, which will bring together social enterprises, MSPs and representatives from the public and private sector to learn more about how the diverse and dynamic social enterprise business movement is transforming lives and communities.

Other speakers at the event include:

• Bosco Santimano, You Can Cook - a Borders based Community Interest Company, which subsidises healthy eating programmes for low-income families and groups through running onsite corporate cooking classes/workshops and grants.
• Dave Simmers, Community Food Initiatives North East – supplier of fruit, vegetables and other produce to a large number of organisations in public, private and third sector.
• Antonia Swinson, chief executive of the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition.

Social enterprise business now adds £2 billion to the Scottish economy every year. Many social enterprises are developed in response to specific need or as a result of genuine ‘bottom up’ community regeneration. They have a level of insight of huge value to their local community, be it helping to reduce food miles, providing education in order to encourage people to improve their diet; and facilitating the unlocking of community cohesion.

The reception will be held at the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday 25 May from 6pm to 8pm. For more information visit: www.scottishsocialenterprise.org.uk.