Glasgow Clyde provides catering facilities to children’s charity
Glasgow Clyde College has stepped in at the 11th hour to offer Launch Foods a home so the charity can continue its amazing work feeding school children across the city.
Launch Foods, a charity which supports hungry kids, was relocating from its previous base and struggling to find a suitable replacement with many commercial kitchens closed due to Glasgow’s ‘Level 4’ status.
Upon hearing about their plight, Glasgow Clyde College offered the organisation use of its commercial kitchen facilities at Anniesland and Langside Campuses to cook hundreds of meals each day which are delivered to eight schools around the city.
It is also providing a storage facility to house the charity’s walk-in fridge and freezer, space to accommodate food stock and parking for its vehicles.
Use of the space has been guaranteed for the remainder of the academic year while Launch Foods secures a permanent site it can call home.
Using surplus food donated by partners including Simon Howie, Highland Spring and Brakes Group, Launch Foods serves hot meal, bottled water and fruit to over 70,000 children every year from its distinctive Airstream trucks. Every child who visits the counter is eligible for a free meal, saving thousands of tonnes of food from landfill.
Launch Foods was set up in 2018 by Craig Johnson after being saddened about media reports of children going hungry, persuading large suppliers to donate their surplus food. To date, the charity has relied on its founder and the Glasgow business community for support. However, Launch is set to generate an income from ‘Launch Coffee’ located on Bothwell Street once it opens to the public.
Jon Vincent, Principal and Chief Executive at Glasgow Clyde College said: “Launch Foods provide an amazing service to the city, supporting children from their fleet of food trucks. With reduced footfall on campus due to COVID, we were able to offer them to use of our commercial kitchens so their great work could continue. We’re really pleased to be able to help and look forward to developing our partnership with this incredible organisation.”
Craig Johnson, Founder of Launch Foods said: “We can’t thank Glasgow Clyde College enough. Upon hearing of our situation, Jon Vincent and John Clark quickly threw us a lifeline and allowed Launch to continue to provide its free food service. Whilst we do all we can to help school kids, on this occasion it was Launch that needed some help and Glasgow Clyde College stepped up.”
For more information about Launch Foods please visit www.launchfoods.org.