Cyrenians

Education, training and employment - Food, catering and hospitality - Housing - Information, consultancy and support

Our Good Food Programme includes a number of social enterprises, supporting people through access to food, improving their health and well-being, and developing skills and confidence around cooking. This in turn allows them to move towards a more settled lifestyle. The key elements of the programme are: FareShare (including the Access to Free Sanitary Products Project and the Pantries Project), Food Education, the Cyrenians Farm (including the Upcycling Project) and Arnotdale House. Volunteering is a crucial part of all our social enterprises. 

Cyrenians Farm: Our Farm is a social enterprise in West Lothian, producing fruit, vegetables and eggs for wholesale and individual customers. We continuously develop our organic market garden, teaching communities to locally grow, harvest, sell and eat good food. We also earn income through corporate volunteering events. We provide a space to grow for community residents and volunteers. In addition, we now run an upcycling project, making and restoring furniture for sale.   

Cyrenians FareShare: Based at our FareShare Depot in Leith, Edinburgh, we redistribute surplus food to community organisations across Central and South East Scotland, reducing food insecurity and food waste. Over 40 tons of food are distributed per month, providing for about 100,000 meals monthly to support those who are homeless, disadvantaged or vulnerable. We now also run the Access to Free Sanitary Products project (AFSP), benefitting around 13,000 women every month and the pantries project. Pantries are stocked with food from FareShare and people can access good quality food at low cost through signing up for membership.  

Food Education:  Our Food Education service helps people eat well on a budget and provides space for people to enjoy cooking and eating socially. We encourage a healthy attitude towards food and break down barriers through running our weekly community cook clubs across Edinburgh, Midlothian and Fife. We also run cooking courses and support people to achieve accredited certificates. Our income comes from running master classes, supper clubs and accredited classes for the general public, through event space and kitchen hire as well as catering. 

Arnotdale House: This is a new café and event and meeting space in Dollar Park, Falkirk, with office accommodation which opened its doors in autumn 2019. The facility will offer work experience and opportunities to vulnerable people, removing barriers to employment. 

Volunteer participation is crucial for all our social enterprises.  We simply couldn’t do it without them. They are the ones picking, sorting and delivering orders at FareShare, cooking at our numerous cook clubs and events at Food Ed and sow, weed, dig and harvest at the Farm. We welcome volunteers from all walks of life, and provide opportunities for progression, training and qualifications leading to improved employment opportunities. For some we are a way to ‘give back’ to their communities and vulnerable and disadvantaged people.

Enterprise Training: Building on Cyrenians’ expertise in conflict resolution, Enterprise Training is a social enterprise selling training courses and workshops to customers from the corporate, public and third sector.

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