At Mandala we’re conducting a range of research projects across Birmingham to investigate how the food system is changing right now, and how it could change in the future.
We’ll be checking in before and after these projects through a series of short films – Stories from a Changing Food System – produced by Good Stories in Food.
The first of these films profiles our research with Change Kitchen, a social enterprise in Balsall Health, Birmingham which is aiming to provide healthy, sustainable and affordable vegetarian food.
Healthy, sustainable, affordable takeaways
Takeaway food is typically high in energy, fat and salt and consumption is associated with body weight and weight gain. Many neighbourhoods have a high density of takeaway outlets, especially in more deprived neighbourhoods, and neighbourhoods with more takeaways amplify social inequalities in unhealthy eating and obesity.
Change Kitchen, a social enterprise in Balsall Health, Birmingham aims to provide healthy, sustainable and affordable vegetarian food.
A recent grant enabled the company to expand their kitchen facilities, open an attached store front café, and begin operating as a takeaway. This adds to an existing catering business for weddings and other large events, enabling subsidising of free meals for city centre distribution. The company aspires to merge a standard full price offer with ‘pay it forward’ (i.e. customers paying full price can contribute to low cost meals for others), and ‘pay what you can’ options.
In December 2023 they began selling via a fast food delivery app. Whilst the takeaway is currently a small part of the company’s business (5-10 customers/day), they have recently been awarded a small grant to support further marketing and aspire to around 100 customers a day.
Mandala researchers are investigating whether Change Kitchen cab offer a healthy, sustainable, affordable and economically viable takeaway.