CAMBRIDGE SUSTAINABLE FOOD C.I.C.

What CAMBRIDGE SUSTAINABLE FOOD C.I.C. does

Cambridge Sustainable Food C.I.C. is a non-profit Community Interest Company registered in England that coordinates community food projects across Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire. Founded as a partnership in 2013 and incorporated as a CIC in 2018, the organisation addresses food insecurity, food waste, and sustainable food systems through a portfolio of interconnected programmes: eight community food hubs (handling 22,271 visits annually), free holiday lunches for nursery and school-aged children, the Waste Not Wednesdays pay-as-you-feel cafe at St Philips Church, food redistribution from its Barnwell Drive warehouse (187 tonnes of surplus food annually), and education initiatives including the Men's Cookery Club, Batch Cook Club, and Food for the Planet Festival. The organisation serves food-insecure individuals and families as the primary beneficiary base, with secondary engagement from local food businesses (via the Sustainable Food Directory), volunteers, and local authorities including Cambridge City Council.

The business model blends three revenue streams: a small sustainable catering service for local events (mezze boxes, plant-based buffets) whose profits are reinvested in community projects; donations and fundraising through appeals, GoFundMe, and community events; and the Waste Not Wednesdays cafe operating on a pay-as-you-feel model. Core beneficiary services are provided free of charge. The organisation depends heavily on a volunteer base and a network of corporate produce donors (Co-op, Tesco, Nationwide Produce, NIAB, Kale & Damson, Still Good Food) and convenes the Cambridge Food Poverty Alliance across the local third sector.

CSF's infrastructure comprises a small paid team (CEO Sam Dyer MBE, Senior Project and Operations Manager Claire Ives, Food Centre Coordinator Sarah Bowden, and Volunteer and Project Support Coordinator Alex Vardill) plus a board of directors and substantial volunteer capacity. The organisation holds the Sustainable Food Places Gold Award (2024), making Cambridge only the third UK place to receive this recognition, and convenes partnerships with national bodies including Sustainable Food Places, Soil Association, Food Matters, and Sustain. In October 2025, CSF and Abbey People CIO jointly established Grow Cambridge CIC to manage former CoFarm Cambridge land for community farming, signalling expansion into agroecology and land stewardship.

Name

CAMBRIDGE SUSTAINABLE FOOD C.I.C.

Legal name

Cambridge Sustainable Food CIC

Website

https://cambridgesustainablefood.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cambridge Sustainable Food C.I.C. is a Cambridge-based non-profit that runs community food hubs, free holiday lunches, food redistribution, a pay-as-you-feel cafe, and a small catering service to address food insecurity and food waste across the city.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Community Food Services

NAICS

Community Food Services (62421), Mobile Food Services (72233), Special Food Services (7223)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810)

akta.pro primary industry

Food Assistance & Food Banks (BPAGAEAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems (BPAGAGAI), Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems (Fair Trade, Food Access, Regenerative) (BPAGALAD)

Keywords

• Community food services
• Sustainable catering
• Food poverty support
• Food waste reduction
• Food redistribution

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Catering Services: Sustainable catering service for local events including mezze boxes, cakes, cold buffets, and beverages. Primarily uses plant-based ingredients. All profits go back into supporting community food projects.
2. Donations and Fundraising: Individual donations, winter fundraising appeals, GoFundMe campaigns, and community support to fund ongoing food justice work and food redistribution programmes.
3. Pay-as-you-feel Cafe: Waste Not Wednesdays cafe at St Philips Church operates on a pay-what-you-can model. Any profits are put towards food justice work.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Cambridge Sustainable Food C.I.C. is a Community Interest Company that tackles food poverty and food waste in Cambridge through a portfolio of community programmes including free Holiday Lunches for families, pay-as-you-feel community cafes, surplus food redistribution, sustainable catering for events and businesses, food education, and community growing projects. The organisation operates a whole-systems approach that combines direct food aid, food waste prevention, business surplus redistribution, and community engagement across Cambridge and surrounding areas.

Product overview

Cambridge Sustainable Food C.I.C. is a non-profit community interest company established in 2018 that operates as a collection of interconnected food security and sustainability programmes rather than a unified technology product. The core offerings include: Holiday Lunches providing free meals during school holidays; a Sustainable Catering Service for events; Waste Not Wednesdays pay-as-you-feel cafe; a Sustainable Food Directory listing local businesses; and food redistribution programmes including surplus donation drives and emergency food support. Additional services include the Cambridge Food Poverty Alliance coordination, Food for the Planet Festival, Men's Cookery Club, Batch Cook Club, and the Christmas Project. The organisation also supports Grow Cambridge CIC for community farming. These services work together to address food insecurity, reduce food waste, and promote sustainable food systems across Cambridge.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• Redistributed 187 tonnes of surplus food, preventing 56 tonnes from going to landfill
• +7 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments5 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

19 partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• City, University of London - Centre for Food PolicyminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Collaboration with Professor Tim Lang for food resilience discussions and knowledge sharing.
• Abbey People CIOcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025Working together to establish Grow Cambridge CIC to take care of CoFarm Cambridge land and ensure it continues to thrive as community farming space.
• St Andrew's Church, Cherry HintoncoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025Land owner for the CoFarm Cambridge site, backing the new community farm initiative to keep the land in productive community use.
• AlliaminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025Supporting the development of Grow Cambridge CIC and helping to shape next steps for the community farm initiative.
• CoFarm FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2025Partnership to honour the passion and commitment of existing volunteers and ensure continuity of CoFarm community farming legacy.
• Cambridge City FoodbankcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2024Partnership for Christmas hamper and vegetable distribution project. Foodbank distributed over 1,000 hampers containing essential food and hygiene items, while CSF provided fresh fruit and vegetables. Foodbank recorded biggest increase in need in 2024 with almost 17,500 food parcels issued.
• Cambridge City CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 December 2024Partnership for Christmas Project including toy drive coordination and food hub support. Council has declared Cambridge a Right to Food City and supports Food Poverty Alliance convened by CSF.
• Co-op StoresminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 December 2024Subsidised purchase of fresh produce for Christmas vegetable bags distributed to families in need.
• TescominorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 December 2024Subsidised purchase of fresh produce for Christmas vegetable bags distributed to families in need.
• Nationwide ProduceminorOthers · 1 December 2024Generous donation of 900kg seasonal vegetables for Christmas project.
• Still Good FoodminorOthers · 1 December 2024Gleaners who collect produce from farmers that would otherwise go to waste, donating to CSF redistribution efforts.
• Sustainable Food PlacescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partnership programme run by Soil Association, Food Matters and Sustain. CSF coordinates Cambridge's participation in the network which helps share challenges, explore practical solutions and develop best practice.
• Soil AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partner in Sustainable Food Places programme and advocacy for sustainable food systems.
• Food MatterscoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partner in Sustainable Food Places programme working towards sustainable and healthy food for all.
• SustaincoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024Partner in Sustainable Food Places programme and advocacy organisation for food and farming.
• Cambridge Food PartnershipcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2024CSF CIC implements projects recommended by the CSF Partnership Board which coordinates food work across the city.
• Veg CitiesminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Supported development of the Sustainable Food Directory and campaign for more veg growing and selling.
• EIT Food MAKEitminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2021Supported development of the Sustainable Food Directory in support of sustainable food developments.
• Cambridge Food Poverty AlliancecoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2020CSF facilitates and administers the Cambridge Food Poverty Alliance, a network of organisations working on food poverty issues.

Scale indicators13 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Regional players

• City Harvest London: London-based surplus food redistribution charity delivering to community organisations. Equivalent operating model to CSF's warehouse-based redistribution, but scoped to a single region (London) rather than Cambridge.

Direct peers

• FoodCycle: National charity turning surplus food into free community meals. Closely comparable to CSF's Waste Not Wednesdays cafe — both transform rescued food into pay-what-you-can / free meals for food-insecure communities, both volunteer-led.
• The Bread and Butter Thing: Charity redistributing surplus food via community hubs across northern England. Highly comparable model to CSF's 8 community food hubs — affordable access to surplus food in underserved areas, with a strong measureable impact focus.
• CoFarm Foundation: Co-operative community-farming network. CSF's Grow Cambridge CIC builds directly on CoFarm Cambridge's legacy and is a partnership between CSF, Abbey People CIO and CoFarm Foundation; both operate agroecological community farms.
• Cambridge City Foodbank: Local Trussell Trust-affiliated food bank operating in the same Cambridge catchment. Both organisations issue emergency food parcels, run Christmas hamper programmes, and refer clients to each other; they are co-implementers on the Christmas Project 2024.

Broad incumbents

• FareShare: National surplus-food redistribution charity handling ~21,000 tonnes annually across the UK. CSF operates a similar redistribution model but at city scale; both rely on retail surplus supply and redistribute to frontline community organisations.
• The Trussell Trust: UK-wide food bank network supporting over 1,400 food banks including Cambridge City Foodbank. Same beneficiary segment (food-insecure households) but operates a national franchise model with paid infrastructure, much larger than CSF's CIC structure.

Others

• Feedback Global: NGO working on food waste policy and grassroots redistribution including The Gleaning Network (Still Good Food is a gleaning partner of CSF). Adjacent ecosystem participant rather than direct competitor.
• Soil Association / Sustain / Food Matters (Sustainable Food Places consortium): Programme operators and advocacy partners that confer the Sustainable Food Places awards. They are conveners/grant-makers in the same ecosystem rather than service providers, but they strongly shape CSF's external position and partnership base.

Emerging players

• Hubbub Foundation: Environmental charity running innovative food waste and behaviour-change campaigns (e.g. Community Fridge network). Overlapping mission with CSF on food waste reduction but focused on campaigns rather than direct service delivery.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/cambridgefood
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cambridge-sustainable-food-cic
• Instagraminstagram.com/cambridgesustainablefood

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about CAMBRIDGE SUSTAINABLE FOOD C.I.C.