Why social enterprise work should be at the heart of the curriculum

The pandemic impacted colleges in many ways: like many others, our Hospitality and Catering School struggled with the delivery of vocational assessments within our cafes and restaurants which then caused delays in students achieving their hospitality and catering qualifications. However, rather than rest on our laurels, we saw it as an opportunity to radically transform our delivery of the curriculum.

In recognition of the extreme poverty in deprived communities around the college, in 2020 the school shifted the project-based learning focus from pure business enterprise to a combination of this and social enterprise work.

The ‘Food Poverty Project’ is the realisation of that shift: we work with food banks, charities, businesses and local councils to provide unique learning opportunities for students in designing, planning and implementing valuable culinary projects to address food poverty in the community.

Students could be working on anything from planning and delivering fresh food services to foodbanks and providing family cooking on-budget education in the community to manufacturing frozen meal supplies for charities and foodbanks using waste food from businesses and farming partners.

The project is embedded within the curriculum, and it harnesses all the student's skills and learning for the community's good. They develop project management, leadership, entrepreneurial, communication and culinary skills while also addressing severe real-world food poverty problems in their communities. Staff also get a chance to develop their skills in managing large-scale projects and improve their confidence to look for other opportunities for the project.

The feedback has been great. Trevor Cummings, the Mayor of Ards and North Down, said that the projects achieve positive outcomes in three key objectives – connectivity, financial and food poverty. Diane Dodds, Member of the Legislative Assembly and Minister for the Department of the Economy, said that it was a prime example of organisations coming together to help those in need in the community.

Social enterprise projects teach students real-life skills: the importance of thorough preparation, contingency planning, fast decision-making, working out of their comfort zone, and working in groups with a diverse range of people and abilities. We summarise this as teaching an "adapt and overcome" attitude, which sets them up for life as functioning adults. Lecturers also emphasised the value of teaching the students to "think on their feet", adding that they take these experiences with them when they enter full-time employment.

Many of our students have additional learning needs and are now flourishing. We credit their growth to real-world problem-solving exposure during these social enterprise events, accelerating their social skills and confidence. Evidence from these events is also a key part of their assessment, enabling them to achieve qualifications they might not otherwise have been suitable for.

We are still keen to do more. The demand for local foodbanks has increased by 50% over the last 12 months and unfortunately, 90% of foodbank donations are processed foods with too much sodium, saturated fat, and sugar, which is increasing food bank users' risk of chronic diseases. The next stage of the programme is to implement an alternative to unhealthy food bank donations: the Removing Waste Reducing Food Hunger project.

This project will provide healthy fresh food to people who use food banks and other charity organisations for their weekly food supply. We want to work with local businesses and farms in partnership to create a mechanism for surplus fresh food to be donated to SERC to develop pre-prepared nutritious meals made from fresh produce for the foodbank and other charities to supply to their clients.

The project will create a circular economy by ensuring that food is utilised to its full potential, redirecting food surplus to good use, and creating healthy, nutritious meals that will benefit a section of the population already at higher risk of ill health than communities with more wealth. Students will be taught how to turn around short-dated items by designing and making frozen nutritious meals for end users to heat on consumption, and a wider variety of skills and qualifications will be provided to students as they embark on this food manufacturing catering venture.

If any other college wanted to introduce something similar, I’d advise them to first build networks within the communities with charities, councils, businesses, farms and foodbanks, and persuade them to develop the vision collaboratively. Everybody needs to be an equal stakeholder for the project to be successful.

The leadership team needs to be on board: they can provide you with the resources around project management, procurement, bid writing and marketing that are important for the project's success. Your immediate team in the department also need to be fully behind the vision: they will need to overcome many hurdles on the journey and be creative in finding solutions. They are your most important stakeholders in the project.

And last, but not least, make sure you share your journey with the world: as our experience has shown that the food poverty project has led to more enrolments and interest in our courses.

Paul Mercer is the Deputy Head of School – School of Hospitality, Management and Catering and Commercial Hospitality Manager at South Eastern Regional College.