Kitchen Equipment Grant

Covid-19 Community Support Fund

Kitchen Equipment Grant - Guidance notes

Completed applications will not be accepted after 4pm Monday 31 January 2022.

Applications closed on 31 January 2022.

1. Introduction

The impact of managing the Coronavirus pandemic has put our society under unparalleled stress, and whilst we look forward to emerging out of lock-down and towards recovery, We are aware that our community’s resources will be even further stretched.  

Organisations that provide help continue to face increased pressure, as the number of people experiencing hardship continues to increase.

With a view to future challenges, we are also trying to manage our available resources more sustainably; paradoxically we are trying to reduce food waste when many are going hungry.

We are launching a new round of funding that aims to tackle both of these problems by providing funding for kitchen equipment. This aims specifically to help community groups who have been actively engaged or would like to commence a project to elevate food poverty by increasing their capacity to accept, store or process fresh, surplus food.

Money is available to purchase kitchen equipment before 15 March 2022 that will enable groups to:

• increase the number of meals provided to their members
• increase the number of people each group has the capacity to support
• increase the range of food (in particular fresh or frozen food) that can be accepted from distribution organisations
• Increase the amount of food diverted from waste stream through redistribution and processing

Grants are available up to a maximum of £2,000 to purchase kitchen equipment including, but not limited to fridges, freezers, ovens, dishwashers, slow cookers, pots, pans, kitchenware, utensils or any other equipment that will increase each successful group’s capacity to provide meals. Eligible submissions will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Your groups may only apply for one grant

2. Who Can Apply?

• Constituted groups,
• Charities
• Community / Voluntary groups

3. Who can not apply?

• Public-sector organisations
• Schools, Colleges and Universities (except where there is a clear need demonstrated that the project being funded will serve the community and this need is not being met by another organisation). Contact us before applying for funding if you fall into this category
• Organisations that not formally constituted, in other words, they do not have a constitution or memorandum and articles of association;
• Organisations that are not operating on a “not-for-profit basis” (taken from the constitution or memorandum and articles of association) as we cannot support commercial projects or projects that could be carried out commercially.
  If, in the reasonable opinion of the Council, the Organisation applying for funding is a de facto commercial Organisation, whatever the legal make-up of the Organisation, then the Council shall not fund that Organisation. The decision of the Council shall be final in this regard;
• Organisations that are able to share out profits (taken from the constitution or memorandum and articles of association)
• Individuals-We will not fund individuals or projects established to benefit an individual

4. We will not fund

• Groups located outside Belfast City Council
• Computer equipment
• Equipment that is not for kitchen use
• Equipment for personal use and individual benefit
• Salary, administration fees, staff
• Internal costs including fuel and utility bills
• Food stuffs
• Non-recyclable disposable food containers
• Projects that have no significant benefit to the Belfast City Council area
• Purchase of equipment already bought at the time of the assessment
• Projects that are charity or fundraising events or activities;
• Projects/activities that are of a party political nature;
• Projects which promote a particular religion
• Projects which are against Belfast City Council policy
•  Assistance with the payment of individual/family utilities
• Organisation’s own facility hire – groups cannot be paid for use of own venue
• Costs that are deemed to be unreasonable for example excessive goods or services
• Items which only benefit individuals for example food vouchers

5. Caps and restrictions

• Equipment grants are capped at £2,000 for each group
• Cost of equipment must be proportionate, if we do not think the amount you have quoted is good value for money, we may offer you less than the amount you have applied for. 
• You must supply a minimum of three written price checks from different suppliers for each item you wish to purchase over £250. These items must be comparable, you cannot provide one quote for a chest freezer and two quotes for upright freezers, they may differ in model number, but they should be of similar capacity and type. Ensure that links to websites work and that screenshots of quotations are legible.
• Items under £250 need one written price check unless you are purchasing multiple identical items that exceed the £250 threshold* in which case we again require three price checks.
• This grant application process will remain open until 4pm on Monday 31 January 2022 or until all grant money is allocated; whichever happens first. 
• Projects must be completed by 15 March 2022. Any costs incurred prior to or after these dates will not be eligible for funding through this grant.

*E.g. A press grill @ £239.98  – you could request this once, with one price check, if you want to purchase two or more you would need to show us two more examples of similar items with prices

6. Assessment Process

We will log all applications when we receive them and acknowledge receipt.

We will check your application to make sure you are a constituted group, and that the equipment you want to buy is eligible within the grant.

Successful applications are non-competitive and will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

If your application is successful, Belfast City Council will issue you with a letter of offer. You must return required documents to Belfast City Council within 10 working days.                  

Required documents will be checked. Failure to submit all requested documents in full will result in your offer being withdrawn. Belfast City Council will endeavour to pay all claims as soon as possible, provided that there are no queries with any of the paperwork that is submitted

Applicants must submit the details of invoices and proof of payments when requested including original bank statements or stamped and signed ‘Bank Transaction Forms’, showing full settlement of the Award, may be requested.

If your application is unsuccessful, we will inform you of our decision by email. There is no appeal process

7. Payment

Council will pay the full grant allocation once the Letter of Offer has been signed. You must retain receipts for all purchases and provide these when requested to the Council. The Council may also visit your premises to ensure the equipment has been installed.

Any costs incurred prior to the Letter of Offer will not be eligible for funding through this grant.

8. Previous Grant Allocation

If you previously received a grant up to £2,000 for the Kitchen Equipment Grant 2021 you will be required to complete and return a Project Evaluation Report before Council will issue any further payments. This means you can submit an application for the third round of the grant scheme and if successful you will be allocated funding, but you will not receive payment until we receive the completed Project Evaluation. If you are not in a position to complete a Project Evaluation the offer of funding may be withdrawn

9. Completing the Application Form

Section 1

Is information we need to know about your organisation to check eligibility for the Kitchen Equipment Grant, process payment and communicate with you.

1. Your Organisation.

We would like to know a little about what your organisation does and the people who benefit from it

2. Where do you source your food? Part of the function of this grant is to reduce good food being wasted. We will require groups to monitor how much food is diverted from the waste stream in their evaluation. If you are a member of Fare Share or a similar organisation who distributes surplus food, this is easy to monitor, but you might have a relationship with a local baker, grocer, café, butcher, hotel or similar on an individual basis.
3. How does the food you are dealing with reach the community and how often do you do this, daily, twice a week once a month? For example you may operate a foodbank and deliver food parcels once a week, you might run a lunch club for older people that runs Mon-Fri, you could be a community kitchen that prepares and delivers meals for vulnerable people every day or a youth group that provides hot meals as part of a wider service.
4. How many additional meals will you make Each week? If you make meals. If you do not make meals, this may be left blank. This will be an approximation on your grant form, though you will need to record the actual number to monitor the success of the grant and to help us evaluate afterwards.
5. How many additional people have been helped – again this will be an estimate that we will compare to actual data that you need to record for monitoring and evaluation.
6. Some organisations already have to record the amount of food they accept, the amount of meals they create, and the number of people they help, for others this will be something new. You will need to think how you will record this, who will record it, how often records are updated and where this information will be kept. You may accept food from more than one source, not all of it might be surplus food, you will need to be able to show how you distinguish between these. We are particularly interested in reducing food going to landfill.

Section 2

How you will spend the money

Items over £250

You should get three prices for each piece of equipment you wish to purchase costing £250 or more. The items need to be comparable, e.g. you can’t give two examples of upright fridge freezers and one for a chest freezer.

You will need to find out if there is an additional delivery cost and add this on. In the example below, you can see that BelfastKitchenEssentials.com were chosen even though they didn’t have the cheapest fridge because delivery was included in the price.

When getting quotations ensure that your suppliers actually deliver to Northern Ireland.

Preferred supplier

BelfastKitchenEssentials.com

How to present your answer

Section 3

In this section you must sign and complete confirming that all the information you have given within this proposal form is accurate and complete and that you agree with the GDPR statement.

Check List

• Have I completed all my organisation’s details correctly including bank details?
• Have I evidence of price checks for all items over £250
• Have I or someone in authority signed the application form?
• Return the Completed form and evidence of price checks to KitchenEquipmentGrantScheme@belfastcity.gov.uk