Celebrating Alchemic Kitchen’s transition to an independent CIC

Alchemic Kitchen started in 2018 as a delivery project of Foodrise (formerly known as Feedback). Now, it’s become an independent community interest company (CIC), marking an exciting new chapter as it continues to create a fairer food system across the Liverpool City Region.

Creating change 

Alchemic Kitchen began as a development kitchen in Merseyside, transforming surplus fruit and vegetables into jams, chutneys and ketchups to reduce food waste. 

But in 2020, Covid-19 lockdowns exacerbated the problems many communities faced in accessing affordable and nutritious food. In response, Alchemic Kitchen shifted its focus to working with local partners to deliver emergency food provision to communities across the Liverpool City Region. 

Today, Alchemic Kitchen is an action-led social enterprise working with communities and individuals to improve food access, create opportunities for knowledge exchange, and advocate for better food systems that support people and the planet. These three ways of working are connected by one belief: everybody should be able to eat a healthy and sustainable diet.  

Improving food access 

Queen of Greens 

Bright and early each morning, you’ll find one of the Queen of Greens greengrocers stocking up the bus for the day ahead. They understand the needs of their communities, loading the bus with local and seasonal produce and an organic offer wherever possible. 

The Queen of Greens is a mobile greengrocer visiting 40 stops across Liverpool, including hospitals, children’s centres and schools. The bus has become a staple, relied on in the community. Customers are welcomed by friendly faces and share stories about the health, social and financial benefits of stopping by.

“We really wanted to get into the spaces of Liverpool and Knowsley where it is easier to buy a vape than to buy an apple,” said Lucy Antal, Director Alchemic Kitchen CIC and Founder Queen of Greens Mobile Greengrocer.

Bringing fruit and vegetables directly to the people who need them builds a healthier, more sustainable food system, one that isn’t reliant on large supermarket chains. 

Access and advocacy work hand in hand here. Research shows 77% of Knowsley is a ‘food desert’, meaning people simply can’t reach fresh fruit and vegetables easily. Alchemic Kitchen’s community team is running consultations across Knowsley to expand the service into the borough and reach communities where food insecurity is high. The team is meeting community leaders, council members and schools to plan routes to the places that need them most.

Knowledge exchange 

Disco Chops 

Knowledge exchange happens best when it’s fun. One way Alchemic Kitchen shares skills across Merseyside is by hosting Disco Chops. With a groovy beat and a whole load of vegetables that would otherwise go to waste, a Disco Chop turns surplus produce into a fun, shared community meal, and a chance to build the confidence to cook it again at home. 

On a sunny April afternoon, a Disco Chop at Sub Rosa in the Baltic Triangle brought people together to cook a vegetable curry, parsnip bhajis and flatbreads. In true Scouse fashion, the team got by with a little help from their friends: Alison Lockett-Burke of The Fig and the Wild, resident chef on Growing Knowsley’s Future, joined the event. A wonderful crowd got stuck into the prep and, just as important, the eating. The team then headed to a school in Kirkby, where parents and students rustled up flatbread pizzas and apple crumble. Families left with new skills and the confidence to use them. 

Alchemic Kitchen has recently secured funding from the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority to deliver eight more Disco Chops across the city region, bringing these high-energy events to schools and community centres over the next year.

Apple Day 

No year at Alchemic Kitchen is complete without Apple Day. 

Since beginning in 2022, the event has seen Liverpool’s historic Speke Hall welcome thousands of visitors to its orchard. Visitors pick apples straight from the trees and take them home with recipe books or help juice them and turn them into crumble. Either way, Apple Day stops two tonnes of apples from going to waste. 

It’s hands-on knowledge exchange. Young people start to understand the connection between their food and the land, and families come together. As one visitor put it: “There’s teenagers in the trees. Well, at least they’re not on their devices!”. This year will mark the fourth Apple Day, supported by the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority. 

Advocacy 

Good Food Plan 

Alchemic Kitchen also works to change the system that makes good food hard to reach in the first place, and that’s the third way of working: Advocacy. 

As a member of the Feeding Liverpool alliance, Alchemic Kitchen helps deliver the Good Food Plan for the Liverpool City Region. It collaborates on research and evaluation, builds partnerships across housing, health and local food networks, and shares what works.  

What’s next?

Alchemic Kitchen is continuing to grow, with new team members and new projects, while remaining focused on the same goal: good food now and a fairer food system for the future. 

Stay up to date with the latest work at Alchemic Kitchen.