Alchemic Kitchen CIC

Who is the Queen of Greens for? 🚌 Whether you live near one of our stops, come by on your lunch break, or travel a little bit further to stock up on fresh produce - The Queen of Greens is here for you! When you shop with us you are supporting a social enterprise that puts people and planet first: 🍓 We bring high-quality, fresh fruit and vegetables directly to communities, stocking local, organic, and seasonal produce where possible. ✨ We pay our team above the Real Living Wage 🥕 We ensure fair prices for farmers and producers across the supply chain Please check out our Crowdfunder: https://lnkd.in/eQYpHEBt Find out more about our work: queenofgreens.co.uk

👉 Why do we need the Queen of Greens? Many of our local neighbourhoods are classed as “food deserts” where residents have to walk over a kilometre or make long, expensive journeys to find basic fresh produce. Without access to fresh fruit and vegetables, communities are at risk of missing out on vital vitamins, nutrients and fibre essential for long-term health and wellbeing. In Liverpool, only 50% of adults currently get their 5-a-day. We understand the challenges people face when accessing fruit and vegetables. That's why the Queen of Greens is on the road 🚌 💚 We bring good quality, fresh fruit and vegetables directly to the hearts of communities where access is low. We remove some of the financial and travel barriers associated with eating well. Support us: 📍 Check out a stop near you - Come and shop at the Queen of Greens. ✨ Donate to our Crowdfunder to help us raise money for a new bus - Aviva will match-fund donations up to £250. https://lnkd.in/eQYpHEBt

What is the Queen of Greens? 🚌🥦 The Queen of Greens is a mobile greengrocer delivered in partnership with Feeding Liverpool, designed to address food deserts across the Liverpool City Region. Over the past 4 years, the service has grown into a valued community asset, making 23 weekly stops across a wide range of settings, including hospitals, health centres, primary schools, children’s centres, and social housing sites. How the model works: 📍 Direct Access: We bring fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs directly into neighbourhoods with restricted food retail options. 🌱 Sustainable Sourcing: We prioritise local and seasonal produce to support local growers, and keep prices low. 🛒Loose produce: Produce is sold loose, allowing residents to purchase exactly what they need, stretching household budgets and reducing food waste. The Current Challenge: One of our buses is now out of service. Without a replacement bus, families and individuals across our 23 stops risk losing reliable access to fresh, affordable produce 🚌 How You Can Support: We have launched a Crowdfunder to purchase a replacement bus. Thanks to Aviva Match Funding, every donation is currently matched pound-for-pound up to £250. Please consider supporting or sharing our campaign. Double your impact today: https://lnkd.in/eQYpHEBt #crowdfundingliverpool #crowdfunding #liverpool #queenofgreens #mobilegreengrocer

Week 1 of our crowdfunder: we've raised £1,408 from supporters, matched to £2,816 by Aviva. Thank you to everyone that has donated so far! We appreciate each and every one of you. "Keep up the trailblazing 🚌 🥕 We love what you do" - Thank you Phil! Still time to have your donation matched pound-for-pound, up to £250, towards our replacement bus.  alchemickitchen.org/donate or link in bio #crowdfunder #liverpool #LiverpoolCrowdfunder #QueenOfGreens

Be among the first to back the Queen of Greens Crowdfunder, and you could receive more than the satisfaction of supporting a vital local service. Here's the math's: our target is £20,000, the cost of a reliable replacement bus. We only need to raise £10,000 from supporters, because the Communities Fund, part of the Aviva Foundation, matches every pound given, up to £250 per donor. That means it would take just 40 people giving the maximum to get us there. We don't expect that, but if enough of us give what we can, we'll get there together. We've introduced a number of rewards for early supporters, from an Alchemic Kitchen tote bag at £20 (£40 once matched), through to our top tier: have your name, proudly displayed on the new Queen of Greens bus. A £250 pledge there unlocks the maximum match funding, turning your gift into £500 of total impact, giving lasting visibility across the city. And it's not just us, we've got loads of other great rewards from brilliant local businesses too: Liverpool Cheese Company, Liverpool Gin Distillery, Home Baked, Bundobust, We Grow Co and Moonshine Tattoo. Rewards are limited to the first donors in each tier. Donate or find out more: https://lnkd.in/eQYpHEBt

Apple Day yesterday at National Trust Speke Hall with Ben Ruth, Jay Hampton Food For Thought Merseyside Ltd 🍓, supported by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority plus volunteers from The Gateway Collective CIC Christine Leung‘s Lotus Brook, the Friends of South Park & many more. We welcomed 2794 visitors, made 160 litres of juice, 850 crumbles, picked 2 tonnes of apples, handed out 1000 tote bags & generally celebrated apples, preventing food waste. 🍎🍏 Feeding Liverpool Sustain: The alliance for better food and farming Lucy Antal Foodrise Foodrise EU

Today we're launching a Crowdfunder to keep the Queen of Greens on the road 🚌 We're grateful to Aviva's Communities Fund for matching every individual donation pound-for-pound, up to £250 per donor, for the next six weeks (until 12th November). The Queen of Greens is a mobile greengrocer, run in partnership with Feeding Liverpool, bringing affordable fresh food to everyone in over 20 communities across the Liverpool City Region. Without two working buses we struggle to reach all of our regular stops. We sell loose fruit and veg at a fair price, close to home, so the service directly supports financial wellbeing, helping households manage food costs and cutting out the need to travel to a supermarket. That's why this campaign is backed by Aviva's Communities Fund under its Financial Wellbeing priority. Our target is £20,000 towards a Queen of Greens bus, that’s £10,000 from supporters, matched pound-for-pound by Aviva. Very few funders cover vehicle costs, so crowdfunding is by far the fastest way to make sure we have two buses on the road. If you or your organisation would like to sponsor, share, or support the campaign within your own networks, we'd love to hear from you. Donate (link in bio) or find out more visit alchemickitchen.org/donate and thank you to Aviva for the match funding. https://lnkd.in/eQYpHEBt

On Thursday 1 October at 12pm, we’re launching a Crowdfunder to protect the Queen of Greens bus and the routes people rely on every day. 🚌 Our mobile greengrocer brings fresh fruit and vegetables directly into neighbourhoods where access is limited or non‑existent, making it easier for households to get fresh, healthy food close to home. 🍅 🥕 🥔 Right now, one of our buses has broken down, and it's affecting our ability to reach the communities who rely on us. To keep every stop running, we need two reliable buses on the road. This Crowdfunder will help us replace the broken bus and protect the service for the communities who depend on it. Stay tuned for how you can help us keep the wheels turning for our communities across Liverpool. 💚

Yesterday we went to St Helens to run a morning Disco Chop at a drop in support centre. Thanks to funding by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority - we made fresh potato gnocchi served with a veg rich sauce & salads using unsold veg from the Queen of Greens including cabbage, carrots, potatoes, onions, rainbow chard & cucumbers.

Thank you for your support Kath Dalmeny - means a lot to us