Thankfully, not a wasted opportunity…


Excel Vending is delighted to have formed a working relationship with Glasgow Community Food Network.  Although borne out of challenging circumstances, we look forward to working with them in the future.

Glasgow Food Source Network is a membership organisation set up to bring together practitioners and organisations in the private, public and third sectors along with other interested individuals to develop a flourishing food system in Glasgow.  Their aim is to work with everyone who has an interest in food: chefs and restaurants, farmers and market gardeners, foodbank and soup kitchen volunteers and anyone else who cares about better food for Glasgow.  They want to see a city where high quality, fresh, local, organic produce is available and affordable for all and where good food is a celebrated part of our culture. 

As an organisation rooted in the food community in and around the city, Glasgow Community Food Group identified a short-term need to connect the food supply chain with many community organisations to enable the distribution of food products during the recent pandemic.  Since March 2020, Glasgow Community Food Network has been working with these groups and organisations to provide much-needed food to communities.

Excel Vending became involved with Glasgow Community Food Network thanks to an introduction from the University of Glasgow.  We donated large volumes of stock taken back from vending machines and out of our warehouses when some workplaces (and Universities) were closed due to the lockdown. As Scotland’s leading vending solution provider, we need to carry a high volume of stock at all times to ensure our customers’ machines are always adequately stocked.  Unfortunately, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were left with some stock that would otherwise have gone to waste.

One of the stated goals of the Glasgow Community Food Group is to reduce Glasgow’s food waste; this is very much in line with Excel’s sentiments. We hate waste of any kind; indeed, we frequently donate stock to charities rather than let any go to waste.  However, the recent pandemic left us with more excess stock than we’d usually experience in the business. Therefore, it was an absolute  pleasure to be able to work closely with Glasgow Community Food Network in the knowledge that it would be distributed to the community organisations which could then ensure it ended up with the people who needed and deserved it most.

Having supported many organisations at the peak of the demand, Glasgow Community Food Network is now scaling down the distribution project but this is not the end of the initiative.  The organisation is currently in the process of appointing Community Response Officers who will continue to monitor the situation and work towards achieving another goal; improving equal access to healthy, affordable, locally sourced food.

We are delighted to have formed a working relationship with Glasgow Community Food Network thanks to the University of Glasgow and we look forward to exploring ways that we can continue to work together in the future.

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