Festive Cook-Up

Festive Cook-Up, held on Monday 8th December at Freight Island, Manchester was our second large scale food-based event of 2025. Bringing together 138 corporate sponsored volunteer cooks who helped to cook 2,307 nutritious, homemade meals for people affected by homelessness. This event was completely sold-out and soon a waitlist for 2026 events was started, the demand only growing for teams across Greater Manchester to join our socially and environmentally conscious mission. Every meal made used surplus food that otherwise would’ve gone to landfill, as we helped to save half a tonne of food through our FareShare partnership. Events like these are what life is about, as humans we chase that ‘community feeling’ and that is exactly what Cracking Good Food and our events are – uniting teams and people, to become part of something that is bigger than themselves.

Kitchen Kit Redistribution Event

On 16th July 2025, we delivered our 7th Kitchen Kit Redistribution Event – and for the very first time, brought the award-winning campaign to Bolton. 

This powerful day of community action saw an incredible 1,848kg of pre-loved kitchen equipment redistributed to 46 community organisations — equipment that will now go on to directly support 21,208 people across Greater Manchester, including foodbank beneficiaries, care leavers, veterans, refugees, homeless individuals, and those fleeing domestic abuse and people starting over in new accommodation.

Over the 3 years of the project’s lifetime over 11.35 tonnes of redistributed kit has been saved from landfill, 44,000 people supported through 7 events. The environmental benefit is just as impactful — with over 112 tonnes of embodied carbon emissions saved by diverting items from landfill.

But this isn’t just about kitchen equipment and utensils, it’s about community. The kitchen kit callout offers volunteers an opportunity to do something with real purpose, work together, network with like-minded individuals, and see the tangible impact of their efforts, all in just a few hours away from their desks.

Carnival Cook-Up

On 13th May, we delivered a truly unforgettable day of impact, flavour, and community at Carnival COOK-Up — our high-energy, high-purpose event that brought together 90 volunteers from socially minded organisations across Greater Manchester. Together, at the vibrant Freight Island, we cooked up 1,500+ nutritious meals for people experiencing homelessness, all in one incredible day.

The event directly supported 13 frontline homelessness organisations across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester — a powerful reminder of what can happen when community, compassion, and cooking collide.

Every meal was made using surplus ingredients that would have otherwise gone to waste, thanks to an inspiring partnership with FareShare Greater Manchester. In total, the event rescued half a tonne of perfectly good food, helping to spotlight the staggering levels of edible food waste in the UK.

It truly is social value at its tastiest!

Happy 15th Birthday Cracking Good Food

Cracking Good Food was launched by Adele Jordan on 29 March 2010, armed with a gazebo, hob, a few pots and pans and some fresh locally grown food. Adele’s passion was to ensure everyone had access to good food by sharing the skills and knowledge to cook affordable, seasonal and nutritious homemade food from scratch.

15 years later Cracking Good Food’s cooking in the community has worked with 27,808 participants, 527 volunteers, 573 organisations, delivering 2100 sessions serving 83,404 dishes.

During the pandemic 99,655 meals were provided to those shielding and in low income households across the region. Our Kitchen Kit Call Out campaign launched in 2022 and has now distributed 9.5 tonnes of pre-loved, donated kitchen kit, benefitting over 23,000 people in Greater Manchester.

Unfortunately the world has also changed in the last 15 years. In 2010 Trussell’s 35 food banks handed out 61,468 food parcels. In 2024 there are estimated to be over 2500 independent and Trussell food banks. Trussell alone distributed over 3 million food parcels in 2023/24.

So whilst we are celebrating, and we are proud of what has been achieved and thankful for our amazing volunteers and supporters, we can’t hang our aprons up just yet.

One thing that definitely hasn’t changed in 15 years is our belief that EVERYONE DESERVES GOOD FOOD!