In Edinburgh...

In Edinburgh...

Edinburgh city centre from above with the castle on the left hand side, Scott Monument in the middle and Princes street shops on the right.

our Partners include

Able Arts logo with different colour paint marks forming a circle around the name of the organisation.

Able Arts

Edinburgh North East food bank logo in two shades of green with the location name written in blue.

Edinburgh North East Foodbank

Edinburgh South East food bank logo in two shades of green with the location name written in blue.

Edinburgh South East Foodbank

Able Arts CIC provides autistic people and people with learning disabilities experience in the creative industries. Artists get the opportunity to sell the art they create and receive 50% of the profit.

Founded in 2020, Able Arts initially provided discounted art workshops for people with additional support needs. Participating artists had the opportunity to sell their artwork. Throughout the pandemic, Able Arts changed their model and offered art competitions to local people. Artists with learning disabilities and autism participating in these contests have been able to sell their art, build their confidence and develop employability skills.

Able Arts worked with us on our third cookbook, Secret Dishes From Around the World 3. They commissioned the fantastic artist Georgia Yuill to create a drawing for the project.

Find out more
An Able Arts artist is drawing on a screen in front of her.
The Bounceback Food Reverse Advent Calendar with all the doors open showing which products to donate.

Edinburgh North East Foodbank and Edinburgh South East Foodbank are organisations seeded by the Trussell Trust that provide invaluable services to the local community. They help individuals and families in crisis, through the provision of emergency food supplies. 

We worked with Edinburgh NE Foodbank and Edinburgh SE Foodbank during our 2021 Reverse Advent Calendar Campaign. The project encouraged people to donate a specific item to their local food bank every day leading up to Christmas. We created a resource hub on our website with information about food banks across the country and promoted our free donation tracker to help people support their local food bank.

Check out the Campaign

Empty Kitchens Full Hearts is a charitable enterprise dedicated to fighting food poverty in Edinburgh. The project is based on a system of redistribution for surplus food, ensuring that people all across Edinburgh can access a good quality meal without cost or judgement. This is achieved through the project’s ‘Day Pack’ delivery scheme, according to which volunteers prepare, package and distribute free meals throughout their community to those who need them most. Since April 2020, Empty Kitchens Full Hearts has delivered over a million free meals to Edinburgh’s most marginalised residents. As an organisation advocating a full revaluation of how food is distributed throughout our country, Empty Kitchens Full Hearts aims to create a world in which its services are no longer needed by lobbying the government and promoting food education.

Learn more
A Bounceback Food chef batch cooking on a catering project
A Bounceback Food volunteer working on their laptop in a coffee shop.

We also admire the work of U-Evolve – a social enterprise delivering therapeutic coaching and skill development to young people throughout Edinburgh. Under current government programs, it can be difficult for young people to access the psychological and therapeutic help they need before reaching a point of crisis. U-Evolve has sought to tackle this problem by running workshops on mental health awareness, self-esteem and body image issues, as well as by giving young people access to psychological help from trained professionals. Meanwhile, U-Evolve’s TALK Hub program has made online coaching and education on mental health readily accessible through the internet. The enterprise also offers help for parents and carers, and has worked consistently to destigmatize mental illness by reaching out to local schools and youth clubs.

Find out more

Our Community Cookery School team visited Edinburgh as part of the Secret Dishes From Around the World book tour in 2021. Whilst we were there, we spoke to Ashlynn Wardle from Able Arts CIC, the Edinburgh organisation who helped to commission the artwork for the Chilean section of the cookbook. You can listen to the interview on our Share Your Secrets podcast, which is available for free via Spotify, Google and Apple!

Listen now
A brightly coloured flower made of 20 petal pieces of art with the text Share Your Secrets within

Our Community Cookery School teams host a wide range of fundraising and community events throughout the year. These include our popular Secret Supper Clubs, Secret Dishes From Around the World cookery workshops and seasonal Community Kitchen get-togethers. There’s something for everyone! Find out more about all of our upcoming public events on our Eventbrite page…

Browse events
Help Us Grow!

We’re currently looking for volunteers in Edinburgh to join the Bounceback Team and support people living in food poverty. Head over to our volunteering page for more information!

Make a Difference
Help Provide Meals & Cooking Classes this Winter

Help our Community Cookery School team provide 5,000 additional meals and cookery classes in warm hubs this winter!