Incredible Surplus CIC has continued to work in the area of surplus redistribution and repurposing of all kinds of items, much of it food, and in doing so, to support the many individuals and organisations that aim to support the wellbeing of the people of our city of Birmingham and the wider area. Over the year from November 2024 to October 2025 we intercepted over 282 tonnes of surplus (approximately 5 tonnes a week) which was mostly food provided by our supermarket partners : M&S, Sainsburys, Lidl and Aldi. All of this was collected by our volunteers and our 6 weekly surplus distribution sessions are also delivered by our volunteers. We continue to be part of the Food Justice Network Birmingham working alongside over 250 other organisations working to support the community. Latest Government figures state that 40% of children in Birmingham are living in poverty with many families facing hardship from rising living costs and challenges with insecure housing. Many are struggling to access basic essentials so we have focused our funding from Birmingham City Council this year on purchasing various types of protein in the forms of eggs, cheese, pulses and fish (to allow all dietary and cultural needs to be met) and also worked to find sources of hygiene products. The opportunity to add an already planted orchard to our growing sites came our way this year after the organisation that planted it was no longer able to continue to look after it. It occupies approximately 8 allotment plots and although it is only a few years old it provided many kilograms of apples, plums and pears for us including some heritage fruits. Our partners in our composting/growing project were able to secure National Lottery funding for a further 5 years of the Compost Culture project which allows all our unusable vegetables, fruit, bread and other compostable items to be composted and converted in a varied supply of fruit, vegetables and salad green and herbs for all our customers.

This year has seen us continue to seek and develop new relationships and partnerships to source surplus and to redistribute it across our region. We were able to add a nationally significant supplier to our array of stakeholder surplus suppliers when the Multibank Charity opened a facility in Birmingham in March 2025 and we were amongst the first organisations to be invited to be recipients of items from them. This is a very important source of varied surplus items for us that have been donated by a wide range of businesses and organisations from the Midlands area. Often these are items that we would otherwise not have the opportunity to receive. One of the first donations we received was a large amount of a multipurpose cleaning product that can be used for personal hygiene purposes, clothes washing and dishwashing and general household cleaning, this particular product was very well received by our customers many of whom focus their limited finances on providing food for themselves and/or families and paying bills rather than hygiene needs. We have also been fortunate enough to receive some codes for bus passes from the Multibank which has helped many customers who need to travel to doctors/hospital appointments or those who just really need to access public transport but do not meet the criteria for a free bus pass, (bus travel in Birmingham is currently ranked amongst the most expensive in the UK). We also received a small amount of reconditioned mobile phones which have been very helpful for the customers who have received them. Often important communications from the NHS are sent routinely to mobile phones and people who are not online or do not have a phone receive information via letter which is often delayed so important appointments can be missed. We continue to value our relationships with our supermarket surplus suppliers and other surplus food distribution organisations such as FareShare and Foodcycle who are all stakeholder partners for us. We have many voluntary or community organisations amongst our stakeholder customers and a couple that have become partners with us this year are Holford Community Sports Hub which is based in Perry Barr in Birmingham and Dorothy Parkes Community Centre in Smethwick, West Midlands and a partnership project at a primary school in Birmingham. We have provided refreshments and snacks for the children's and young people's football teams training sessions and matches and for other activities at the Sports Hub and formed a strong relationship with them. With Dorothy Parkes community Centre we have been able to supply flour and other baking ingredients for family baking sessions, regular amounts of essentials for "Dottie's Fridge" which is a community fridge at the centre, and tea, coffee etc and snacks for the staff and visitors to the centre. We were also pleased to be able to supply some ingredients for an afterschool family cooking class at Ark Tindal Primary Academy in Balsall Heath, Birmingham where Fareshare provided the tutor for the class and some ingredients. Families were able to create a healthy and culturally appropriate meal and eat together after school in a relaxed, sociable, safe and familiar setting. We won some funding from the Heart of England Fairer Futures Fund Birmingham that has allowed us to partner again with an organisation that we have previously worked with called Bags of Taste. This funding is for use over 3 years and will allow us to support the remote mentored cooking courses that Bags of Taste offer. We recruit students locally for the courses and supply the ingredients required. The aims of this project are to encourage the course participants to cook 3 meals that are "cheaper than a takeaway", taste good, are healthy and have ingredients that are easily sourced and can be bought in small quantities, to encourage planning, budgeting and increase awareness of the benefits of eating healthy, home cooked food.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration