Home cooked food, by neighbours for neighbours

Casserole Club connects people who like to cook and are up for sharing an extra plate of home-cooked food with a neighbor who could really benefit from one: like a local, community-led takeaway, members serve up meals to their neighbors.

The service is supported by a website that allows you to sign up as a cook or to search for diners in your area. The idea is the product of FutureGov, a company that aims to improve public services through digital products.
They started a very successful pilot project in Tower Hamlets and they now aim to spread in all UK.
Here is the service in few steps:

• Signup to register as a Cook in a local area
• Use the postcode search to see who else has signed up to cook in the neighborhood
• Do the Safety check
• Search for local Diners looking for a home cooked meal
• Arrange a meal: the Cook sends a message to a Diner that he/she likes to cook for, and Casserole puts them in touch directly to arrange a meal-share
• Cook and deliver the meal!

One of the biggest challenges (interview by The Guardian) has been in signing up diners to the website, as over 80% of the diners are over 80 years old and they usually don’t have regular access to the internet. They worked hard with local organizations that helped out to find and sign up diners and to tackle the big issue of digital exclusion among older people.
Another challenge they faced is how to make sure that all of the people involved in the project feel safe. They built a strong net of trust through their events and working face to face with locals and, as they say, this is something they will continue to work on.
See the website here.
To tweet about it: @Casserole_Club