New partnership between UK Community Foundations and Anchor Butter will boost community connections

UK Community Foundations and Anchor have joined forces to launch an exciting new programme to encourage community connections across the UK. The Anchor Community Connection Fund will support local organisations that use food to bring people together and strengthen local connections.

As the nation’s favourite British butter, Anchor knows that food has the power to connect communities and is donating £100,000 to establish the new fund which will initially be distributed in three areas of the UK by their local community foundations. Leeds Community Foundation, Heart of Bucks Community Foundation and Wiltshire Community Foundation will identify groups that use food to bring their communities together, whether it’s teaching young people basic cookery skills, a community café which seeks to combat loneliness or a lunch club for people with dementia and their carers.

Anchor is the number one British butter brand and is owned by Arla Foods, the UK’s biggest dairy company. As a cooperative with 2,100 farmer owners in the UK, all of Arla’s profits go back to the farmer owners. Anchor is made in Westbury, Wiltshire, with 100 per cent British milk.

UK Community Foundations is the membership organisation for the UK’s 47 accredited community foundations, the only national network of charitable funders with a physical presence in every part of the UK. Our members act as a focus for giving and philanthropy in their local areas ensuring that funding reaches the grassroots organisations that can make a difference and help their communities to thrive.

Rosemary Macdonald, CEO of UK Community Foundations commented,

“We are delighted to be working with Arla & Anchor to set up this new fund which will bring people together over shared food and strengthen community connections. UKCF’s national reach means that we can help our corporate partners make a difference right across the UK and we look forward to sharing the stories of the groups and projects that the Anchor Community Connection Fund will support.”

Stuart Ibberson, spokesperson for Anchor, added “Food has always been at the heart of community life in Britain and cooking and enjoying food should be accessible for everyone. This is why we’ve partnered with the UK Community Foundation to connect local communities and ensure that as many people as possible have access to cooking skills, food education and friendship. Through the partnership, we aim to spread a bit of food positivity in neighbourhoods across the nation.”

The Anchor Community Connection Fund will launch in July and the participating community foundations will award grants of up to £5,000 to groups using food to bring communities together.