Food serving and café opportunity at Grow Wilder

Grow Wilder Site Manager Chris Kaboutian shares an exciting opportunity for a passionate food entrepreneur to join the vibrant Grow Wilder community in 2025, offering the chance to operate a café or mobile food service at Avon Wildlife Trust’s urban hub.

Grow Wilder is Avon Wildlife Trust’s unique urban growing hub, learning centre and wildflower nursery for Bristol. An eleven-acre site where we work with organisations and volunteer groups to maintain a healthy and sustainable space, giving people of all ages and backgrounds opportunities to connect with nature. We engage a diverse audience through food growing and food events, nature restoration skills, courses, wellbeing and crafts activities, from which we deliver positive social impact.

We are currently planning for our next season in 2025. We are inviting anyone with a genuine passion to serve delicious, healthy food to our visitors to get in touch. Every year we receive about 20,000+ individual visits from the public, booked groups, volunteers and many others. Over time we expect to increase this number through the wider appeal of our site. There is real and voiced demand for a local, Broom Hill food offering in this part of North Bristol.

If you have any relevant interests or involvement in local food, communal cooking, organic produce or healthy food creation, we want to hear from you. There are two broad options:

Option 1: Café Space
We have a basic, sheltered outdoor cafe space, complete with sink, counter space, under counter space and serving area that you can hire from us at an agreed price.

Option 2: Mobile
You already have a fully functioning, mobile, food-serving vehicle that you are able to bring on and off site during food serving times. We will hire you a slot at an agreed price.

Key facts

Starting in March/ April next year or even earlier, subject to agreement

• Weekends and agreed weekday(s) at set times serving food to anyone on site
• Potential for catering on small, medium or large events
• Possible, wider, food-related collaborations with Grow Wilder
• Food preparation can ideally be done offsite, in advance of serving but this can be discussed
• All sales proceeds will go to your enterprise

About you

Qualified and insured, registered with Bristol City Council as a food operator

• High standards are a must: the quality of your food and your practices
• A desire to make people happy and healthy with your wonderful offering
• You have a viable plan in mind, including a synergetic relationship with the wider site
• Please include what you can afford to pay for your sessions here as part of your business plan
• Able to consistently serve simple, affordable, savoury & sweet options
• Would consider field to fork, using some hyper fresh, Grow Wilder produce

If you are interested, email growwilder@avonwildlifetrust.org.uk and outline how your proposal matches the above description. We are a small and busy team. If you do not hear from us within a couple of weeks or need further info, feel free to give us a call on 0117 965 7086. There is no deadline for this opportunity. We are after a great relational match.

We look forward to receiving your application.