Scroll down to find FAQs for the products you can buy in our online shop, including patron boxes, gift subscriptions, festive hampers and Just Meals
Festive Food for All Hampers FAQs
Go to the Food Works shop and choose the Festive Food For All hamper
Choose your preferred collection hub.
Choose how much you want to contribute per hamper (minimum £15)
Choose how many hampers you want.
Click add to basket – then proceed to checkout or continue shopping to browse our shop
Payment is by card only.
Don’t forget you can buy more than one thing at a time! Just add to basket, then continue shopping. Look out for our patron box gift subscription.
This is a zero-waste festive hamper. This means we’re encouraging everyone to bring their own gift bag – just like the system that operates in most zero waste shops. If you don’t have a bag to bring, we will have paper bags available for you to use.
It will be different every time. All of our products depend on the varying supply of surplus food that gets sent our way. This means that every box is different – and people tell us they really enjoy the surprise.
You don’t need an account to order the hamper. You will be asked to choose a collection hub and you will be asked for your contact details at checkout.
You pick them up from one of our Sharrow, Upperthorpe or Handsworth hubs
You’ll be able to choose when you order which hub you want to collect from. You won’t be able to change this after you order. Full details of how to find our hubs can be found here:
You won’t be able to swap products. Those of you who know and love our weekly surplus food patron boxes know that we allow you to swap products from our market shelves. To keep it simple at a busy time of year, we won’t be running that system for the hampers.
Patron Box Gift Subscription
Go to the Food Works shop and choose the Patron Box Gift Subscription
Choose the number of boxes you want to give – 4 or 13
Choose how much you want to contribute (minimum £30 for 4 boxes, £100 for 13)
Click add to basket – then proceed to checkout or continue shopping to browse our shop. Payment is by card only.
Don’t forget you can buy more than one thing at a time! Just add to basket, then continue shopping. Look out for our Festive Hamper For All – available whilst stocks last.
You’re giving your loved one a coupon for either 4 or 13 patron boxes, that they redeem by becoming a Food Works patron.
Once they have set up their patron account in our shop, they’ll be able to use the coupon to get 4 or 13 patron boxes. They will have to put their credit card details in – but they won’t have to pay anything up front to get the boxes you have bought for them.
Their subscription will continue unless they pause or cancel – but we’ll be in touch with a reminder before that happens. We’re hopeful that once people have had a taste of our patron boxes they’ll want to continue.
It will be different every time. All of our products depend on the varying supply of surplus food that gets sent our way. This means that every box is different – and people tell us they really enjoy the surprise.
It’s also flexible. Once you or your loved one have picked up the box, you customise it by swapping items from the market shelves. You can top it up too with two items of your choice – a nature-friendly seedling or crop, a Just Meal ready meal, a coffee, meal or piece of cake from the cafe, or further items from the market shelves. As with all of our products, these depend on a varying seasonal supply of surplus and grown food – so it’s always subject to what is available on the day.
More about our nature-friendly growing mission and how the box supports it here.
The gift subscription will be sent to you in the form of a coupon by email from Monday 2nd December and will be redeemable from Wednesday 1st January.
Pass this on to your loved one, and they will start their journey as a Food Works patron.
We’ll send you helpful reminders that take you through this step by step by email, so please add us to your address book so you don’t miss out.
When your loved one redeems their coupon, they will choose whether they pick them up from one of our Sharrow, Upperthorpe or Handsworth hubs.
They will be able to choose the day and the location based on availability at the time of redeeming the coupon – so the sooner they do it before Christmas, the more choice they will have.
Full details of our hubs and their opening times can be found here:
Once your loved one has created their account, they start their own journey as a Food Works patron and patron box subscriber, just like any other patron (plus they have the coupon you gave them to redeem free boxes).
For any other questions about patron box subscriptions please see our main FAQ page and find out more about how our patron boxes recently became more nature-friendly here.
Patron Box FAQs (Not gift subscription)
From our website at http://thefoodworks.org go to the top navigation menu and click “my account”. Once you’re logged in, you can manage your orders and subscriptions, account details, address and payment methods from there.
From our website at http://thefoodworks.org go to the top navigation menu and click “my account”. If you’re not logged in, there is a “Lost your password?” link below the login button. Click that and then enter the same email address you used to register your account with. An email will be sent to you with a link to set a new password.
Newly submitted orders are on hold until we process them. Once we process your order, you will receive another confirmation email and it will show up as “processing”. After that you can collect your meal(s) at your convenience from the hub you selected, subject to opening times of course.
From your account page, go to the subscriptions section to view the subscription you want to manage. On the subscription page under “Actions” are one or several buttons. Press the Cancel button to cancel your subscription. Note that this does not refund any renewals that have already been charged. If you were charged for a renewal that you have yet to collect, then you can still collect it.
From your account page, go to the subscriptions section to view the subscription you want to manage. On the subscription page under “Actions” are one or several buttons. Press the Suspend button to suspend your subscription. Please ensure that you do this before your weekly renewal comes through (an automated email notification is sent to you every week at the time of the renewal). This usually means two days’ advance notice. Please allow for the same notice when reactivating your subscription.
Subscriptions that are on hold for more than a month will be cancelled. Please contact us if you need to pause your collections for an extended period.
From your account page, go to the subscriptions section to view the subscription you want to manage. On the subscription page under “Actions” are one or several buttons. Instead of a Suspend button there should now be a Reactivate button. Press that to reactivate your subscription. Please ensure that you do this before your weekly renewal comes through for the week that you wish to resume collecting. This usually means two days’ advance notice.
From your account page, go to the subscriptions section to view the subscription you want to manage. On the subscription page under “Subscription totals” is the list of items on your subscription, and a “Modify” button next to each item. Press the Modify button next to the item you wish to modify, and choose a new item.
This is similar to placing an order for that item, and will take you to the checkout page. When simply switching collection day or site, the item price will be the same, and so there will be no charge during checkout. If the requested item is out of stock, you will not be able to switch to it.
If you are unable to collect on your usual day as a one-off, you can either temporarily suspend your subscription that week or collect your box up to 24 hours later. Please email us at info@thefoodworks.org if you would like to do this so we know to save your box. Unforunately we can’t accomodate ad hoc swaps of collection days.
From your account page, go to the subscriptions section to view the subscription you want to manage. On the subscription page under “Actions” are one or several buttons. Press the “Change payment” button to change the payment method for this subscription.
From your account page, go to the “Payment methods” section to view your saved payment methods. From there you can add new payment methods and delete existing ones.
PLEASE NOTE: This is only for future orders, it does NOT affect existing subscriptions even if you delete the payment method. Please see the previous question above if you wish to change the payment method for an existing subscription.
Food Works Handsworth is open 7 days a week including bank holidays (aside from Christmas Day, Boxing Day & New Years Day) and patron box collections are unaffected by bank holidays.
Food Works Sharrow is closed on Bank Holidays. If you normally collect a box on a day that falls on a bank holiday from Sharrow your box will be available to collect from Handsworth on that day by default instead. If you can’t make it to Handsworth to collect, please pause your subscription.