Growing with Grace Legal Status
In 2011 with advice from Cooperative & Mutual Solutions the Growing With Grace worker-cooperative became a shareholding Industrial & Provident Society. This structure presents an opportunity for people from local communities and UK communities of interest to become co-owners of a food enterprise that cares for the environment.
“An industrial and provident society is an organisation conducting an industry, business or trade, either as a co-operative or for the benefit of the community, and is registered under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965. ”
–Financial Services Authority
“Social enterprises are businesses driven by a social or environmental purpose. There are 62,000 of them in the UK, contributing over £24bn to the economy, employing approximately 800,000 people (2005-2007 data from the Annual Survey of Small Business UK).
As with all businesses, they compete to deliver goods and services. The difference is that social purpose is at the very heart of what they do, and the profits they make are reinvested towards achieving that purpose. Well known examples of social enterprises include The Big Issue, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant Fifteen, and the fair-trade chocolate company Divine Chocolate.
The government defines social enterprises as “businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.”
–The Social Enterprise Coalition
Growing with Grace is managed by a Board formed from local people with appropriate skills, knowledge and experience.