Green Gown Awards 2021: Enterprise - University of Leicester - Finalist

Toast of the Town by Enactus Leicester

Toast of the Town is a social enterprise which turns surplus bread destined for landfill into lager with the profit from sales funding support sessions for individuals recovering from alcohol and substance use.  It aims to give back to the community in the form of vital counselling sessions for those on their recovery journeys from alcohol and substance use whilst simultaneously providing an opportunity for Psychology students to gain relevant experience.

This year we have recruited 5 psychology students from the University of Leicester, who were selected from our stringent application process consisting of a written application, test and an interview and provided DBS checks for all finalised candidates. Working with Dear Albert - a local alcohol and substance use recovery Social Enterprise - to provide support sessions for their users.

From this year alone, impacted the lives of 12 individuals with over 50 hours of support sessions. Due to the pandemic, all of our sessions were hosted via an online video conferencing platform with individual clients. We worked with Psychology tutors as well as the Careers Development Service to provide this opportunity.

Top 3 learnings:

1. We identified more support sessions are needed within our community,
2. Psychology students don’t have enough opportunities to gain relevant work experience during their undergraduate studies.
3. Large amounts of food can be upcycled, however, more consumer awareness is needed.