Get Fed might feel like a strange name for a mobile coffee van that does not actually offer food. But the name gives us a glimpse into its deeper story. It was inspired by a young person whom Director Tim Parkhouse met while working in Criminal Justice. Despite facing exclusion and exploitation, this young man was highly entrepreneurial, with a vision to make and sell Jamaican food around his estate.

Since then, Tim’s focus has shifted from food to coffee, but the idea behind the work remains the same: to create opportunities for young people in secondary schools to develop capabilities, confidence, and an entrepreneurial mindset through barista and business training. The name endures because it represents more than food. Get Fed is about nurturing and nourishing young people, feeding their ambition, and offering them alternative pathways for success.

Get Fed is also an Equinox Charter signatory, the partnership for Oxfordshire’s equitable growth, connecting organisations around a shared ambition to create wider opportunity and benefit across the region.

Creating new pathways

When asked about the inspiration behind Get Fed, Tim described watching a ‘very slow car crash’ as more young people struggled in education and became vulnerable to exploitation through activities such as drug dealing. At the same time, years of austerity saw the closure of youth clubs and other community spaces, reducing opportunities for teenagers to build networks and purpose outside school. These local challenges reflect the UK’s wider NEET crisis, as young people fall out of education, employment, and training altogether.

But Tim also saw something that this picture could easily overlook: young people with ambition, ideas and entrepreneurial instinct. The challenge was not a lack of potential, but finding different ways for that potential to be recognised and developed.

The question became: How could things be improved for young people who want to follow entrepreneurial pathways?

Turning enterprise into opportunity

The answer was Get Fed, a social enterprise and Community Interest Company (CIC) designed to work with the talented young people who ‘do their best work out of the classroom’. For Tim, the original idea behind this innovation was to fundraise for a coffee van and ‘teach young people to make frothy coffee.’

Trading since 2023, Get Fed trains young entrepreneurs in barista and enterprise skills. Schools provide the first training ground, where students practice serving teachers before moving on to cafés, festivals, businesses, and community events. Rather than simply being employees, young people receive 50% of event profits, giving them a stake in the success of the enterprise and reward for the investment of their time and skills.

Building a community around young entrepreneurs

Although Tim initiated Get Fed, its success depends on local partnerships. Directors from the Banbury community contribute safeguarding expertise and corporate connections. Schools provide training spaces and help identify young people who would benefit most.

Most importantly, young people themselves are at the heart of the Ged Fed community. Over time, Tim has established and maintained relationships with many of the individuals who start at Get Fed and then follow other opportunities. The ambition is to build a growing network or even a movement of Get Fed alumni who generate even more opportunities for young people.

From coffee van to national conference: Get Fed's impact stories

For Tim, the impact of Get Fed is best demonstrated by the young people who are ‘brilliant’ on and off the coffee van – and by the change in what they believe they are capable of achieving.

Tabby’s story is one example.

When Tabby first heard about the social enterprise, she was hesitant to get involved. On the surface, this was because she did not like coffee. On a deeper level, she doubted her abilities and social skills. She reflected that, ‘I thought I couldn’t do anything’ and worried about making mistakes and letting people down.

Looking back, she is so glad that she found the courage to try. Through Get Fed, she developed a sense of achievement through the recognition she received from customers, and a sense of ownership that comes with sharing in the profits of the social enterprise.

She also became more confident speaking to customers – experiences that challenged her earlier belief that she would make mistakes or let down people.

Some of the programme’s most powerful impacts emerge when new opportunities extend beyond the coffee van. When Get Fed secured a gig at the Festival of Education at Wellington College, the young people went there to serve coffee. But while there, they found themselves talking leaders from across the education sector. Those conversations ultimately led to an invitation to speak at a national conference attended by more than 600 education professionals.

For Tim, this moment captured the essence of Get Fed: creating spaces where young people whose talents can be overlooked are able to claim their seat at the table.

Lessons and future directions

One of Tim’s biggest lessons has been not to underestimate the importance of an entrepreneurial mindset. As he reflected:

‘I am having so much fun just exploring what can be done when you can be more creative, when you have more levers to pull. It’s an extraordinary space to be in so I love the fact that we cross over between enterprise, education, and charitable sectors.’

Looking ahead, Tim (pictured below) hopes to deepen co-production with schools, helping them become more entrepreneurial and responsive to young people whose strengths are not always nurtured in traditional academic pathways.

While coffee remains at the heart of Get Fed, the ambition goes much further: to create more spaces where young people can claim their seat at the table, and to connect schools, businesses and communities in ways that open up new pathways and possibilities.

In conclusion

Get Fed shows what inclusive growth can look like at a very local level: recognising talent that might otherwise be overlooked, giving young people a meaningful stake in the opportunities around them, and bringing schools, businesses and communities together to make that possible.

As an Equinox Charter signatory, Get Fed's demonstrates what that shared commitment can mean in practice: recognising local talent, responding to local needs and building social value through partnership. Because inclusive growth is not only about creating more opportunities. It is also about widening who gets to participate in them, benefit from them and, ultimately, claim their seat at the table.

Find out more about Get Fed at getfed.org.uk

Want to find out more about the Equinox Charter and join the coalition?

Learn more about the Charter