Frequently Asked Questions

The idea is simple - Casserole helps people share extra portions of their home cooked food with others in their area who are looking for a fresh meal. Like a local, community-led take-away, Casserole members serve up tasty, home-cooked food to their neighbours, getting more people eating and cooking fresh meals while strengthening local neighbourhood relationships with every bite.

We saw that while people might have great circles of friends, school or church networks, etc... they didn’t necessarily know the people living right on their doorstep. With this in mind, Casserole was born out of a desire to help bring communities together with the realisation that there are a lot of people cooking up food, and many others who would greatly appreciate a home cooked meal.

Nope! We want to make sure that Casserole works best for you, so how often and how much you cook is entirely up to you. Fancy cooking every day? That’s great, but if you only want to cook once a month, or even not at all (but still order delicious home-cooked food), then that’s perfectly fine as well!

Absolutely. A large part of the original idea behind Casserole was about tackling social isolation, and we stand by that aim as we continue to develop the service. With this is mind, alongside the website, we have a phone number - 020 3289 4170 and a texting service to ensure that those who do not have access to the web can still use Casserole. Rather than go online, these members can ring up the Casserole number to find out what’s cooking in their area or to let us know they are cooking a meal they want to share. We’ll then act as a liaison and help connect them to other local Casserole members.

If for some reason you cannot cook a scheduled meal, please let us know as soon as you can at support@casseroleclub.com or on the Casserole phone - 020 3289 4170. If you can let your diner know as well, we would greatly appreciate it.

It’s the same deal as it is for cooks - if for some reason you cannot receive a scheduled meal, please let us know as soon as you can at support@casseroleclub.com or on the Casserole phone - 020 3289 4170. If you can let your cook know as well, we would greatly appreciate it.

While our hope is that everyone will enjoy their meals, we know that sometimes that just isn’t the case. If you were unsatisfied with your meal or any step of the Casserole process, feel free to get in touch with us with your comments, by emailing support@casseroleclub.com or phoning 020 3289 4170.

Food hygiene is important, and so is trusting your community. Each member that decides to cook for Casserole is asked to watch a food hygiene video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CPd65Mw3Yg) before serving up their first meal. Alongside this though, we want to develop a level of trust and accountability within our community. The whole ethos behind Casserole is that people are serving up extra portions of their own food - so if they are willing to eat it, we hope you as a diner will be too. Just like you probably wouldn’t question eating a dinner prepared by a friend, we are hoping that Casserole members will approach their meals with a similar mindset, and thus gives you even more reason to get to know the people cooking in your area!

Casserole’s menus and meals are created by its members, so the number and variety of meals is dependent on the strength of our community. Because of this, in the early days of Casserole, you may notice that your local menu might look a little sparse - not to worry! The more people we get on board and as Casserole grows, you will see more and more meals appear on the site

We don’t want to dictate how you deliver your meals, so do what makes the most sense for you. Whether its disposable take-away boxes or sturdy tupperware, or something else that you think works (just use common sense, no food in plastic bags please!).

We’re chuffed you want to get involved! At the moment, our team is focused on Reigate and Banstead for our initial launch area, with the intention of expanding throughout Surrey over the summer. Eventually, we do want to spread Casserole as far and wide as we can, but given our current resources, we want to make sure that everyone gets the attention and support they need, so we’re starting small and growing naturally.

That being said, if you are keen to get involved, please let us know! It’s important for us to know where there is a demand for Casserole so we can get the ball rolling in your area soon!

Casserole began as a serendipitous convergence of ideas between our project lead Murtz and FutureGov. Murtz had been working on his MSc, developing an idea for community led social care, while FutureGov had been pondering concepts for a new type of Meals on Wheels. Banding together, in the late summer of 2011, we won some funding from the Design Council and Technology Strategy Board through their Independence Matters - Home and Away challenge, and thanks to some existing work FutureGov was doing within Surrey County Council, we quickly found a home for Casserole in Reigate and Banstead. From that point forward, we have spent our time researching, piloting, building connections within the community, and developing Casserole into what it is today.

Casserole is a project by FutureGov, a social innovation and technology company that works with local government to develop better services for councils and their communities.