Case Study – Eddie Baines

Eddie Baines began his relationship with The Circle as a volunteer, working on reception and carrying out various admin tasks. He founded Kirkton Community Larder in 2019 to tackle food waste and food insecurity, using surplus food from supermarkets to provide cheap and dignified access to food for people in the local area. Eddie joined the first-ever cohort of The Circle Academy in September 2019 looking to learn more about the business aspects of running a charity. Following his completion of the Academy, Eddie and his team set up a second community larder and employed a manager to run both of them. His experience with this has allowed him to advise other communities across the country on setting up their own larders. Eddie has now stepped back from running the larders and has secured a role as a Community Funder with The National Lottery Community Fund, which will see him return to The Circle as a tenant in our Dundee site.

"The Academy helped me to develop my passion into a properly running project. Before joining I had all the ideas and not a clue about the business side; I was naïve about the governance and finance elements. I was running at 100 mph to get my project going and made some simple but major mistakes that if left would have seen me burnt out. I was able to expand my project past what I had expected, all due to the skills and knowledge gained at the Academy. "

Eddie Baines, The Circle Academy Cohort 1