Catering Units
Grants to allow grassroots organisations to install a Catering Unit (The Huddle), at their site, to both generate income and improve the experience for their players and spectators.
About the fund
Eligibility
You don’t have to be a football club to apply to the Football Foundation, however, grassroots football must be an integral part of your offer.
Who is eligible?
- A not-for-profit football club or voluntary group
- A Local Authority
- A County FA
- A Professional Club Community Organisation
- An educational establishment providing facilities for the community
- A registered charity
- A not-for-profit company
- A community interest company (CIC) or other social enterprise
- A company limited by guarantee
Who is not eligible?
- An individual or sole trader
- A national governing body
- A commercial / for-profit entity
- A club within the Premier League, Football League, National League System (Step 1 to 6), Women’s Football Pyramid (Tier 1 – 4) or the Welsh Premier League
- Educational establishments providing facilities solely for their students
Grant Limits
The Foundation will award a maximum grant for a Catering Unit of £50,000, that does not exceed 75% of the total project costs.
Are you a Football Club looking for funding?
Please note that only the Chair, Secretary or Treasurer of that Club can submit an application form.
Applications submitted since 1 July 2023 by other members of the Club will be rejected. You’ll be contacted by the Football Foundation team and asked that an authorised person complete a new funding application.
When it comes to the acceptance and claiming stages of your grant, the secondary contact nominated to co-sign the required forms must also fulfil one of the roles of Chair, Secretary or Treasurer of the Football Club.
Fund Criteria
Preferred Suppliers
We have identified several preferred suppliers who agreed that they can meet this specification, provide extended warranties, and offer competitive rates for installing new and retrofitted systems.
| Supplier name | Contact |
| Instant Modular Solutions | Click here |
| NewSpace x Total Grassroots | Click here |
| Muswell | Click here |
| InBox Projects | Click here |
| National Civil Utilities | Click here |
Document & tenure requirements
Tenure required
There are no tenure requirements for the purchase of a Catering Unit, but the applicant will be liable for the unit for the length of the five-year clawback period.
Documents required
To ensure your application is processed, you should include the following documents:
- Two like-for-like quotations for Catering Units from a minimum of two different suppliers listed on our preferred supplier list – if they are pre-owned/refurbished, they must come with 12 months warranty
- Evidence of partnership funding
- Income and Expenditure forecast for the Catering Unit
- A marked-up drawing or aerial photograph of the site, indicating the location of the proposed Catering Unit
- Planning approval notice or confirmation that planning permission is not required
- Building regulations
Landlord’s consent to the works
Please don’t place the order from suppliers for your Catering Unit until full planning permission has been obtained. This is because no funding will be released until this permission is in place.
Bespoke conditions
We’re on a mission to transform the quality of grass pitches across the country. Generating income from your Catering Unit and reinvesting that back into your grass pitches is a key part of our ambition. The income will help to sustain or enhance your grass pitches to a ‘good’ level.
The following conditions apply in addition to our standard terms and conditions for Catering Units:
Pre-claim
- Contact your Local Authority to see if you need to register as a food business and confirmation of their decision is provided to the Football Foundation
- Ensure that a minimum of one person within the club completes a Level 1 Food Safety Awareness Course and a copy of the certificate is forwarded to the Football Foundation – further information can be found here
- Provide your PitchPower reports on all your pitches
Ongoing conditions
All revenues generated by the Catering Unit, net of operational expenditure, are ring-fenced into a grass pitch maintenance budget held by the Applicant. The purpose of this fund is to re-invest into grass pitches to ensure they’re maintained to meet the Grounds Management Framework ‘Good’ or ‘Advanced’ standard (or any superseding standard) for the duration of the clawback period.