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Inspiration for social enterprise was a piece of cake

15 October 2014

 

A frustrating search to find a gluten-free cake for his mother’s birthday has led a Teesside University student to set up an innovative social enterprise.

Satwinder Badesha hit upon the idea of a search engine for gluten free products after spending several hours online trying to find an appropriate birthday cake for his mother who suffers from Coeliac Disease.

For the past 14 months, Satwinder, an MSc Marketing Management student at Teesside University, has been compiling a massive directory of more than 5,000 restaurants, takeaways, hotels and bakeries which serve gluten-free products.

This directory is now available on his new search engine to help sufferers of Coeliac Disease find ingredients and products which are gluten free.

Satwinder was given help to set up Gluten Free Occasions with a grant of more than £6,500 from Teesside University’s social entrepreneurship fund, which has been made possible by a £25,000 grant from UnLtd – a support charity for social entrepreneurs.

As a not-for-profit social enterprise any profits raised from the website will be spent on developing it further, with any additional money going to the charity Coeliac UK.

Coeliac Disease is caused by intolerance to gluten and affects approximately one in 100 people.

Sufferers of Coeliac Disease who are not on a gluten-free diet can experience a range of symptoms including digestive difficulties, tiredness, sudden or unexpected weight loss, hair loss and anaemia.

Satwinder said: 'Finding food which is suitable for my mother is always a real struggle and one day after spending hours searching the internet trying to find a birthday cake for her, I decided to try and do something about it.

'There are a lot of people who suffer from Coeliac Disease and so far, the response has been fantastic with lots of people being really supportive on Twitter.'

As well as the UnLtd grant, Satwinder also received help from Teesside University’s enterprise team in the form of mentoring and support.

He added: 'The help and support from the enterprise team has been phenomenal as it has given me new skills, access to contacts and has enabled the project to achieve its potential.'

Laura Woods, Director of Academic Enterprise at Teesside University, said: 'We are delighted that we have been able to work with Satwinder to set up this fantastic website.

'Allowing sufferers of Coeliac Disease to quickly and conveniently source products and ingredients which will be safe for them to eat will have a major impact on the lives of thousands of people.'

For more information about Gluten Free Occasions visit www.glutenfreeoccasions.org, or on Twitter @GFOccasions.

This project is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), managed by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013 is bringing over £300m into the North East to support innovation, enterprise and business support across the region.


ERDF


 
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